São Paulo, BR · rock · alt-rock · hard-rock

Ego Kill Talent

1 upcoming festival →

Brazilian alt-rock with a rotating-instrument gimmick that turns out to be a real band underneath — everyone plays everything, arena-sized either way.

Ego Kill Talent formed in São Paulo in December 2014, founded by Jean Dolabella and Theo van der Loo with musicians drawn from other Brazilian rock and metal bands, including Sepultura, Udora, Reação em Cadeia and Sayowa. The name is a shortened version of the saying that too much ego will kill your talent.

Early EPs Sublimated (2015) and Still Here (2016) preceded a self-titled debut album in 2017, which became the band's breakthrough release and saw them named among Google's twenty breakthrough acts of that year. A further EP, My Own Deceiver, followed the same year.

The band toured Europe in 2017, playing Download Festival in Paris and their own headline show at the Melkweg in Amsterdam before supporting System of a Down in France, then returned home to play Rock in Rio. In 2018 they supported the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age in Brazil, and later opened for Shinedown and Within Temptation on European dates.

The group is known for a live approach in which members swap instruments between and within songs, so the same players move between guitar, bass and drums across a set. They sing largely in English and have toured internationally, working with producers from outside Brazil on their studio releases.

Their second album, The Dance Between Extremes, was recorded at the Foo Fighters' 606 Studios and released in 2021, with guest appearances from John Dolmayan of System of a Down, Roy Mayorga of Stone Sour and skateboarder Bob Burnquist. In 2022 original singer Jonathan Correa left the band and Emmily Barreto joined as vocalist; the following year they opened for Evanescence.

Read more

rockalt-rockhard-rock