Frank Gasparotto

Sacrifix

Born as project of Frank Gasparotto (known for his playing on bands as ANTHARES, GOATLOVE, KAMBOJA, MASMORRA, SPIRITUAL HATE and others), the quartet SACRIFIX from São Paulo has gathered a strong legion of fans with their Old School Thrash Metal ways. And after the release of “Killing Machine”, the band’s latest album, the name became widely known in Brazil and even outside the country. And we had the opportunity to talk with Frank about the past, present and future of the band.

By "Metal Mark" Garcia

• April 30, 2024

Sacrificing and killing in Metal’s name - interview with SACRIFIX

interview at

Hi, Frank! I’d like to thank you for the interview. To begin with, a curiosity: you played on famous acts from Brazil, but now you’re focusing all your strength on SACRIFIX. Why did you choose to do things in this way? And how did the idea of the band come to you at first?

Frank Gasparotto: First of all, I would like to thank you for the support. Well, to be honest, SACRIFIX is one of things I’d always wanted to do. Thrash metal is my favorite metal genre and since ANTHARES I’ve been part of bands in other genres like Hard Rock, Black/Death Metal and even Hardore, in fact, with the pandemic, I finally had time to unshelve my old project to record a entire album by myself and it ended up with SACRIFIX.

SACRIFIX’s became a reality on 2019, just a year before the chaos of Covid-19 pandemic. But even in this way, the band released the first album (“World Decay 19” on 2021) and an EP (“The Limit of Thrash” on 2022). How was it to work with the pandemic restrictions?

Frank: ‘Funny’ thing, actually the pandemic helped me to focus on my project. I was in another band at that time and we were going nowhere, so I used my free time to gather all ideas, riffs and concepts about doing SACRIFIX, it worked perfectly well.

Still about “World Decay 19”: is the album’s name a reference to the Covid-19 pandemic? Please, explain to us your ideas about it.

Frank: It’s about all the chaos we were living at the time, of course Covid-19 was absolutely horrible, but there were other issues that happened at that time, a lot of wars around the world, poverty, hunger and unfortunately it became worse with the time, maybe 19 was the beginning of the end.

One more: you recorded everything on “World Decay 19”. At that point, you were considering SACRIFIX to be a side project or was the intention to be a full time band? And why did you choose to record a cover for ANGEL WITCH’s “Evil Game”?

Frank: I never wanted SACRIFIX to be a one man’s band, not at all, my intention was always to have other musicians playing with me. The first album was an old dream come true but, since then I’ve always wanted a band. I don’t believe the conception of one man’s band works fine with Thrash, I don’t believe in such a thing. ANGEL WITCH is one of my fav NWOBHM bands. I used to play this song when I was the drummer for INFAMOUS GLORY, it’s a catchy tune and Kexo and I had a great time playing this one, so, it’s a tribute to the past.

From “World Decay 19” to “Killing Machine”, evolution can be felt. Do you think it’s due to the presence of Kexo (bass) and Piza (drums), or due your own growth as a writer? And do you think things have improved from both albums? And why did both of them leave the band?

Frank: It was completely premeditated, I had to work a lot with the riffs and solos, and harmonies themselves, I always wanted to overcome what I did in “World Decay 19”, Kexo and Piza were great but they weren’t involved in writing process or even producing, it was all by myself again. To be true, Kexo and Piza were focused on their band, INFAMOUS GLORY, which is ok for me, no problem at all, we’re still great friends, I love these guys but, to go to the next step, I needed guys to be involved with the band, that’s why we had to split up.

Frank, you produced “Killing Machine”, but had Marco Nunes (of CHAOSFEAR) on the mixing and mastering at Tori Studios (SP). Why such a choice? And how was it to work with Marco?

Frank: I’ve been working with Marco for a long time, he’s a great friend of mine, and a great producer as well. Marco did a great job with “World Decay 19”, why not have him with us on “Killing Machine”? He’s a great guy and probably we’re gonna make another album together.

[qat]The artwork of “Killing Machine” is a fine piece created by Alcides Burn, from Burn Artworks, and seems to catch the spirit of the music. How did you get in touch with Alcides, and how did things evolve until the artwork was done?[/qst]

Frank: Alcides is an amazing artist, I really dig his work, he’s very professional and a great guy too. It was an easy choice, I got in touch with him DM and he replied very fast, in fact, about the art, I didn’t say anything about it to him, I just said the album will be called “Killing Machine”, and then he started to work, the art you see is the art he delivered, I had no influence at all.

“Killing Machine” was released in physical format by a set of many labels, but the question is simple: why so many labels, and not just one? And how can the fans get one copy of it?

Frank: Well, someday I went to Impaled Records here in São Paulo asking them to release my new album. Formigão, the shop/label owner, thought it was great, but he couldn’t afford it all, it is not so cheap to release an album, but on the other hand he managed to get in touch with other labels and all were great with us. I’m very grateful about it, they were killer. To get a copy, it’s easy! 🙂 Just get in touch with us on Instagram or Facebook, I always answer all the messages.

You released “Rotten” as a video for promotion of “Killing Machine”. Why was this song chosen, and how did the idea of using scenes of a live show on it come to you?

Frank: I thought “Rotten” was a good one to release because it is very aggressive, brutal Old School Thrash, it’s raw and its lyrics are about the horrors of war. I always wanted to have a video with live scenes, I think it’s great, I love videos like “Toxic Waltz”, “Wake Up Dead” and these kinds of things, it’s really energetic and has everything to do with Thrash Metal, the energy is alive!

And how things are working with “Killing Machine” by now? How is the reception by fans and press?

Frank: “Killing Machine” has been great so far, great feedback, from press and audience, I think we’ve made it! We haven’t had bad words about it so far, it’s for old school thrash metal fans, so, when you start to listen to the CD, you know exactly what will come.

As said above, after “Killing Machine”, the band had a full change on its lineup, and now, it became a quartet with the coming of Filippe Tonini (bass), Fábio Moysés (drums) and Diego Domingos (guitars). How did their names come to you? And why having a second guitarist in the band now? Are things working great with them in the band?

Frank: In fact, SACRIFIX never performed live as a trio. Diego has been with us since the first show. When I write a song I always think in two guitars and that’s the way I recorded, For me, Thrash Metal works better with two guitars. Filippe is an old friend, we lost contact for decades but he was there on our debut live act, it was crazy to talk to him after 20 years… LOL, he’s a very nice guy, actually he is a guitar player, but the bass spot was free, so I asked him to help us in a gig and he said ‘OK’, I just forgot to say it was not for one gig only, it was to be part of the band…LOL… Fábio is great too, a great human being and a killer drummer, he was CHAOSFEAR drummer, I listened to his work with the band and I thought it would be great to have him onboard, fortunately after several attempts he said ‘Yes, let’s do it !’.

[qat]And the live shows? Are there plans for shows in other states of Brazil, and even in the USA and Europe by now?[/qst]

Frank: Yes for sure, it will be great to perform live abroad, it will be a dream comes true, but, so far we have nothing going on, we’re playing here in São Paulo only. It would be great to perform in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Recife, etc, etc. I know all these states have a great scene going on so, I hope in the future we can make it.

Well, that’s it. Once again, I thank you, Frank, and please leave your message to the readers of Metal Temple and your fans.

Frank: Thank you so much again for the amazing support, really cool! I invite you all to listen to our music on streaming platforms and if you like it, get a physical copy with us. If you like old school thrash metal there’s simply NO WAY you don’t dig SACRIFIX!

You can find us on: (instagram/facebook/youtube): @sacrifixofficial.

Thank you my friends and LET’S THRASH!!!