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.

[4] Equally indebted to Finnish hardcore punk and early extreme metal groups such as Bathory, Celtic Frost, and Slayer,[5] Sarcófago's goal was to create the most aggressive music ever.

[10] The band's line-up at that point consisted of "Butcher" (guitars), "Antichrist" (Lamounier; vocals), "Incubus" (Geraldo Minelli; bass) and "Leprous" (Armando Sampaio; drums).

[4] 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.

[8] 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.

[8] Sarcófago's new direction in music was partly influenced by new members Fábio "Jhasko" (guitar) and Lúcio Olliver (drums),[21] and inspired by a newer crop of extreme metal bands such as Godflesh, Paradise Lost, Bolt Thrower, Deicide, and Morbid Angel.

[21] Their tour trek also included their first international dates: they visited South American countries such as Peru and Chile, and in Europe they played shows in Portugal and Spain.

[23] Lamounier claimed to have no qualms about using this device, on the basis that most death metal drummers use trigger pads for recording purposes, which in the end produces the same homogenized sound as that of a drum machine.

[26]In late 1995, Sarcófago released the Decade of Decay compilation which, amongst other things, featured demo versions of their early songs and rare backstage photographs.

[27] Sarcófago's fourth and final album, The Worst (1996), sees the band slowing down in relation to the speed-oriented Hate, and having a better grasp of drum programming.

[8] In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Warfare Noise split album, Cogumelo Records and Gerald Incubus organized a comeback show with Sarcófago in Belo Horizonte.

[13] In October 2007,[28] Sarcófago flew to Santiago, Chile to play in the Black Shadows Festival,[13] alongside death metal pioneers Possessed.

[28] In March 2009, Wagner supposedly announced that Sarcófago would reunite, and their tour itinerary would include appearances at the Wacken Open Air and Hole in the Sky festivals, as well as dates in London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo.

[31] Their next album, The Laws of Scourge, continued their new-found focus on more "reality-based" themes,[22] with lyrics generally covering such death-related topics as suicide and homicide.

[6] The band had trouble again with American censors, with the lyrics of the re-recorded version of "The Black Vomit" being forcibly omitted from the CD booklet as well as the entire "Prelude to Suicide" track.

[15] Fenriz, drummer of Darkthrone, included a Sarcófago track ("Satanic Lust") in his The Best of Old-School Black Metal compilation, released by Peaceville Records.

[33] Euronymous, the deceased guitarist of Mayhem and erstwhile leader of the so-called "Inner Circle", traded correspondence with Lamounier in the early days of Norway's scene.

[27] In the Lords of Chaos book, Metalion (Slayer fanzine, ex-Head Not Found) stated that Euronymous was "obsessed with them because wore lots of spikes and corpsepaint.

Beherit founder Nuclear Holocausto said Sarcófago was one of "the greatest influences" for the band;[38] Mika Luttinen from Impaled Nazarene said that "nothing tops Slayer's Reign in Blood or Sarcofago's I.N.R.I., you know".

[8][4][43][13][7][17][44] Although former Sepultura drummer Igor Cavalera eventually dismissed the entire affair as "child's play",[45] the music press fuelled their bitter rivalry for many years.

[47] Lamounier declared he was not surprised that things turned out the way they did as, in his words, "with what I knew of them, I think it's quite normal that one brother should betray another in that family, they don't measure the consequences to get what they want.

[22] Tensions flared up once again five years later when Sarcófago, instead of Ratos de Porão, were picked up to be the opening band of Dirty Rotten Imbeciles' first Brazilian shows.