Released	December 1, 1985
Recorded	August 1985 at J.G. Estudios, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Genre	Death metal, black metal,thrash metal
Length	15:37
Label	Cogumelo, Roadrunner
Producer	Sepultura

Bestial Devastation is an EP by Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, released in 1985 through Cogumelo Records. It is their first official release, and originally appeared alongside Overdose’s Século XX as a split album. Later on, it became the bonus tracks of Morbid Visions‘s CD version.

Because of Sepultura’s collective lack of money, most of the instruments used on Bestial Devastation were borrowed from friends and acquaintances.^[1]

The vocals on the introductory track “The Curse” were performed by a friend of the band; according to Igor Cavalera:

“

One thing I remember is that we had one of our friends come and do the voice for the intro (‘The Curse’) because he would do that voice without effects –he was kind of burping in a way. It was funny, so we had him come down and do it in the studio. I don’t even remember his name![2]

”

The band apparently fought with the producer during the recording. In an interview, Igor Cavalera said, “(H)e wanted to clean everything up in the mix and we finally had to play him some records by Venom to show him that bands sounded this way.”

Months prior to recording what would eventually become the Bestial Devastation EP, the band decided to switch their lyrics from Portuguese to English. None of the band members knew how to write or speak the language, so they asked their friend Lino to translate their lyrics. Examples of Lino’s crude translation skills can be seen in one of the verses of “Antichrist”:

“	Churches will be destroyed Crosses will be broken He’s laughing in blasphemy Like a domain of death.

Bestial Devastation was released in December 1985, alongside Overdose‘s Século XX EP.^[6] Over the next few months it sold 8,000 copies.^[7] Sepultura’s surprising success was partly attributed to the first Rock in Rio, which took place in Rio de Janeiroon January 1985. This music festival’s line-up included Whitesnake, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Queen, Ozzy Osbourne and theScorpions, and was responsible for Brazil‘s hard rock / heavy metal boom.^[8]

The EP was later reissued by Roadrunner Records on one CD with Morbid Visions in 1997. The reissue included a demo version of the song “Necromancer” that was the first studio recording of the band, and a live version of “Antichrist” from the Chaos A.D. tour, re-written as “Anticop”

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Max “Possessed”, Jairo “Tormentor”, and Paulo “Destructor” except where noted.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	“The Curse”			0:39
2.	“Bestial Devastation”			3:08
3.	“Antichrist”	Wagner “Antichrist”	Max “Possessed”	3:47
4.	“Necromancer”			3:53
5.	“Warriors of Death”			4:10
Total length:				15:37

Lyrics

1. The Curse

The curse is launched, beware
The Lord of Death declared the war
Satanas is invoked to destroy
And to command the bestial
Devastation

2. Bestial Devastation

A legion of demons
Born from boundaries of death
Like a onslaught of evil
To destroy this Earth

Covering the morbid skies
Like a mist of sulphur
I can see Satanas
The cursed of death
Terminate masses and reigns
With blood axes of hate
The beasts of son of devil
Tormenting the preachers of Christ

The humans try to react
To this nuclear war
Which is like a endless pain
Burning in the fire of Hell

3. Antichrist
Born from Hell
The supreme force of evil
To destroy the altar
And slaughter the christian’s born

Churches will be destroyed
Crosses will be brocken
He’s laughing in blasphemy
Like a domination of death

Antichrist

The war is started
Heavens on fire
From the deep of Hell
Leaving words of hate

Antichrist

The terror is declared
The final fight started
The Antichrist and Lucifer
Fighting with angels and God

Antichrist

4. Necromancer

The mist is high in this night
Can feel the presence of death
Way to the mortuary so the deads will invoke
Corpses and skulls in my countour
See a corpse bloody with the face in cruciform
Now being from the wrath
Catch the skulls of a children, frozen and dismal
Coming with me
Creature, kill in name of Hell
The black mess is started, life’s will terminate
With the wrath of the demons started the genocide
Wrath, in my corpus is born
Death, lost legions from Hell
Slaughter, you’ll see in sacrifice
Skulls, are christians with blood

Necromancer
Dead’s invoker
Necromancer
Dead’s invoker

Wrath, odious, desire
In my corpus is born
The fates last, terror’s spread
For a necros creature of
The crypts’

5. Warriors Of Death

Marching over the mist
Leaving behind the wheack’s
Going this endless war
Like a tormenting nightmare

Over the devastated ruins
I raised a sign
The sign of hate
For a masses despair

To revenged the years
Arrested in abyss
Where Jesus Christ
Made his suffer

But the final command
Is happening here now
Which I see is the ruins
And warriors marching to death