Yellow Fever is a promising Brazilian band from Paraná, which is known for its Heavy Metal and where we come across a very interesting sound that can be confirmed in its debut album entitled "Epidemic Tragedies". The obscure melodies presented by Yellow Fever allow us to penetrate the underworld of melodic labyrinths and where our soul floats without a certain destination with the hypnotizing auras exposed in the sound of this magnificent band. With the hidden magic we can begin an unhealthy journey through the unknown where the strands of traditional Heavy Metal intertwine with the beginnings of Doom Metal revealing the true essence and potential of Yellow Fever as a band that presents itself with a very interesting and original sound. Now we will go on to the interview that I had the honor of doing with brother Emerson "Devil's Preacher" who will reveal a little more about Yellow Fever and where some of the objectives that the band intends to achieve will be revealed, so whoever is interested in finding out more about this excellent band I suggest that you read the next interview where you will be able to discover a band with its own personality.
C.N. - Hell-o demons of the filthy underworld of Brazilian Heavy Metal, first of all I want to send my greetings and welcome you to the perverse cemetery of Cadaveric Noiseletter where I intend to prepare this interview to give you the opportunity to tell us about your band. To begin I would like to ask you to introduce us to the band Yellow Fever that started under the name Demon's Crest, do you want to tell us how it all started and why you changed your name in 2017?
Y.F. - Hello, guys! First of all, we would like to thank you for the opportunity to prepare this interview for us! We are really glad about that! Well, we started playing in 2012 as a group of friends who really love Metal music. We had a lot of projects over the years with this same group of friends in other branches of Metal. But in 2014, we finally decided to play and focus our music on the Heavy Metal style because we love it and we really wanted to do this. And then, Demon's Crest was born. At that time, we were very inspired by bands like Running Wild, Venom, Judas Priest, Exciter, and many others from the '80s, and we think this had a lot of influence on the sound of Demon's Crest. We released a demo called Gargoyle's Rising in 2015, and we think our lyrics were heavily influenced by video game themes on this record. Because of that, we decided to change the name of the band in 2017 to Yellow Fever, mainly because new influences arrived and our sound took a more complex direction.
C.N. - Now I would like to ask you to introduce us to the line-up of Yellow Fever, which has members who have already been involved in projects such as Matadör, Coveirö, Dorsus and Dark Emperor, projects with very different aspects to what Yellow Fever presents. Do you want to tell us a little more about that?
Y.F. - Well, we are a trio of friends, and we have been playing together since 2012. Yellow Fever is formed by Jorge "Calazar" (Bass and Vocals), Emerson "Devil's Preacher" (Guitars), and Anderson "Naberius" (Drums). In a certain way, all of us have played in almost all of these projects. We like many genres of Metal music and always try to create something new to play and challenge ourselves. Dorsus was our first band, a Thrash Metal band; Dark Emperor and Coveirö were Black Metal bands, and currently, Jorge also plays in Matadör, an amazing Black/Thrash Metal band from Curitiba, Paraná. We highly recommend their latest release, Full Moon Tales, a 2024 EP. It’s a great record—truly heavy, with a really dark and obscure atmosphere... We love it!
C.N. - Yellow Fever presents a sound that fits into the Heavy Metal genre and where influences can be found in the melancholy of the early Doom Metal, where I can give as reference bands like Pentagram or Candlemass. I would like to ask you how you define your sound and tell us some of your influences?
Y.F. - Well, we are a Heavy Metal band! Of course, we have a lot of influences, and we love Candlemass and Pentagram so much. I think all of this appears in our first album, Epidemic Tragedies (2018), in a certain way. But, as we said in the last question, we have many more influences, ranging from Heavy to Death and Black Metal. We love bands like Virtue, Tokyo Blade, Judas Priest, and Witchfinder General from NWOBHM, and we also have strong influences from Progressive Rock bands like Rush, Nektar, and Camel. We think you can hear and feel all of this in our music.
C.N. - Now I would like to ask what themes are addressed in your lyrics and what message do you try to convey with them?
Y.F. - Over the years, we have talked about many things in our lyrics, but we think our focus is on channeling all of our influences and discussing them in a historical and philosophical way, mainly reflecting on the tragedy of human experiences over time. We tried to do this in our first album, Epidemic Tragedies, and we continue to do so in our new songs. However, we now also try to bring influences from our interests in cinema, literature, fantasy, and sci-fi into these discussions.
C.N. - In 2018, your debut album, entitled "Epidemic Tragedies", was independently released and was re-released in 2021 by Rocketz Records in Cassette format. Would you like to tell us a little more about this release?
Y.F. - Well, our first album is very special to us! We dedicated so much energy and time to writing and recording it, and we feel very proud of this record. But it’s not easy for an underground Heavy Metal band to release an album in our country. First, because you need a lot of money to do it, and getting support from a record label is really hard here. So, we decided to do everything independently. But it was really difficult because we faced many problems along the way. You also need to play live if you want to have the support of the local Heavy Metal scene. All of us have other jobs, so we have to find time to balance our personal lives and the band. In 2021, we finally managed to release our album on cassette format through Rocketz Records, but we had to invest a lot of money in the process. We are still trying to sell these tapes even today. It’s really tough, but we keep fighting to earn our place.
C.N. - After the release of your first album, you independently released two singles, the first in 2024, entitled "Death Star", and the second, more recently released in 2025, entitled "Mother of Satan's Son". Can you tell us a little more about these two singles? What do you intend to achieve with these types of releases?
Y.F. - Well, these singles are very important to us! Death Star was written ten years ago, so it’s a song with a lot of meaning for us. It’s inspired by the Star Wars franchise and, in a way, brings a political discussion about our own world, the fight between "good" and "evil." We thought it was a great way to showcase our music to the world once again. Mother of Satan’s Son was written by our friend Rebeca Capozzi, and we thought it was a great song, so we decided to record and release it. It’s inspired by the classic 1960s horror movie Rosemary’s Baby and is the first song of a new era of compositions, paving the way for our second album. We hope that with these songs, we can finally sign with a record label so we can record our next album. This is our main goal for now!
C.N. - Nowadays we live in a digital age where everything is too easy and for that reason many bands end up having difficulty promoting and working their music properly. How do you face this and how do you evaluate the way you promote your music?
Y.F. - On one hand, digital platforms theoretically favor access to a multitude of bands from various countries and decades, but on the other hand, it ends up overshadowing many other quality materials. I think we suffer from this paradox as well. Honestly, we are not the best example of promoting our own music. It feels like we’re still struggling, despite recently investing in more obvious things, like trying to play live, something we didn’t care much about before.
C.N. - You have been presenting your music independently in digital format. What are the reasons that lead you to choose this way of presenting your music? Do you think that this allows you more freedom or is it just the simplest and most economical way of promoting the band and the sound that you present?
Y.F. - We would love to be able to release our material in physical formats through record labels that believe in our work and carry the flag of traditional heavy metal. But this is not easy at all. In Brazil, either you’re friends with someone, or you have to pay a lot of money to get your material circulating. Digital platforms end up being practically the only way to try to promote the material, even though it's not ideal. Our tape released in 2021 was entirely funded by us, and the label provided almost no support for the promotion. In the past, we also made homemade materials, but today that also seems like a weak option.
C.N. - I know you are preparing and composing your second album, so I would like to ask you when can we expect your second album? Do you intend to work on it in a more responsible and professional way or do you intend to continue releasing your music independently as you have done until now?
Y.F. - If everything goes as expected, our new material should be released between 2025 and 2026. Of course, our intention is to make something well done and professional, but it doesn’t depend only on us.
C.N. - Brazil is a hotbed of bands where many high-quality bands emerge, however I think there are many bands that end up going unnoticed and which are not given the due value due to the way they work and expose their music, what is your opinion and what do you have to say about this? Do you think this helps or harms you?
Y.F. - The Brazilian traditional heavy metal scene is weak and niche. Brazil is indeed very strong, but more in extreme metal. This harms us in the sense that the space is limited. The scene and the prevalence of certain genres end up determining this. Of course, the fact that we work in other areas and don’t have enough time or money to invest in our music harms us. But there is a lot of mediocre stuff that gains space, which makes us think it’s not just our fault.
C.N. - Which bands would you like to suggest to us and which ones would you like to highlight in the Brazilian underground? Always mention names like Sarcofago, Sepultura, Dorsal Atrantica Vulcano, Overdose, Ratos De Porão and so on, they are bands that everyone knows and that do not require any kind of presentation, so I would like to ask you to tell us about bands that come from the depths of the Brazilian Underground.
Y.F. - In this case, it's cool to mention bands we specifically love from heavy metal, starting with those from Paraná, our state: SteelLord, Dominus Praelii, and Hazy Hamlet. In Brazil in general, there are the bands from the 1980s that made very authentic heavy metal, like Harppia, Virus, Avenger, Centúrias, Salário Mínimo, Metalmorphose, Santuário, Azul Limão, as well as Viper and the obscure Excalibur.
C.N. - What are Yellow Fever's goals and plans for the future as a band?
Y.F. - Our goals involve continuing to play, compose, record, and expand our audience among the headbangers. We really want to play in new places and release our music through a serious record label in the coming years. Interviews like this help a lot in this process!
C.N. - We have reached the end of this interview and I would like to thank you for the time you spent answering the questions that were asked to help us get to know a little more about the essence of Yellow Fever. Now I would like to leave this space open so that you can say something relevant that was not covered in this interview or simply thank you or tell whoever you want to fuck off...
Y.F. - We would first like to thank you so much for the space and this opportunity! Furthermore, we would like to tell all the posers to go fuck themselves, and ask real headbangers, producers, and record label owners to pay more attention to what is being brewed in the dark and moldy cracks of the spotlight.
Interview made by Danihell Slaughter
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