Agaurez. Interview with V. Cenobite

Interview by Andrew Stanton

Agaurez are a Black Metal band from Brazil. Andrew Stanton talked to frontman V. Cenobite to find out more.

- Can you tell our readers a bit about your history, please?

“Agaurez is a Black Metal band from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. This city has a very strong Metal scene, breeding bands like Sepultura, Sarcofago, Mutilator and many others. We started our activities back in 1998 and in 2001 we released our first album, Un-Virtue Vitae, via Demise Records. Since then we had many changes in the formation and some turmoil involving members and decisions regarding the future of the band, all which resulted in a break up around 2006. Then, in 2013 some members of many stages of the band started to talk about a reunion and we finally were back to the stages in 2014. Since then we were compos ing new stuff and then in 2018 we managed to get a deal with Cogumelo Records and released our latest album, “The Five Sigils”.

It was released in late 2019 and unfortunately we had time to play in only 1 gig before COVID-19 became a pandemic, and it postponed our activities indefinitely. Finally we’re back to rehearsals and we hope to release our new EP soon.”

- Who are the members of Agaurez?

“The current line-up is: V. Cenobite on vocals, C. Alok on the lead guitar, F. Impious on rhythm guitars, R. Necro on bass and E. Vil on the drums.”

- What bands did you like growing up?

“I was lucky to grew up in a house where both my parents were into Rock and Roll, so I’ve always listened to bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple as I was growing up. But after a while I remember that I was always looking for heavier stuff, and I kinda found it when I discovered death and Black Metal. Bands like Cannibal Corpse, Dissection, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Carcass, Celtic Frost, Napalm Death, Satyricon were, among many others, maybe the foundations of my personal favorites. And still are.”

- What are your lyrics about?

“As the lyricist of the band myself, the themes often connect to what I am reading or dealing with, when I am writing them. They can be about philosophy, occultism, nightmares, you know, anything that emerges from my darkest side or from my inner demons. They can also be cathartic in a certain way. One of my latest lyrics was “Carcosa”, because I was reading the excellent book “The King In Yellow” by Robert Chambers, and it was surely a very good source of inspiration.”

- Is it difficult being a Satanic Band in Brazil?

“Well, I think that it is not very easy to be a Satanic band anywhere, but that’s precisely the point. Brazil has an image abroad that it seems to be a very liberal and progressive country (maybe because of our famous carnaval and culture that we export), but the truth is that it is a very conservative country. Too many religious and close-minded people here. And on top of that, since the last elections we were pr sented to the fact that not even the country is conservative, but also fascist, as they elected Bolsonaro, which is hands down the worst president we’ve ever had. So it’s becoming increasing ly difficult to have a Satanic band here, yes. But that’s even better, because we feel like we have a reason to fight for, and we have to fight even harder.”

- What does Agaurez mean?

“Agaurez is named after a demon of the Goetia called Agares (or also Agarat, Agaros, Agarus). “

- Have you toured much outside of Brazil? What are the best and worst places to play?

“Unfortunately we’ve only played within our borders yet, but we’re looking forward to playing abroad, as soon as we can! We think about some gigs in Latin America first, and then maybe we can schedule a European tour in the near future. Now that the pandemic is starting to fade out, we can start to plan those things again.”

- What can fans expect from your new album?

“We’re currently recording an EP that compiles a series of songs that we already composed but never were properly recorded. We decided to take a step back and record those songs that we think are great and deserve to be in an album, before moving forward to create new stuff. What people can expect would be 3 killer songs that weren’t ever recorded and an old one from our first album that we’re doing a more extreme version of.”

- Do you have a release date?

“Well, the pandemics messed out with our whole schedule, but now that we’re back at the studio, we will try to release it still in 2022 (maybe on the later months).”

- Do you have a message for our readers?

“We would like to thank everyone that support us, and if you want to know our material, please go to Spotify/Agaurez. And thanks a lot to Inside the Darkness for the interview. Stay Brutal.”