While Sepultura took Brazilian metal international, Ratos De Porão (Cellar Rats) were at the fore of a thriving hardcore street punk scene in the early '80s. After releasing three well-received albums in Brazil, the band signed to Roadrunner Records and released BRASIL. The album, which included lyrics in English as well as Portuguese, found the band branching further into thrash metal and pushed them to a new level of fame. They moved to the long-running American punk label Alternative Tentacles in the late '90s and unleashed CARNICERIA TROPICAL, a ferocious return to the band’s hardcore roots. By the dawn of the new millennium, Ratos De Porão had become a Brazilian musical institution despite remaining a largely underground phenomenon in the U.S. and elsewhere.