Rio de Janeiro is Brazil’s second-largest city, with around 6.7 million people, set between the Atlantic Ocean, Guanabara Bay and steep forested mountains. Founded by the Portuguese in 1565, it became the capital of colonial Brazil in 1763 and later the centre of the Portuguese Empire when the royal court moved here in 1808. Rio remained Brazil’s capital until Brasília took over in 1960. Its dramatic setting has produced some of the country’s most recognisable landmarks, including Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado, Sugarloaf Mountain, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, the Maracanã stadium and Tijuca National Park. Rio also occupies an important place in Brazilian rock and metal history. Dorsal Atlântica, one of the country’s pioneering heavy and thrash metal bands, emerged here in the early 1980s, while the first Rock in Rio was held in the city in 1985, bringing major international rock and metal acts to Brazil on an unprecedented scale.

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