Rotting also marked their first change of aliases: the group's core duo renamed themselves "Wagner Antichrist" and "Gerald Incubus". Session drummer "Joker" brought a different set of influences to the band (such as crossover thrash) Wagner also quickly learned to play guitar, and contributed many of the album's guitar riffs. Rotting musically differs from the raw, hyper-speed black metal of I.N.R.I.
The cover artist himself, Kelson Frost, refused to paint a crown of thorns over the man's head, which would readily identify him as the Christian messiah. When Rotting first came out it stirred a huge amount of controversy due to its cover art - a traditional grim reaper figure licking what appears to be Jesus Christ's face. The latter would play drums on Sextrash's debut, 1989's Sexual Carnage. Lamounier moved to Uberlândia to study economics at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), while Butcher and his brother D.D. After the release of I.N.R.I., Sarcófago briefly disbanded. Despite the record's now-legendary status, Lamounier was unsatisfied with the end results, voicing complaints over the quality of the recording sessions and the band being plagued by inner strife. The music has been equally influential, a milestone in the development of the genre. The band's attire on the album's cover -corpsepaint, leather jackets, and bullet belts- is considered the first definite statement of black metal's visual presentation and style. Crazy" -hailed as a pioneer in the metal world for his extensive use of blast beats on this album - Sarcófago released I.N.R.I in July 1987. The band's line-up at that point consisted of "Butcher" (guitars), "Antichrist" (Lamounier vocals), "Incubus" (Geraldo Minelli bass) and "Leprous" (Armando Sampaio drums). Their music and lyrics were considered shocking at the time, something which brought them a considerable amount of attention. Sarcófago contributed the three tracks "Recrucify", "The Black Vomit" and "Satanas". Sarcófago's vinyl debut was on the Cogumelo Produções split album Warfare Noise I, originally released in 1986. Although Sepultura never recorded anything with Lamounier, he contributed the lyrics to the song "Antichrist" on their Bestial Devastation EP. Wagner Lamounier, who parted acrimoniously from Sepultura in March of that same year, was invited to join the band. Equally indebted to Finnish hardcore punk and early extreme metal groups such as Bathory, Celtic Frost, and Slayer, Sarcófago's goal was to create the most aggressive music ever. Sarcófago ( Portuguese for 'sarcophagus' ) was formed in 1985 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. A reissue of their back catalogue is in the works, a joint effort between Cogumelo Records and American label Greyhaze. line-up were reuniting for a small, high-profile tour, but proved to be false. In 2009, rumors surfaced that the original I.N.R.I. Former members, minus Wagner, played throughout Brazil in 2006 under the moniker Tributo ao Sarcófago (Tribute to Sarcófago).
The band broke up in 2000, after releasing the Crust EP. Their second LP, The Laws of Scourge, was one of the first technical death metal records to be released. That record is also considered one of the " first wave" albums that helped shape the genre. The front cover of the band's debut album, I.N.R.I., is regarded as a great influence on black metal's corpse paint style make-up. They were fronted by Sepultura's original singer, Wagner Lamounier, and Geraldo Minelli. Sarcófago was a Brazilian extreme metal band formed in 1985.