By "Metal" Tim Henderson

On February 7th, 1964, THE BEATLES arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, greeted by scores of screaming, swooning fans who rushed the gate to catch a glimpse of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they took their first steps on US soil. Two nights later, on Sunday, February 9, 74 million viewers in the US and millions more in Canada tuned in to CBS to watch The Beatles make their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. In this cultural watershed moment in American history and one of the world’s top-viewed television events of all time, The Beatles performed five songs on the live broadcast. Beatlemania, already in full, feverish bloom in The Beatles’ native UK, was unleashed with blissful fervor across America and around the world. The British Invasion had begun.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of these history-making events, BraveWords spoke to self-confessed Beatles fanatic and SEPULTURA legend Andreas Kisser about his love for the Fab Four. Sure, it's a far cry from "walking these dirty streets with hate in my mind," but the revered guitarist has actually jammed many times with massive Brazilian Beatles tribute act CLUBE BIG BEATLES.

Without question The Beatles have deep roots in rock n' roll and as your musical tastes widen with age, the band's material starts to make more sense - especially the late '60's era - in terms of the craft of song-writing and arranging, along with landmark production tactics with George Martin.

It's hard to convince a metalhead that the Beatles are much, much deeper than 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'She Loves You'.

"Like you said, I was very radical in the beginning, listening only to metal and stuff," Kisser begins. "The Beatles and THE ROLLING STONES were just a little too far out there for me. But my mom had the old Beatles albums, BEE GEES and lots of samba music, and my father used to listen to a lot of country and Brazilian music and stuff. When I was very young I listen to Help (1965) a lot, and that's the album that I know the most, because it was easiest to play. It was also easy to sing, so was very sticky. But then I started to listen to the Beatles more, and respect them. Now I have everything in my iPod, and that's a privilege with my age to see everything that they've released afterwords, all the rare stuff and demos. The Anthologies are amazing. You see the development of the music and how great they were. And how fast and how beautiful they thought about things. The Beatles are everything and they did everything. Like 'Helter Skelter' from 1968 is one of the first heavy-metal riffs ever made at least in my opinion. I do love the MÖTLEY CRÜE version though. But to go to Liverpool with this Brazilian band, and to play such us historical place where John Lennon used to study, where Ringo Starr played for the first time with them. So the guys from Clube Big Beatles suggested my name for the wall of fame there and somehow they accepted it. The owner of The Cavern Club didn't even know what Sepultura was. He started asking people in his circle about us and they thought he was crazy that he didn't know about us. So was great to get recognized for all the stuff that I've done with Sepultura and everything else, because in Brazil I play and jam with many different people, from country music to blues to pop rock to classical. It's that diversity that The Beatles had is what I try to do. It's such an honour because I'm the first Brazilian to have his name on The Cavern Club wall. It's something that you would never dream, it's so unbelievable. But there's such a vibe at The Cavern Club. I've played on so many different stages around the world but at that small little venue I was actually nervous."

What is a Beatles song that just lights you up?

"The White Album (1968) I think is insane, the way they approached it. They didn't tour anymore during those days, so they were free to do anything. The George Harrison stuff is great - 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and 'Something' - they are so simple, but so beautiful. You just listen to those notes, and you think that they are simple but no and you question; is he a virtuoso? Yes he is a virtuoso. He can put the right note at the right place."

And it's sad that he's overshadowed by JOHN LENNON and PAUL MCCARTNEY. And he was called "The Quiet Beatle" for a reason. But when he died the entire world mourned his loss.

"Well it's pretty hard to compete with Lennon and McCartney," Kisser closes. "I love the Paul McCartney solo stuff as well, especially Band On The Run (1973), which I think is an amazing album."

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of globe-sweeping Beatlemania, The U.S. Albums, a new 13CD Beatles collection spanning 1964’s Meet The Beatles! to 1970’s Hey Jude, will be released January 21 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/Universal Music Canada. The Beatles’ US albums differed from the band’s U.K. albums in a variety of ways, including different tracklists, song mixes, album titles, and art.

For more details visit Thebeatles.com.