Doomed Nation

Sounds For The Lost Generation

Doomed Confessionary: Uirá Seidl (Dead Level)

Dead Level is a four-piece stoner/doom metal band hailing from Belém, Brazil.

Police violence, pedophilia and extortion in the church, pollution and environmental disaster, political corruption, among other topics, permeate the band’s state of mind and point to a scenario of social, mental and spiritual intoxication, at the historic moment when Brazil is witnessing the rise of neo-fascism, in a growing wave of hate speech and cultural intolerance.

Dead Level are Uirá Seidl on vocals, Aramys Souza on guitar, Arthur Fonseca on bass and Beto Brasil on drums.

Can you say a few words about your band?
I created the band in mid-2015, initially with a totally different lineup, and doing covers of The Doors and “punk 77” bands such as Dead Boys, The Damned and The Ramones. This phase lasted a few months, until together with guitarist Leonardo Venturieri, we decided to direct the band’s sound mainly to “stoner”, a sound that we listened to and enjoyed a lot, especially with a more “retro” footprint, from bands like Pentagram, Witchfinder General and Electric Wizard, among many others.

However, by joining musicians from our city, who also had a strong punk/hardcore influence, we ended up finding our sound, which combines elements of stoner, doom, hard rock and punk/hardcore, which was the initial formation of Dead Level, with authorial repertoire, which recorded the first EP (2017), with two guitarists.
Due to personal and artistic disagreements, we had a second lineup, which recorded the 2-track EP (2019), already with only one guitarist.

For the album »Intoxicated« we had a kind of “task force” of practically all the musicians who had integrated or collaborated with the band, so it was a “collaborative” album, which left us satisfied with the final result.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
The biggest challenge now is to stabilize the current lineup, which has been going on since the months following the recording of the album, with Uirá Seidl (vocals), Aramys Souza (guitar), Arthur Fonseca (bass) and Beto Brasil (drums), and from there, continue composing material for our second album, and at the same time, improve our working conditions, seeking a partnership with a label, making the band better known and respected nationally and in the international underground.

What can you be most proud of so far?
We live in the North of Brazil, in the state of Pará (Amazon region), an area that receives less investment from the Brazilian government, which makes it even more difficult to achieve repercussion by making music and creating art, as it is a peripheral region within the country itself.

Our greatest pride is to raise this flag that in the North of Brazil there are also good rock/metal bands, and that they can carry out a professional work and in tune with what is happening in Brazil and in the world, a fact that characterizes a differential of our songs, we bring politicized and engaged lyrics, in view of the need to denounce all the abuses that are committed in Brazil. Whether in the political, social, human, and cultural aspects, which continue to happen in different ways, but which were especially recurrent and repetitive during the Bolsonaro government, between 2018 and 2022.

On the musical side, it was very cool to have participated in the compilation »Weedian – Trip to Brazil«, I am an admirer of Weedian’s compilation series. And also come out with the track »O.G.Bastards’ on the CD released in national territory, with bands from the state of Pará, called »Paragonia II«.

What was your biggest regret?
Having taken a long time to seek partnerships and sponsorships here in our region and abroad, we spent too much time producing on our own without paying much attention to alliances and supports that could have already projected us more at the national level, mainly.

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Our best concert was at a metal festival here in Belém, called Xaninho Fest, which featured great bands from the national and international scene, such as Krisiun and Extreme Noise Terror, around 2019.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
I think it’s amazing the abundance of good stoner bands around the world, I really think it’s perhaps the fastest growing style of rock, we can find great bands constantly, some more creative and daring than others, but in general with a lot of quality, even with most of them working independently. Home studios have greatly facilitated the recording processes, and are accessible to people anywhere on the planet, and providing great conditions for recording and mixing.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
I’m a guy who listens to the Old School a lot, I’m crazy about hard/heavy rock bands from the 60s and 70s, including many obscure ones, like Sudden Death, Toad. Sir Lord Baltimore, for example, but I never stop listening to other trends, mainly stoner, punk rock and even thrash metal.

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
That advice given by many but which is in fact one of the most important things: you first need to please yourself about your music, and the musical direction you will give to the compositions, doing something solely for money will not provide you with satisfaction, on the contrary, money alone does not make anyone fully happy.

What are your guilty pleasures?
I love horror comics by authors like Junji Itto, for example.

Can you say something more about current music scene in Belém / Pará?
The state of Pará, in Brazil, has a music strongly influenced by Latin music, such as Cumbia, Salsa, and with that it seems that if you don’t follow this style, you’re rowing against the tide…
The rock bands here have this extra challenge, but at the same time, they are very independent, and do not stop producing authorial material, constantly, in all branches of rock and heavy metal.
As an example, I could mention bands like Delinquentes (crossover), Warpath (thrash) and Baixo Calão (grind).

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We have no forecast of shows outside our city for now, we will do a show on November 9th, with 4 other bands, including another stoner band in the city, Vinyl Laranja, band of our producer: Andro Baudelaire.

What are your plans for the future as a band?
We will enter the studio again in a maximum of 3 months, to record the second single, called: »Elected Preachers«, a song very much in the stoner-doom footprint, which follows a deepening of the theme addressed in the song »The Church«, present in the album »Intoxicated«.

How can people best support your band?
The people who enjoy Dead Level can support us by liking and commenting positively on our songs and music videos on YouTube, not only on our channel, but on channels that have released our material, such as 666 Mr. Doom and Weedian mainly. In addition to following us and listening to our tracks on other social networks, according to your preference, be it Spotify, Apple Music, or any other. For people who enjoy Bandcamp, you can stream all our audio releases for free there. We are currently evaluating a partnership with a label, in order to seek to expand our audience and fan base.

Do you have any message for your listeners?
We greet and thank everyone who liked or enjoys our sound, whether it is one, two, or all of the songs. Any positive feedback is valuable to us and keeps us focused on continuing to produce. We ask that as far as possible you can indicate our Sound to friends or in groups.
Greetings from Amazon, Stay Doom!!

Links:
Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube1 | YouTube2

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well

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