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Stress: Stress (1982)

Until further notice -- and I say “until” because you never know what obscure LPs the web may yet reveal -- a little known band named Stress is responsible for recording Brazil’s first, honest-to-goodness heavy metal album!

Incredibly, the group’s history dates all the way back to 1974, when they formed as Pinngo d'Água in Brazil’s Northeastern city of Belém do Pará (the gateway to the Amazon), and started covering foreign hard rock luminaries like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.

The name change to Stress took place in 1977, and coincided with their first efforts to pen their own songs, but it would be another five years before they mustered enough money and material to finance a rushed, barely “produced” one-day session for this self-titled LP in Rio de Janeiro.

And yet, the low fidelity lends itself quite well to frantically paced originals like “Sodoma e Gomorra,” “A Chacina,” and “O Viciado” (all sung in Portuguese, obviously), which successfully mirror the protean speed metal of New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands like Saxon, Raven and Angel Witch.

Now, there’s no doubt that Stress’ slower, more melodic, and generally older songs, including the Sabbath/Priest hybrid of “O Oráculo do Judas” and the Purple-inspired, organ enhanced “2031” and “Mate o Réu” would have benefited from better studio technology.

But the group was clearly so fired up about finally putting these songs to tape (witness the dazzling solos from guitarist Pedro Valente for “O Lixo” and heady lyrics for “Stressencefalodrama”) that their energy easily won the day.

In sum, for all of its Third World deficiencies, Stress’ first album still shows off a band of great talent, unbelievable resilience, who were evidently well ahead of their time -- as well as far more celebrated next generation of Brazilian metal giants like Sepultura, Korzus and Sarcófago.

You’ll find snippets of the words above in my All-Music Guide Stress biography and review of their historic debut.