Precursors of Industrial music in our country, Bizarra Locomotiva are today the main reference of the genre in the Portuguese music scene.
Its history dates back to 1993, when Rui Sidónio (voice) and Armando Teixeira (voice and machinery) formed a band with a view to participating in the Modern Music Competition of the Lisbon City Council, an important event, nationwide, which had already revealed great talents.
This would also be the case with Bizarra Locomotiva who, winning the contest, saw the doors open and participated in the renowned French festival Printemps de Bourges, in 1994. The year 1994 proved to be fruitful in terms of releases: April was the month chosen for the album eponymous debut, followed in November by First Crime, Then Live. The disc was organized in two parts, one recorded in the studio and sung in English, and the other recorded live in France and vocalized in Portuguese.
Miguel Fonseca (guitar – Thormenthor, Mofo, Plastica) will, meanwhile, reinforce the line-up, contributing decisively to the collective’s growth.
After participating in the 7th Biennial of Young Creators of Mediterranean Europe, Bizarra Locomotiva embark on a successful national tour. The maximum exponent in terms of live shows, however, was reached in August 1997, when they performed at the Sudoeste Festival, as part of the promotion of the Fear Now EP, along with bands such as Marilyn Manson and Blur.
Bestiário, from 1998, constitutes the group’s paradigm-album. Based on the concept “O Homem Besta e a Beast Homem” – through which they recreate mythological figures that metaphorically portrays Man, the album shows a broader musical scope, welcoming new environments and sounds. The aesthetic aspect assumes, likewise, added importance: the lyrical and musical concept transposed to the stage, in which Rui Sidónio emerges from the interior of a “cocoon”, at the opening of the shows, symbolizing the birth of the Beast.
In 2002, they returned with Homem Maquina, a new conceptual CD that, in a way, continued the previous one. Humanity is once again the object of fierce criticism, because, although it created machines, it blames them for all the evils on the face of the Earth. The boundary between man and machine is blurred. The machine is humanized, Man is machined. Alongside the album, a new aesthetic concept and elaborate show, this time wearing the band costumes that symbolize the Machine Man. Rui Berton joins the bizarro collective on drums.
With the year 2004 coming to an end, Bizarra Locomotiva enters another season, in a return to more raw sounds that had been intentionally neglected in the previous record, resuming the pure race of industrial Rock. At this new railway stop, the screams returned almost omnipresence.
“Ódio” the 1st work recorded by the current formation, which had already been on stage promoting the previous “machine man” and where the role of main musical composer and producer passes to the hands of Miguel Fonseca and the lyrics to the subconscious of Rui Sidónio in an explosive result and made to collapse the stages when the Locomotiva passed, sharing them with bands like the Young Gods.
With 20 years of existence, this project has had an enviable career on the national scene with 9 albums released and with a platinum award when participating in the tribute to Xutos e Pontapés with the theme “Se me amas”.
The band’s performance at the Super Bock Super Rock 2006 festival, alongside Korn and Soulfly, was the crowning achievement, leaving everyone awestruck with the power of Bizarra Locomotiva, confirming it to be the highest exponent of industrial music in Portugal and making an impact for a life always who sees his shows.
Leading the locomotive is Rui Sidónio – one of the most charismatic Portuguese screamers ever to whom no one is indifferent when seeing his contagious performances on stage.
2009 to 2014 were marked by the darkest album ever in the history of Portuguese Rock.
Critically acclaimed, album of the year on several shelves, with a preface by the internationally renowned writer José Luís Peixoto, the new “Album Negro” is the darkest, heaviest and densest work of the band’s already long career with a very special guest – Fernando Ribeiro dos Moonspell, a longtime frequent passenger of this Bizarre Locomotive.
”Mortuário” is the title of the new album by Bizarra Locomotiva for 2015.
A conceptual record that goes down in music history as the world’s first ever industrial opera. With this main concept, “Mortuary” in particular transposes the theatrical essence of the band’s live productions to a studio album. Samples from the audience itself were even used in the composition of the new themes.
Lyrically, the poems are inspired by the state of the nation, global depression, religious manipulation, and how this new world order affects us all by pushing us into a massive state of mind of pre-apocalyptic death-sleeping.
Mastered by Thomas Eberger (Rammstein/Amon Amarth…) at Stockholm Mastering Studios, “Mortuary” contains 14 songs of pure Industrial Rock, in which the band manages the impossible task of composing an even darker, denser and heavier work. than the previous “Black Album”.
“Mortuary” includes a bizarre version of Peter Gabriel’s classic – “Intruder” – a primordial reference of industrial music and one of the clear influences of the band.
More powerful than ever, the Bizarra Locomotive continues on its journey; transporting the stories of the passengers who traveled, travel and will travel on it.
