Torture Squad

History

Three years after being founded in 1990, the band entered a more professional phase, in a line-up with founder Cristiano Fusco on guitar, Wagner "Castor" on bass, Amilcar Christofaro on drums, and Vitor Rodrigues as frontman and singer. They started touring in and around São Paulo and soon recorded a demo, released in 1993, A Soul in Hell. Their first CD was Shivering (1995); their break-through came with Asylum of Shadows (1999).

Their 2001 album, The Unholy Spell, came right after the band's first tour in Germany. In 2002, Cristiano Fusco left the band, and the band hired Mauricio Nogueira (a seasoned studio musician who played for Krisiun as well as other local bands like In Hell and Zoltar), and went on their first Brazilian tour.

Pandemonium produced by Marcello Pompeu and Heros Trench (Korzus) was released in 2003. The CD was supported by a TV video clip for "Pandemonium" and "Horror and Torture." Again, the band played all over Brazil. Then, in 2006 Torture Squad embarked on a European tour, headlining in 16 towns in Germany and 4 in Austria. Afterward they played in more cities in Brazil until they participated in the Brazilian pre-selection for the famed Wacken Open Air festival. They eventually won the final in São Paulo, and they represented Brazil at Wacken Battle of the Bands 2007, which they won. This victory won them a contract with Armageddon Records (Germany); Mauricio Nogueira also won the "best guitar player" award, which earned him a brand new Dean guitar and a Marshall pre-amp.

Hellbound, was released in May 2008 by Armageddon, not long after Mauricio Nogueira left the band for personal reasons and Augusto Lopes (Eternal Malediction) was announced as the new guitarist. In 2008, Torture Squad embarked on a 60-date European tour, which will include a show at Wacken Open Air.

The year of 2009 started pretty well for Torture Squad. After the release of Hellbound and its excellent repercussion in Brazil, Europe and the United States, it was followed by a European tour with two of the world's major thrash metal bands, Overkill and Exodus. The tour began in mid February in London, where the Brazilian group performed for the first time, and included 12 more shows in countries like Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

Their most recent studio album “AEquilibrium” was released in Europe on August 2010 by Wacken Records / H'art / Zebralution / SAOL. They recorded a new version for the title track of their third album “The Unholy Spell” which is included as bonus track with the title of “The Unholy Spell 2010”. The album was recorded in São Paulo/Brazil, at Norcal Studios with producers Brendan Duffey and Adriano Daga.

In January 2011, guitarist Augusto Lopes left the band and André Evaristo replaced him. In April 2012 Vitor Rodrigues left the band and Evaristo took over the vocals.

Discography

Videography

Current members

Former members