Life is flesh on bone convulsing above the ground.
It’s time to spread absolute fuckin’ evil all over the world here at The Headbanging Moose, courtesy of our multi-talented metal lady of this month of March, and trust me, as soon as you know more about her, about her music and her art as a photographer, you’ll get addicted to everything surrounding her, musically and visually speaking. Owner of a fantastic voice, placing her among the best female growlers of the new generation, she’s the frontwoman for one of the rising forces of the metal scene in her homeland Portugal, inspiring us to raise our horns anytime she hits the stage with her incredible charisma, her looks, and of course her she-demon roars. Her name is Beatriz Mariano, the mastermind behind Portuguese Blackened Death Metal horde Okkultist and a fantastic freelance visual artist, and she’s ready to drink your blood and reap your soul to the sound of her devilish, furious creations. Having said all that, are you ready to face our demonic diva in this humble tribute to her music and her art?
Born on September 9, 1994 in the charming and always cozy Portuguese capital Lisbon, Beatriz has lived and breathed music since she was a little kid. “I’ve learned a few instruments, and I’ve always been into singing. There wasn’t really a time when I wanted to become a singer, because I never actually saw it as something I wanted to do full-time. I’ve always sung for fun! If this makes sense,” commented our talented growler in one of her interviews, complementing by saying what her family thought about it when she founded Okkultist. “When I told my family I was in a band they were accepting. They don’t understand the music though. When I first asked ‘do you wanna listen to it’ the first reaction I got was a fat ‘no’. But as long as I’m happy, they’re supportive.” In addition, her passion for the occult also started at a very early stage of her life. “I’ve been in love with the horror, occult and macabre aesthetic since a very early age. My favorite cartoon as a kid was ‘Courage, the Cowardly Dog’. I was hypnotized by the first horror movie I ever saw. I just fell in love. It just felt right. It was a calling.”
It was back in 2016 when Beatriz founded her infernal sonic cult Okkultist together with guitarist Leander Sandmeier (Toxic Room, Toxikull), making sure they were bringing into being something truly evil. “I remember us all sitting down and just saying ‘this shit has to sound evil. It had to bring people chills to their spine. Let’s make them hallucinate about Satan when our shit plays.’ We wanted a pit to hell to open up as soon as you started playing our album.” Currently formed of Beatriz and Leander alongside bassist David J. Rodrigues and drummer Eduardo Sinatra (Aramaic, Godiva, Heavenwood), Okkultist released their debut EP titled Eye of the Beholder, in 2017, followed by the full-length albums Reinventing Evil, in 2019, and more recently O.M.E.N., in 2023, all available for streaming on Spotify or on any other streaming platform. One interesting fact about their two full-length albums is that both were released under the label Alma Mater Records, whose founder and owner is the iconic Fernado Ribeiro of Moonspell. “It started when Fernando and I were discussing some visual ideas and then I presented him to this project I was involved in, and he immediately sounded interested in us, even though we only had a few demos out,” said Beatriz about her partnership with Fernando.
If there’s one thing that’s truly amazing about Okkultist is that Beatriz and the boys care about their visual work almost as much as they care about their music, turning their official videos into must-see pieces by anyone who loves the darkest side of music and arts from the bottom of their damned hearts. Hence, go check the band’s official YouTube channel for some insane videos the likes of Crimson Ecstasy, Death to Your Breed, Sign of the Reaper, Meet Me in Hell, I Am the Beast, Sacred Brutality, and I Spit on Your Grave, as well as their cover version for Children of Bodom’s hit Sixpounder (as the band’s own tribute to the memory of one of their idols, the unparalleled Alexi Laiho), and their full performance at Female Growlers United Front Fest back in 2018. Furthermore, you can also show your support to Okkultist by purchasing their music and merch form their Big Cartel page, or click HERE for all things Okkultist.
Apart from being a sensational vocalist and performer, as aforementioned Beatriz is also an extremely talented visual artist who loves to focus on the most obscure side of music and arts in her work in general. For instance, she was responsible for the photography of the 2014 demo Hellbreaker – Demo XXIV and of the 2014 full-length album Midnight Steel, both by Portuguese Heavy Metal squad Midnight Priest; for the design and layout of Okkultist’s 2023 album O.M.E.N.; and for the photography of the 2016 album Black Sheep, by Portuguese Heavy/Speed Metal band Toxikull; and you can take a look at her entire portfolio by visiting her official Facebook page or her Instagram, or click HERE to get access to all links related to our amazing artist. “Actually, photography is my main activity. And not the band. I am in complete control over the band’s visuals. It just made sense. I first started working with self-portraiture when I was 15. I’m 25 now. And when I first suggested it to the band they immediately accepted it, also because they enjoy my work. There wasn’t even a question. I just took over,” she commented in an interview four years ago, as she’s now 29, about her life as a photographer and as a musician at the same time, but in my humble opinion I believe today Okkultist became her main activity (or maybe she’s able to magically handle both, who knows).
Her life as a photographer definitely deserves a more detailed look due to everything that impacts her as an artist, her creative process and so on. “I’m constantly researching visuals. Anything! From movies to pictures, comics, illustrations, nature. Even sounds and textures. I’m especially attracted to the experimental field,” she said when asked about her inspirations as a photographer. Furthermore, she mentioned that she works with both pre-arranged shootings, when she already has an idea and concept in mind, and more spontaneous photography. “Usually when it comes to editing, I always end up picking the pictures where the model is not posing. Those are the most beautiful and appealing shots to me, and will certainly turn out to be the best and more impactful images.” Also, although she doesn’t think there must be a story behind each picture, she ended up admitting that almost everything that she does has a meaning, a story or a concept involved. Her opinion about having to study photography or not to be a successful photographer also goes in line with her passion for what’s more spontaneous. “To be really honest, the best way to learn is through experience. Schools, classes, or whatever, will never be able to teach you something that only you can go through. You will only get the full experience by doing it, and getting to it, and that’s the most fulfilling and complete way to learn! I’ve done that since I was a teen, and things like that can never be taught. Sure, studies can give you a hand in it, but no one will ever be able to ‘teach’ you something that only you can live and absorb pure and raw knowledge from! I’ve learnt that way, and with all the memories and living experiences it’s more than useful, it’s priceless!”
An admirer of both analogue and digital photography, which according to Beatriz herself is necessary to go through the full photographic experience, she used to work with a really nice gear containing a 7D, and a 50mm f/1.4 lens, which she used the most, plus of course Photoshop, but I’m sure right now she might have advanced to an even better gear and maybe an updated software. She’s always been passionate for photography, pictures and filming, but it was when she was in high school and one of her teachers, named Ana Paula Xavier, assigned a project using photography and Photoshop to her class that things changed, becoming an obsession for Beatriz, and she couldn’t let go off the cameras ever since, being highly inspired by French photographer and grand couturier Hedi Slimane, therefore helping her find her own artistic identity. And regarding her idols and influences in general, not only in photography, Beatriz considers herself a very weird person, quoting Beetlejuice to describe herself (“I myself am strange and unusual”). She loves everything around creativity, being able to express herself through something she can make with her own hands, and of course being a Heavy Metal fanatic with an unusual and bizarre taste. For instance, she’s a diehard fan of horror, mentioning Clive Barker, Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento as some of her inspirations, but of course she said she’s the type of person that enjoys building their own stuff.
As already mentioned a few times, Beatriz is an amazing vocalist, delivering sheer malignancy and evil through her harsh growls in the best Black and Death Metal style. She used to be a lot more active on her official YouTube channel and on Vimeo before going all-in with Okkultist, but you can still enjoy a lot of amazing videos, cover songs and so on featuring our Portuguese she-wolf. For example, you can enjoy her covers for Summer Wine, by Lee Hazlewood, Texas Sun, by Khruangbin and Leon Bridges, and Scavenger Of Human Sorrow, by Death, as well as countless videos about fashion, make up, music and so on, including an amazing one called Creepy Nun/Valak Inspired Halloween Make Up where she teaches how to make the perfect make up inspired by the mysterious nun character from The Conjuring universe.
Beatriz also mentioned once that she would love to travel the world with Okkultist and blast some “evil fucking music” everywhere, although she knows it’s really tough for any smaller band to tour financially speaking. “We are doing the best we can to tour. But as a small band that barely makes any profit, it makes it extremely difficult for us to finance big projects. But things are on the move!” I believe right now if you want to experience the fantastic music and performance by Okkultist you have to visit their homeland Portugal, which might not be a big country, but I’m sure you’ll get fascinated with its strong heavy music scene. “Portugal is really small, so you can imagine the size of our community, but we’re tight. I see a lot of support from bands to bands, from fans to bands, from everyone,” commented Beatriz, who truly loves her country for its beauty, proudly saying some of the most beautiful places in the world are in Portugal, while on the other hand she thinks the Portuguese music industry doesn’t have the slightest idea of how many great artists Portugal has, with those artists being crushed because the local industry will only give you your due value if you’re coming from another country. “I could go on and on and on about this, but I should probably shut up now. It’s sad, but it’s the truth.”
Last but definitely not least, our beloved diva of darkness is also a tattoo aficionada (or aficionado, as I never know if this term has male and female forms), and she loves to talk about all the amazing ink she has all over her body. “My favorite tattoo has to be the Pinhead portrait. Hellraiser is my favorite movie, Doug Bradley as Pinhead was my ultimate man crush as a teen. No joke. It was also done by my favorite tattoo artist Hollie Pryce Jones. She did it in a 12-hour sitting, with a one-hour break total. She’s a killer artist, and an amazing human being. Love that girl to death,” commented Beatriz about her all-time favorite ink, but life is not all roses and flowers when it comes to tattoos. She mentioned that any tattoos on her hands are the most painful without any doubt, and that her least favorite tattoo are the three coffin nails on her right wrist, albeit not due to the quality of it. “Don’t get me wrong, the tattoo is beautiful and done by an amazing talented artist called Bela Hilário, but the placement I picked is fucking dumb. Blocks the whole arm now that I’m trying to build a sleeve.” Having a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon prism on the back done by Pedro Santos, she said she’s certainly getting the Okkultist symbol tattooed somewhere in the future (if she hasn’t done so already); and that her list of favorite tattoo artists include Hollie Pryce Jones, Maksym Yakubchyk, Anrijs Straume, Felix Seele and Diogo Nunes. You should definitely check the work of those five amazing artists online, and who knows, maybe get inked with them just like Beatriz. Just be aware that it’s not going to look as good on you as on our screaming diva, of course.
Beatriz Mariano’s Official Facebook page
Beatriz Mariano’s Official Instagram
Beatriz Mariano’s Official YouTube channel
Beatriz Mariano’s Official X
Okkultist’s Official Facebook page
Okkultist’s Official Instagram
Okkultist’s Official YouTube channel
Okkultist’s Official X
“I’ve learned a few instruments, and I’ve always been into singing. There wasn’t really a time when I wanted to become a singer, because I never actually saw it as something I wanted to do full-time. I’ve always sung for fun!” – Beatriz Mariano
THE HEADBANGING MOOSE 