Rodrigo Arjonas

Rodrigo Arjonas — guitarist and co-founder of Symbols — is one of the authors of the repertoire of the band that revealed Edu Falaschi to Brazilian metal. Symbols formed in São Paulo in 1997 and recorded Symbols (1998) and Call to the End (2000) with the line-up in which Arjonas shared the guitars. It was melodic metal with a progressive streak, sung in English — a deliberate choice by people aiming at the international circuit, in the wake of what Angra and Sepultura had shown to be possible from Brazil. Falaschi's departure to Angra in 2001 changed the group's fate; it carried on with a new line-up and still made Faces (2004). Arjonas also took part in the classic line-up's 2012 reunion. Some bands' importance is measured less by commercial reach than by the people they produced: Symbols is one of them, and Arjonas stands at its origin.