Athenaeum of Sin Reviews: Almanon Interview

The Interview — Almanon: Line Between Reality and Hallucination

Interviewee: Sergio Vieira (Guitarist)
Publication: Athenaeum Of Sin Reviews

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Forged in the depths of Três Lagoas, Brazil, Almanon is a band that channels the raw essence of old-school extreme metal. Their sound is visceral, their themes steeped in literary horror—most notably the works of Edgar Allan Poe. With guttural vocals, brutal riffs, and a commitment to organic production, Almanon stands apart in a scene often polished by technology. Their latest release, Primitive Infernal, is both a sonic descent and a philosophical reckoning, blurring the line between reality and hallucination.

This interview explores the band’s creative process, thematic obsessions, and the ritual truths buried within their music. Sergio Vieira, founding member and guitarist, guides us through the shadows.

Thirteen Questions Beneath the Pendulum

Q1. “Primal Infernal” channels the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe. What does Poe represent to you—not just as a writer, but as a mirror of human darkness?

Sergio Vieira: A dense universe, a psychological horror that draws on humanity’s primitive instincts for its perversities. Poe portrays this universe, bringing out the worst in humanity in his stories, but at the same time, it’s real and happening in the present day. Poe’s portrayal of this entire concept in his stories clashes sharply with reality.

Q2. The album feels like a descent into madness. Was it a cathartic purge, a philosophical statement, or something more personal?

Sergio Vieira: The band’s proposal when it was created was to be old school, raw, organic, swimming against the tide of what other bands are doing and for that the idea was to create visceral riffs, brutal drums and guttural vocals to be more extreme and along with that the universe of Poe came to give life to Primitive Infernal which in fact all came out very natural and arrived at this final result, I wouldn’t say it’s something personal or philosophical but more of a combination of everything you mentioned, a true album made with soul and heart.

Q3. “Pendulum” echoes Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” How did you translate this psychological horror into sound?

Sergio Vieira: The idea of the track Pendulum was to show the hours of death agony arriving with the descent of the Pendulum and the riffs were created based on this death agony arriving as time passes and you can see at the beginning a brief intro of the mechanical clock starting this wait but unlike the story the end of the song actually portrays that death had arrived and penetrated his soul.

Q4. Your lyrics address death, war, and anti-religion. How do these themes evolve when filtered through Poe’s gothic lens?

Sergio Vieira: These themes of Death, War and Antireligion were addressed in our EP WARLEGION, released in 2023, and the band’s proposal is not to limit itself to just one theme, but to encompass several others that we feel the need to transform into extreme metal. In the case of Primitive Infernal, I handpicked the stories to combine and connect our extremity and through several quotes throughout the album about human perversity, greed, envy and the worst that human beings have inside them, which comes from the beginning of humanity.

Q5. You moved from Auriflama to Três Lagoas. Did this change of environment influence your sound or your creative energy?

Sergio Vieira: Actually, Auriflama was just the birth of the band and we were forged in Três Lagoas where the rehearsals took place and, so the change of environment had no influence because everything was already happening in Três Lagoas because, as I said, the band was born in Auriflama but was forged in Três Lagoas where we are located to this day together with my bandmates: Paulo Lopes (vocals), Gustavo Jianoto (Bass) and Ricky Longinus (drums)

Q6. The production is raw and relentless. Is this a deliberate rejection of refinement in favor of emotional truth?

Sergio Vieira: Exactly that, the idea of recording organically was intentional to convey the truth of our sound. In the studio, we didn’t use a metronome and we recorded organically and live to make it very natural and real, just as our sound is. We decided and did the opposite of what most bands are doing. doing and nothing against those who use technology for their work and such, but in our case we decided that it would be this way and we were very satisfied with the final result.

Q7. “Tormented by Agony” stands out for its emotional weight. What pain or philosophy does it express?

Sergio Vieira: This sound was inspired by the short story “A Premature Burial” by Poe, which tells the story of a person suffering from Catalepsy. This is a disease in which the person falls asleep for days and even weeks, leaving the person with vital signs unnoticed and because of this, the person is buried alive and wakes up inside the coffin agonizing over their death. There are real reports in the past that this happened because medicine was not advanced. This is one of the stories that goes against a reality that actually happened.

Q8. “Human Perversity” is brutal and brief. Does its brevity reflect how quickly morality can collapse?

Sergio Vieira: Human Perversity goes against the worst of human instincts, which are envy and the atrocities they are capable of committing to benefit themselves. In this song, inspired by the story “The Demon of Perversity,” it is a story about a person who plans the death of his friend out of simple envy and carries it out. However, over time, his own conscience began to charge him for what happened and the person began to show signs and claimed that the devil was disturbing him, and in this case, it was his own conscience that was disturbing him. And in this case, morality can quickly collapse with attitudes like those in the aforementioned story.

Q9. In a scenario where signing with a record label can mean exposure or commitment, where does Almanon draw the line between independence and ambition?

Sergio Vieira: In Brazil, being an independent band is not easy. We have to do everything and even put money into things, often times, and signing with a record label can bring benefits to the band. This is in fact common sense for all bands. However, it is not simple to enter this record label universe, especially because there are many good bands signing with them. In our case, we haven’t had the opportunity yet, so we will continue on our path of being independent (do it yourself). If an opportunity arises in the future, we can talk.

Q10. In the streaming era, you released a limited edition Digipak. What does physical media mean for Almanon and its fans?

Sergio Vieira: Physical media was a main proposal of the band and of course streaming helps us spread our sound around the world, but what will actually deliver the concept of the album is the physical media, as there is a cover and back cover and lyrics making all the connection with the concept of Poe’s work.

And in Brazil we had support from partner labels for this release in 300 copies, they were: Heavy Metal Rock, IHells Productions, Misanthropic Records, Terrorshop and Trevas Nascemos and without these partners we would hardly be able to release it on physical media

Q11. Poe blurred the line between reality and hallucination. Do you see metal as a similar space—where distortion reveals deeper truths?

Sergio Vieira: Metal for me today is very real and true and we realize that we have become much stronger in recent years and together with my bandmates we live this reality and I believe that it does not reach the point of metal being a hallucination, because as I said it is real and very strong and our feelings are well consolidated.

Q12. Brazil’s extreme metal scene is intense and diverse. Where do you see Almanon in this landscape—building a legacy or challenging the norm?

Sergio Vieira: In our city, Três Lagoas, the scene is very weak and here we are the ones who make the events happen, but in other regions of Brazil, invitations to play live have been arising and we are on this journey and we try to play in every corner of Brazil to spread our sound and we continue breaking barriers and we hope to soon play outside of Brazil as well.

Q13. Looking ahead, will Almanon continue to explore literary horror, or will the next chapter delve into even darker territory?

Sergio Vieira: As I usually say “The Machine doesn’t stop” hehe and we are already thinking about a future work that will be conceptual as well but exploring another theme, anyway the ideas are still in the beginning but it has already started and at the moment the focus is on promoting our Full Album Primitive Infernal which was recently released and we are going to enjoy it and later on we will start working on something new but without a date yet.

This closes the interview. The rite is complete, the voice of Sergio Vieira: now etched into the archive of sin.

Please read the review — Click Here.