THE TROOPS OF DOOM Feat. Ex-SEPULTURA Guitarist JAIRO 'TORMENTOR' GUEDZ: 'Prelude To Blasphemy' Due In May

THE TROOPS OF DOOM, the Brazilian band featuring former SEPULTURA guitarist Jairo "Tormentor" Guedz, will release "Prelude To Blasphemy" on May 12.

Upon completing three years of existence last March, THE TROOPS OF DOOM had the idea of recording two new songs to celebrate this important milestone in the history of the band formed by Alex Kafer (vocals and bass),Guedz, Marcelo Vasco (guitar) and Alexandre Oliveira (drums).

"Prelude To Blasphemy" will feature two brand new tracks and the first two EPs, "The Rise Of Heresy" (2020) and "The Absence Of Light" (2021),as a bonus. The material will be released on CD digipack through Alma Mater Records, on CD slipcase via Voice Music in Brazil, while digital distribution will be handled by Blood Blast, the digital subsidiary of the German label Nuclear Blast. The cover art was painted by Maramgoni.

"The amazing Maramgoni did a fantastic job! He was also the author of the cover art of our EP 'The Absence Of Light'," says Vasco.

Mixing and mastering were handled by Leonardo Pagani.

"Pagani did an incredible job, bringing a lot of quality to the sound, but without losing that old-school tone and the Low-fi touch that we're always looking for in our productions", comments Kafer.

About one of the unpublished tracks, "1666", Guedz explains that the theme deals with the great fire of London. "The track '1666' was inspired by the great fire of London, one of the greatest England's catastrophes, which caused deaths, thousands of people homeless, countless public buildings destroyed and almost 90 churches burned," he says. "There were dark times since in this period was happening the last bubonic plague epidemic in England. The cover art portrays a bit of all of that and, obviously, we still maintained that aesthetic connection with my era with SEPULTURA".

According to Oliveira, "God's Orphanage" and "1666" are not leftovers from the studio, but had already been worked on by the band for some time. "Both are songs that we already had the riffs and a basic song structure at the time of the first EPs, in 2020 and 2021," he explains. "However, they ended up not being finished on time and that's why they weren't recorded. When we made 'Antichrist Reborn' we kind forgot about them and now, finally, these songs had their purpose. They both are heavy, with a lot of energy and synthesize what THE TROOPS OF DOOM is about very well."

SEPULTURA was formed in 1984 in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of Minas Gerais. Jairo joined the group the following year and played on the band's first two releases, 1985's "Bestial Devastation" EP and their 1986 full-length debut, "Morbid Visions". He also participated in the early songwriting sessions for 1987's "Schizophrenia".

In early 1987, Jairo quit SEPULTURA and was replaced by São Paulo-based guitarist Andreas Kisser.