Uganga - Manifesto Cerrado

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As I always write on reviews of bands from the country where I live, to make a Metal album is a hard experience. To do the same on a DVD is even harder, because the technologies for a good result and the best professional people are really expensive. There are those who give up before the beginning, and those who are motivated by difficulties. And the sextet UGANGA seems to be on the second group, because their DVD “Manifesto Cerrado” is a different experience. It celebrates their two decades of existence, but their rebirth as well. The difference begins on the format.

This DVD shows a documentary of the band, and a live concert. For a particular option, I’ll start writing about the documentary. The documentary, of course, tells about their 20 years story, with many rare scenes from the past, since their beginning (when Manu was the drummer, not the singer), and by these scenes, you can hear as their musical genre (an eclectic Crossover/Thrashcore approach) evolved a lot, agglutinating different musical influences on all these years. And you’ll find moments from the band on their European tour (some parts with the guys of TERRORDOME are hilarious), others when the members talk about the band story, and some really fun moments during the recording sessions for the album “Opressor”, with words by some invited guests as Arthur of VULCANO (commenting about UGANGA’s for “Who Are the True”), Murillo of GENOCÍDIO speaking about his guest appearance on the solos of “Who Are the True”, Juarez from SCOURGE appears recording his appearance on “Opressor”, and even from Ralf Klein (of MACBETH)… Well, there are a lot of things on this part, because it was one of the main focuses of the documentary.

This documentary was funded by the Programa Municipal de Incentivo à Cultura (PMIC) of Araguari (MG), and exhibited on July 2017 as a part of the official program of the project “Mostra Minas no Metal” that happened at the Museu da Imagem e do Som (MIS)/Cine Santa Tereza, The second part was the show. It was done at an old train station, espaço Stevenson, at Araguari (MG). Only band’s friends, familiars, from their road team, partners… The band played in a circle, one member looking for the other, in a spiritual form similar to old Indian and African people’s culture and religions. So we can say that it was a small show, but the aim was to exorcize all the negative energy that was at the point to torn the band apart.

On the setlist, songs from all of their works, and the energy that was haunting the band turned into a savage extra energy that turned these versions better and special. But to hear these excellent live versions for “Sua Lei, Minha Lei” (a frantic and nasty song that inspires the moshpit), “Nas Entranhas do Sol” (a slower and dense song with some BLACK SABBATH influence), “Couro Cru” (a modern version for this old song of the band, a brutal and straight hardcore in your face, where some scratchs were done by DJ Eremita), the tearing aggressive approach of “Moleque de Pedra” (where Juarez of SCOURGE make an appearance, even after an job accident, showing the true brotherhood shared by Old School Metal fans from the 80s), the slow and bitter “Modus Vivendi”, the chaotic sound mass that they play on VULCANO’s “Who Are the True” VULCANO (where Maurício “Murcego” Pergentino plays some guitars, giving a Rock ‘n’ Roll scent to this old hymn of Brazilian Metal), and the aggressive “Aos Pés da Grande Árvore”. The show ends with a percussive song called “Noite”, where Mestre Mustafá, Tatiane Ribeiro and Lílian Salgado gives a Brazilian/African taste to the show. And as we could expect, the show sets a new beginning for UGANGA, stronger for more 20 years to come.

The video edition and capitation were done by Eric Shunway, and the sound captation, mixing and mastering are from Gustavo Vazquez, and these aspects boosted a lot the final result that we hear and see on the DVD. And we can have the clear idea on the show that UGANGA’s sound is really organic, something that you can show at shows clearly what the band plays on their albums. And there are subtitles as well.

On the artwork, the DVD cover is really simple and good, and it was created by Marco Henriques (drummer of the band and Manu’s brother), and the inlay is wonderful, with the booklet showing that old and good collage of images that were usual on the 80s. And by the way: both parts (documentary and show) are available for free on Youtube, to all the fans see them without problems. Ending the review, I can say that “Manifesto Cerrado” is very deep and needs all your attention. So see it as many as you can!

Originality: 9
Songwriting: 10
Memorability: 8
Production: 8