I have been always wondering about this Heavy Metal cover art for a Samba record. Now I found out that exactly the same cover picture was used for the record Charge! by the UK Hard Prog Rock band Paladin from 1972 - really strange.Charge!

Strange indeed. At the time Brazilian music was all about mixing foreign influences with very traditional Brazilian rhythms and styles (the whole 'Tropicalia' and 'Anthropophagy' movements). The art was modified in the Brazilian version to depict a 'cangaceiro', which is a type of bandit-hero that used to roam the inlands of Brazil in the 1920s-1930s. I guess they decided to do with the cover art what they were doing with the music.

That's crazy that the art is nearly the same... I thought it was prog rock when I saw the cover too. Some of their songs have a kind of rock-friendly sound that reminds of Santana with swirling repetitive bass lines that draw you in. At times this album takes unexpected stylistic or rhythmic turns that share some similarity to prog rock. Musically, I don't think it's culled completely from a *single* tradition as far as I can tell but it sounds like it draws on traditional Brazillian instruments and concepts. Oh yeah! And that bass.... fantastic bass lines on this record!