Archive for January, 2024

César Gonzáles Salaverry (Mauser): A Solid, Creative Machine

Mainstream metal with great vocals has become a bit of a rarity these days. And yet, that is exactly what Mauser is offering. All the excellent songwriting, strong riffs and well-written vocal melodies and harmonies an album in that style needs are present on their studio albums ‘Mauser’ (2014) and ‘Más Fuerte que la Muerte’ (2019). Guitarist César Gonzáles Salaverry tells us about his journey with and without Mauser.

“Mauser is a band in which I developed a very interesting mix of rock styles”, Gonzáles explains. “Mauser’s songs have made me develop myself further, as a musician, a producer, and even as a vocal coach. I learned from every step of the process. And it also helped me emotionally overcome many things in life. Because I composed the first album alone, it was like a catharsis. Mauser is like a friend to whom I tell everything when I talk to him.

In the beginning, while I was creating the style of the band, I composed everything for Mauser. Now I share that role with my brother Luis, who is the other guitarist in Mauser. He is a genius. It was just something that needed to happen after we released the first album. The fact that he is my blood brother makes him special. Both of us create the songs in Mauser now. That goes for the rhythmic base of the songs, the melodies and the arrangements.

Then Alex (Rojas, singer) makes the songs his own, giving a personality to the band with his voice. Then our drummer Hans (Menacho) and our bassist Jorge (Manzanares) do their thing, contributing their personality both in the studio and live. That way, we have become a solid and creative machine.”

Panoramic Vision

Gonzáles is a true multi-talent. Apart from being the guitarist and songwriter for Mauser, he also is an accomplished singer and drummer. “The drums were my first instrument”, he explains. “I played with many bands in my country, from classic rock and blues with Uchpa to power metal bands like Icarus. I was even a drummer for former Judas Priest singer Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens when he played here in Peru. That was a great  experience. Being able to play various instruments gives me another concept when composing or producing music. It’s like having a panoramic vision that makes my processes while working on music more comprehensive.

When Mauser had just started out, I was singing and playing guitar at the same time. I also did a tribute to Pantera where I sang a full concert of all their biggest hits. But at the same time, I have a voice that can be applied to ballads. So that allows me to sing various types of songs, different compositions of mine that aren’t necessarily rock. I can do voices in advertising and do choirs on TV or in the theater for different artists.

All of that has lead me to my work as a vocal coach, which is a job I love. As a singer, my first impulse was to sing my songs better. That lead me to study, learn and experiment with various vocal techniques. Thanks to that, I have become able to do things that were once a challenge to me.

The guitar has become my main instrument. Many years ago, when I was only a drummer, there came a time when I didn’t know what else I could do. Because I always sang a little and played a bit of basic guitar, I think there was a need for me to express myself, compose a song, find the harmonies, sing it… That’s when I saw the light. The guitar is a creative tool of expression for me.”

Complicated Schedules

His work as a vocal coach doesn’t just limit itself to a handful of private students. He has worked with theater and television productions, such as La Voz Perú, the Peruvian version of The Voice. “Apart from playing in bands, I have several jobs”, he nods. “I am a vocal coach for TV shows, for theater productions, and for recording sessions. But I also teach in person and do online classes to the general public. Apart from that, I do musical productions and work as a session musician and singer. That makes my schedules very complicated.

My main job is being a vocal coach. I have had the honor of working with many well-known artists in my country: actresses, actors, professional singers, hosts of television shows, participants in reality television singing shows, and the general public. I can say that I have worked on all television programs that have anything to do with singing well.

Working on television is something that was going to happen sooner or later. I have a good method and a lot of experience teaching singing. For a while, I ran a small singing school that was open to the general public under the name Vocal Studio. After the pandemic, I decided to work under my personal name, teaching classes online and in person.”

Gonzáles has also produced other artists. “I always try to do what is best from my point of view”, he says. “Everything in music is very subjective anyway. I try to give life, flesh, blood and intensity to the music to the best of my ability. At the same time, being honest with the artist and trying to make it work musically is important. I always see myself as another member of any project on which I have to work.”

Different Weapons

Mauser isn’t even Gonzáles only band. He has been a member of Dead Groove with former Mauser drummer Fred Aching and his American partner Holly West, and released the first single of his solo project CAGS – his initials – in 2001. “When I compose music for Dead Groove, the overall style is more of a classic rock vibe”, he explains. “Classic rock is the basis of everything I do. It makes everything I do have life and intensity; I try to make music that feels alive.

In Mauser, we have the same concept, only it is enhanced with other styles. Mauser makes a crazy mix of hard rock, alternative rock and metal. Both projects are fairly easy to separate. They are both within me, but they are very different weapons.

In Dead Groove, we start with a riff that I develop into a structure, then Fred does his thing. Then the two of us make the arrangements together, so Holly can write the lyrics and the vocal melodies, with some suggestions from Fred and myself. We have a very good creative chemistry and an efficient dynamic. The three of us know what we want and what where we are going musically.”

International Leap

“We are on the right track musically with Dead Groove. We’ve had good responses and great comments. That gives me faith that we are doing things well. There is a lot to work on and to accomplish. But in fact, I think there are bans in my country that are on a very good level. There is a lot of international talent in Peru.

Living off music is very difficult in my country. When it comes to rock music, there is only a small, very limited circuit anyway. We all try to give it the best we can. It can be a bit difficult to keep musical projects alive. And due to work issues, it can also be difficult to give all the strength you want to give to any musical project. Because of the virtual possibilities, we have been able to get very good reviews from various Latin American countries. But we have not yet been able to make the full international leap yet.

Whatever it is, making music will make me feel good, no matter what happens. I think that if at some point Mauser will ever end, I would continue making music like this for sports or as a therapy. It really goes beyond just making music for me.”

2024
01/31
CATEGORY
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Peruvian Metal Month
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Kranium: A Shared Madness

While there are quite a few bands combining various types of metal with traditional Andean music these days, Kranium was one of the first bands in Peru – if not the very first – to experiment with this mix of styles. Coming from an extreme metal background, Kranium evolved into a powerful mix of doom metal, Andean folk music and touches of classic rock. Founding guitarist Eloy Arturo and longtime member Mito Espíritu (guitar, charango, wind instruments) tell us about the journey.

“I think that at this point in Kranium’s history, we have created our own stamp within the world of folk metal”, Espíritu nods. “Our inspiration comes from the education and heritage we inherited from our elders – our grandparents, parents and siblings – and from the interest in and acceptance of the cultural origins of each of the band members. We have many references to different kinds of music, such as blues, rock, heavy metal, folk and many other styles, but another source of inspiration is the various Latin American bands of the seventies and eighties.

The list is endless, but I will name them so you can discover more of the works that formed our roots: El Polen, Pax, Tarkus, Del Pueblo Del Barrio… Hard rock and Andean fusion bands, which are the main sources of inspiration for our music. Also, our country of Peru and its varied culture of its indigenous people and mestizos are a large source of inspiration.”

Unique Style of Folk Metal

“Through the years, Kranium has always had a special sound”, Espíritu continues. “But in my opinion, we found our own unique style of folk metal around the recording of our EP ‘Dos Sonrisas, Una Lágrima’ in 1996. It contains only two songs of ten minutes each – ‘El Obraje’ and the title track – but it is where we started including Andean instruments, such as the quena, the zampoña or siku, the charango and other elements of Peruvian and Latin American music, on top of the social and historical-cultural themes of our lyrics. We later consolidated that on our album ‘Testimonios’ from 1999.

Adding those influences with in a metal context honestly is not that difficult for us. As I’ve said before, we have that training, education, feeling and knowledge regarding our Andean, Peruvian and Latin American music, and its instruments. Eloy is the composer of the songs, but all the other members participating is very important for what the songs eventually become. I can tell you that we love what we do. Our music is a madness shared by everyone in the band.”

Several members of Kranium are multi-instrumentalists, which makes the process of performing the arrangements live somewhat less difficult. “That’s all relative”, Espíritu states. “We are an underground band of six members that can perform in different spaces and on different stages. Some are small and others are bigger. Some places have better equipment or sound than the others, though things have improved in terms of logistics compared to when we started playing.

Nowadays, we inform ourselves in advance about the equipment and the technical possibilities in advance, so we can perform our music in the best possible way. Sometimes things have gone well and other times, not so much. But we try to take care of all of those technical details.”

Colonial Legacy

It’s not just Kranium’s music that refers to Andean traditions; the musical direction is reflected in the lyrics of the band. “Although most of us were born in Lima, our parents and ancestors came from various regions, such as the coast, the Andes and the Amazon”, Espíritu explains. “We have been raised with the traditions and existing folklore of each of these regions. Therefore, our lyrical inspiration comes naturally: narrating stories and mythology from various places and times, together with the history that we were taught through different sources, and that we have been able to learn through the course of our lives.

For example, on the album ‘Testimonios’, the inspiration came from the Andean region and all the developments that existed there before and until the start of the Tahuantinsuyo empire. For the album ‘Uma Tullu’ (2020), the lyrics are about the resistance to the colonialist invasion, as well as the legends and history of the Viceroyal era. Not making a statement about how traumatic this was for our ancestors, but rather as a personal point of view and what is left today of that disastrous colonial legacy.”

Those lyrics are written both in Spanish and the indigenous Quechua. “We use those two languages that identify us as ancestral and mestizo”, says Espíritu. “And they are the languages most spoken in our country. Whether a part will be in Spanish or Quechua can come from any of the members, but the decision is everyone’s, according to what the melody of the song can generate for us and what we can feel at that moment.”

Grown Up

Back when Kranium started experimenting with traditional elements in the mid-nineties, there weren’t many metal bands doing that. “At least in South America in those years we were among the first”, Espíritu confirms. “I can tell you that the immediate reaction when we premiered our first song in that style, ‘El Obraje’, at a concert in 1994 was not entirely good. It seems to me that, like all innovative or avant-garde art, what we were trying to do was not entirely understood at the time.

So there was that on the one hand, to which we could add the strange complex of the inhabitants of our region despising the culture of our ancestral legacy, whether in music, language or customs – in other words: despising our folklore. All of this due to that disastrous, traumatic invasion and colonialism that affected the original population of our territory.

At that time, even when our EP ‘Dos Sonrisas, Una Lágrima’ came out 1996, and then our album ‘Testimonios’ in 1999, our music not understood by the majority of the people in our local scene. However, it was understood among the people who cultivated the cultural avant-garde and rescued our ancestral heritage. Unfortunately, those were not the people in the metal scene. That was the case in the mid-nineties and it was like that for a long time.

Fortunately, many people from that time have grown up, and younger people have many tools at their disposal to listen to music and educate themselves with the musical ideas of our ancestors. Although we will never appeal to the masses, we have loyal followers, and not just within metal. It seems like our ideas have transcended from the local scene to the world.”

Laboratory

Various Kranium members are in multiple bands and projects. Both Arturo and Espíritu play in the retro-styled doom band Titania, for instance. “Our musical tastes are very diverse”, Arturo states. “In the time we can dedicate to cultivating our art, we embark on different paths and sonic adventures. But in my case, when composing the music for each of my bands, I stick to the heaviness of each composition.

Although bands like Kranium or Titania travel in heavy doom metal territory, with a lot of seventies Sabbath influences, each group has its diversity and instrumentation within its own style. This also demands feedback, where I am influenced by the music previously made with each of the bands.”

“Eloy is the one who composes the songs”, Espíritu explains the process in Kranium. “He shows us a progression to which he adds a general idea of the various atmospheres and instruments that can be created apart from the guitar, the bass and the rhythms. After rehearsals, both as a band and each member individually, we take our songs to the recording studio.

That is the moment we enter the ‘laboratory’ in which each member adds his own knowledge and experience. For example, during the production process of ‘Uma Tullu’, all the work was carried out by our vocalist and keyboard player Khriss (Meléndez). He managed to create all of the album in his home studio, from the beginning of the recordings to the mixing and mastering stages of the production. We all agreed that he created one of the best works in our national metal scene.

Some songs from ‘Uma Tullu’, like ‘El Vago del Cementerio’, date back to the time of ‘Testimonios’; the late nineties. We even played it during concerts at the time. Not many changes have been made to the original songs. The compositions that were left in the pipeline are ready to be worked on today. Since Kranium has a unique style, they will not sound out of date. On the contrary.”

Advancing and Learning

The fact that Kranium’s music contains a lot of heavy, doomy riffs is not that surprising when you consider Arturo’s musical preferences. “I have always felt attracted to the music of the old Black Sabbath, which is the greatest inspiration for me”, the guitarist and main songwriter says. “I consider Tony Iommi a genius, because I am a fan of heavy, dark, melancholic, progressive and atmospheric music. I like to play the blues of Jimi Hendrix and BB King, the rock ‘n’ roll of Chuck Berry, and other guitarists that I consider guitar heroes in folk rock, hard rock, and all metal styles of the eighties and part of the nineties.

Also, like the rest of the band, I appreciate our national music from its three distinct regions: the coast, the Andes and the Amazon. I also like Latin American music in its various fusions. Mentioning each of the bands would be very extensive, but as a general overview, those would be my sources of inspiration for creating music in my different bands. Over the years, not much has changed concerning my sources of inspiration, but my musical background definitely has expanded.

When I started making music, everything was very precarious. Honestly, it was very difficult to make music in the beginning. The little support we received, together with the deficiencies in logistics due to the situation that our country went through, prevented young people from advancing musically.

Nowadays, everything is more accessible and affordable. Although there is still no support from the media, there are many ways to do our jobs individually and in groups. As a musician, I work on my compositions in a much calmer and more orderly way these days. I will continue advancing and learning as long as my body can take it.”

Artisanal

“In the mid-eighties and early nineties, our country experienced an acute social, political and economic crisis”, Arturo continues. “There were shortages of almost everything. Our currency was devaluating rapidly, and the country was ravaged by internal conflicts, so we had to suffer many shortcomings.

Within that social climate, with the logistics there were to be able to make and record music, there were a few bands that managed to record in a studio with a decent sound. Though honestly, the works of that time were very artisanal. And when it comes to places to play: there were very few. And the ones that were there basically banned dark music like metal. Even today, places to play are still scarce.

Metal in Peru is a genre that is not supported by the media or the music industry in general. It remains underground; it is not a massive genre that generates money to live off. The biggest difference between then and now is in the logistics, the equipment and the instrumentation that exists today to make music, capture it and edit it in any format. I think that if you compose music of any genre and don’t record it, that is wrong. If you are a composer, you must leave a legacy. For your own enjoyment and the appreciation of future generations.

I think our metal scene is not bad. But what we need is the support of the public, and there are not many concert halls either. In my opinion, these are the main points that need to be changed. I can’t really tell you much about the Peruvian music industry, because we are not really part of it. There is no support for metal from the media or the government. I consider metal a part of our culture, and not only of our country, and the government should somehow encourage it, but it doesn’t. I hope this will change one day.”

Interest

What is interesting is that Kranium is one of the few Peruvian metal bands with a number of international releases, despite – or maybe because of – their traditional South American leanings. ‘Testimonios’ was released internationally by the Swedish label Plasmatica Records, while two labels helped distribute ‘Uma Tullu’ internationally.

“The reaction has been better than we expected, thanks to contacts and friends we made along the way”, Espíritu says. “Our album ‘Uma Tullu’ was released twice here in Peru by the Gestores Culturales label, and outside the country by American Line Productions in Mexico and Earth and Sky Productions in Italy.

We are even considering reissue offers in neighboring countries or anywhere else where people may be interested. At the moment, we are working on what will be a double vinyl edition with bonus tracks. We are more than satisfied with the interest people have shown in ‘Uma Tullu’.”

Special thanks to Adrián Del Aguila for his help setting up this interview!

2024
01/30
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Ingrid Castro: Never Stop Learning Something New

In a way, the voice of Ingrid Castro was the catalyst for Peruvian Metal Month. Her powerful, emotional performances on Hamadría’s ‘Sesión de Estudio’ set the whole project in motion. Shortly after her departure from that band, we talked with her about her background as a singer and what her musical plans for the future are.

“I have kept various ideas and rehearsals in a suitcase that I have not been able to develop further because I did not have the time for it”, Castro states. “Maybe it is time to let those see the light of day. But if I do, I will have to carefully select the group of people I will collaborate with. I now feel that working solo or with a team of people requires time to select the right people, because that will directly impact whether or not things will go well. Being aligned with people in terms of morals and principles has become very important to me.

On the other hand, several offers have been made to me. However, I would like to take the time to make the right decisions and do things the right way. But one thing is for sure: I will continue teaching singing and following this musical path. So I hope to be able to give you some news about a specific new project someday soon.”

Interpretations

Most recordings that are available with Castro’s voice feature her singing other people’s vocal melodies and lyrics. Singing those convincingly requires specific skills. “Fortunately, that is not too complicated for me”, she says. “However, I do have to work on the songs to be able to give them my own spin vocally. When I’m rehearsing them, I try different interpretations of the songs. Sometimes I make test recordings, so I can adhere to the interpretation that feels most comfortable to me and that fits what the song in its totality needs to convey.

It is very important to understand the message of a song in order to be able to interpret it in the best way possible. When I sing a song, I try to relate the lyrics to personal experiences I have had. It actually is similar to what actors do when they immerse themselves in a role. Through the years, I have implemented a couple of theater workshops in my musical education, and that has really helped me find better interpretations for the songs I sing.”

Those songs are primarily in Spanish, but Castro does have experience singing in English. “I definitely feel more comfortable singing in Spanish, because it is my native language”, she admits. “But I do like singing in English. It’s a great way of improving my pronunciation. I’m still studying on my English and a little bit of French, but I feel encouraged trying to sing in other languages, simply because it is a challenge for me.”

Connection with Metal

“People have told me I started singing when I was about two or three years old. Of course, I was not aware of it, as it all started in a playful way. When I was seven years old, I performed at a festival on my school and the following year, I started singing in the church choir. I started loving rock music when I was six years old and I first heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At that moment, I was inspired by the energy Anthony Kiedis had when he sang. Since then, I wanted to be in a band.

My connection with metal came later, when I was about eleven years old. I started listening to Spanish-language metal; my main inspiration at the time was Rata Blanca. I really wanted to be able to do those pronounced falsettos, and that’s how I started looking for more bands in the same genre by myself.

Through the years, I have always studied singing. Later on, I got the chance to sing in small bars. That was the perfect way to get in touch with other musicians. When I was fourteen, fifteen, I played rock songs with a band, and when I was sixteen, I met with a couple of friends to write songs for what was to become our first original metal project.

That band was called Ensamhet, which is Swedish for solitude. Stylistically, it was a power metal band with Peruvian folk elements. That’s when my friends and I became a part of the Peruvian metal scene. The funny thing is that my second name is Soledad, which is Spanish for solitude. I was very happy when the guys came up with that name. We made one four-song demo, but ‘Ragnarok’ and ‘Dama Durmiente’ were the only two songs that were released.”

Experimenting with New Sounds

“Even though singing started playfully for me at a young age, I developed my technique by practicing constantly and training my voice by means of singing lessons. That’s how I gradually developed my voice. To this day, I’m still experimenting with my voice by trying to make new sounds. As I always say: the most beautiful thing about this particular art form is that you never stop learning something new.

I am always motivated by learning to do new things with my voice. When I really wanted to have a band as a child, I worked hard to have a good voice and develop a good technique. That was my goal at the time, and that is why I was inspired by singers who had great technique. These days, my main goal is to have my interpretations bring songs to a higher level. Because of that, I have been looking for singers who sing multiple musical genres. Listening to them motivates me to dig into their versatility and all of the vocal resources they apply. That inspires me to try more and more things with my own voice.

In my opinion, being able to do falsetto’s and more raspy vocals have been my biggest developments since I started singing. To this day, I am trying to work on my rawer screams. Being able to sing at the Gran Teatro Nacional de Perú for a public television show has been a very enriching experience.

But the biggest developments I think have come from becoming a vocal coach. In the beginning, it was quite a challenge, because there is a considerable gap between being able to sing and being able to teach singing, or being a guide from someone else. I know I will get more experienced over time. Not just as a vocal coach, but also as a singer.”

Personalized Routines

Giving singing lessons has become an important part of Castro’s life. And she appears to enjoy the fact that their students don’t just want to learn how to sing metal. “My students have various musical tastes”, she explains. “Which is a challenge, because every musical genre has its own defined characteristics that need to be tackled. I like the enthusiasm they show for learning how to sing, regardless of their age. Some want to sing rock, others metal, rap, ballads, pop, anything.

My students usually communicate with me through social media. That really helps me making them familiar with my work and teaching them how to do things I have done. During the pandemic, it was also a great opportunity to learn how to work with a few tools I had not taken into consideration, such as TikTok.

I teach them everything to do with singing popular music, vocal music theory and personalized routines based on what they are trying to achieve. Since my lessons are usually in person and one-on-one, that personal aspect of it is important to me. During this process, it is important to make them understand how their internal muscles operate and what their weak points are, so we can develop those with specific practice routines.

When I was taking singing lessons, I would have loved to have learned how I could apply vocal techniques to the songs I was singing at the time. That really would have helped speed up my progress.”

Contributions

Aside from her own bands, Castro has appeared as a guest singer on quite a few recordings from other Peruvian bands over the past couple of years. “Each voice is unique and has a different way to assimilate and interpret the music”, she says. “Depending on what the musicians who approach me want to do with their projects, I think I can contribute in various ways.

Sometimes they give me a demo that already has a vocal melody. If that is the case, my most important contribution is my interpretation or at least the timbre of my voice. Other times, they just give me the lyrics and ask me to work on a melody. In those cases, my creativity on a melodic level and my ability to connect to the message of the lyrics is my contribution. Regardless of my specific input, everything is polished by coordinating and meeting with the band.”

Most recently, Castro has been performing live with Flor de Loto. “That all started when they asked me to record a song with them as a collaboration during the pandemic”, she explains. “Finding my place within their music was not difficult for me. I love the style of music they play and I understood what the band wanted from me. Also, they are very good at communicating what they want from me and how I can contribute with my voice.”

Motivational

“Peru is a centralized country, so Lima usually is the place where you can find the better options in terms of equipment and productions. But when we are talking about audiences… The population density of Lima makes it possible for us to find a larger audience, but we generally find incredibly passionate audiences further inland.

I would love to see a change in the way people think about ‘true metal’ in the scene, including the dividing lines between different subgenres. There is a lot of talent here and sometimes, we are not even aware of it, so I would love to see people being more open to new suggestions. In the music industry, I would love to see people being more open to artists who take risks with new ideas, and I would like to see them value national productions a little more.”

With Spanish being the prevalent language in a large part of South America, however, Castro’s appeal does not have to stop at Peru’s national borders. “The reactions from the rest of Latin America have been positive”, she nods. “It was a pleasant surprise to receive the first reactions from foreigners to my videos. Fortunately, the messages I have received from people in other countries have been very motivational and I am grateful for that. This also got me in touch with a number of foreign students with whom I do online sessions.”

2024
01/29
CATEGORY
Interviews
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Peruvian Metal Month
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Album of the Week 04-2024: NMK – Ravenous Spectre


Out of all the Peruvian bands I have dug into over the past few weeks, NMK is probably the one with potentially the biggest international appeal. And it’s not for the reason you might be thinking of. Sure, the lyrics on the band’s debut album ‘Ravenous Spectre‘ are in English, but what is even more important is that ‘Ravenous Spectre’ is a contemporary international metal production that would not sound out of place among some of the popular Scandinavian productions that are doing well in the international metal scene these days. Combined with the engaging songwriting, that makes for a winner of an album.

Compositionally, ‘Ravenous Spectre’ is not a million miles away from modern melodic death metal Scandinavian style. The riff work would be a great fit for the current generation of At The Gates-inspired metal bands. However, the song structures are ever so slightly more adventurous, at times bringing Nevermore to mind, and the idiosyncratic vocals of Nathalie Markoch give NMK a character of its own. She does some rather aggressive growls, but the majority of her vocals consists of cleans that occasionally bring Epica’s Simone Simons at her least operatic to mind, though far more powerful and expressive than Simons ever was.

The atmosphere on ‘Ravenous Spectre’ is reminiscent of a somewhat mechanical dystopia, very convincingly portrayed by the super tight riffing and occasional productional choices that enhance said atmosphere. On the other hand, there are plenty of more open passages that leave room for Markoch to paint a more emotional picture of what is going on in the lyrics, without ever getting at odds with the denser riffs. I also really like that the bass is actually an audible part of the production. Luis Medina’s right hand technique makes sure that not just the bottom-end profits from his presence; there’s a nice top-end that makes the riffs somehow sound brighter as well.

‘Ravenous Spectre’ is best experienced in one sitting, but there still are some clear highlights on the album. The title track is probably my personal favorite, in part because it’s the most progressive track on the album, but also because it contains a few awesomely haunting vocal arrangements by Markoch. ‘Lack of Judgment’ was rightfully chosen as the single and video, as it represents the album’s overall sound in a relatively concise package – I also love that twin riff in the middle. However, the powerful opener ‘Outrage’, the pulsating ‘Condemned to Existence’ or the surprisingly accessible ‘Let Them Come’ could have served a similar purpose.

Sometimes I listen to a melodic death metal band and think: these riffs are awesome, I just wish they were on an album with clean vocals. NMK gives you just that on ‘Ravenous Spectre’, with a rather adventurous approach to songwriting to boot. The melodic elements are just familiar enough that they are likely to appeal to fans of the Scandinavian melodeath scene, but also just different enough to sound completely fresh, and Markoch’s voice is a big part of that. NMK recently announced their comeback. If what comes out of that is anywhere near as good as ‘Ravenous Spectre’, we are in for a treat.

Recommended tracks: ‘Ravenous Spectre’, ‘Lack of Judgment’, ‘Condemned to Existence’

2024
01/28
CATEGORY
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Peruvian Metal Month
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Armagedon: Overcoming Obstacles with Hard Work and Conviction

Although their debut album ‘Nunca Digas Nunca’ was not released until 2011, Armagedon is a veteran of the Peruvian heavy metal scene. The band has been around since the late eighties and has steadily worked on music for most of those years. Their latest album ‘Sobrevivir’ was released earlier this month, the brothers Lobo (vocals) and Martín Guizado (guitars) share their thoughts about the past, present and future of Armagedon.

“There are nine tracks on ‘Sobrevivir’ that can each be characterized as heavy metal”, Martín describes the style on the album. “The sound is largely in line with what we did before, but with a more powerful sound than on our earlier productions. However, it still sounds like Armagedon.

Some of the songs for this new album were recorded for our acoustic live album ‘Elemental’, which we recorded at Centro Cultural de España in Lima and turned out to be the first acoustic metal album that was ever recorded in Peru. The recordings of ‘Sobrevivir’ were delayed due to various personal issues, but thanks to the efforts of everyone involved with the work, we could finally finish it.”

Intention of the Composition

The fact that ‘Sobrevivir’ is an album full of relatively new material is relevant, as 2019’s ‘Tiempos del Fin’ contained re-recordings of Armagedon’s earlier material, while ‘Nunca Digas Nunca’ contained a number of songs that were demoed in the nineties. “In essence, those songs have remained as they were originally written”, Martín explains. “The arrangements have just been altered somewhat under my supervision as the musical producer of the album. Also, we have been able to include the creative input of the musicians who contributed to the recording of the album, without losing the original ideas of the songs.”

‘Tiempos del Fin’ was a different story. “Recording the songs from our earliest days was a recurring theme in the conversations between Renato Bar, who was our drummer at the time, and myself”, Lobo explains. “One day, Renato called me and it turned out the recording process had already started. We met up and one of the things we agreed on was to call the album ‘Tiempos del Fin’, and that’s how that particular track could finally see the light.”

Anyone who knows Armagedon from the melodic heavy metal sound on ‘Nunca Digas Nunca’ might be surprised how doomy the material on ‘Tiempos del Fin’ is. “After we changed styles, some people were a bit surprised, like with every change”, Lobo nods. “But it did not take long before people accepted our new songs. They got familiar with the songs and even requested them when we played live.”

Another thing that changed quite a bit is Lobo’s voice. “The way I use my voice in each song is really very spontaneous”, the singer states. “I try to sense what every song needs in order to express the intention of the composition, and that’s how it develops. It’s not always easy, but after all, everything that is worth anything in life is difficult, and I think the results are satisfactory to ourselves and, fortunately, also our audience.”

Process of Complicity

Not unlike many bands who have been around for as long as Armagedon has, they have changed members fairly frequently through the years. Most of the current line-up has been part of the band for quite a while though. “We enjoy the freedom of creativity that we have in the band”, Martín states. “Everyone’s contributions are respected, and we are like a family. The respect and admiration we have for each other always enables us to reach the same objectives.”

The member changes also haven’t changed the overall composition process all that much. “Usually, it starts when Martín comes up with an idea for the song”, says Lobo. “Including the vocal melodies. Then I write the lyrics based on what the music inspires me to write. This process of complicity works very well for us. Sometimes, I unknowingly write lyrics that perfectly fit the theme that Martín had been wanting to tackle. It happens very instinctively. We don’t really plan the process.

When this idea is finished, we present it to the rest of the band and they bring it to a higher level. We are lucky that we are working with musicians of the highest possible level in Willy Hermoza, Jouvet Lavado and Aquiles Solar. They always know exactly what every song needs.

Our lyrics used to be a little more mystical in nature than they are today, even though they were anchored in our reality. These days, most of the themes we tackle in our songs are based on our personal experiences. They reflect our environment and contain a certain introspection that is always necessary to be able to survive in a world like the one we live in.”

Stronger

The early nineties were a time of enormous social and economic upheaval in Peru. “It has definitely cost us a lot to move forward in the midst of all the violence and the terrible economic situation we were living in”, Lobo admits. “But I do think this difficult situation has made us stronger at the same time. It made us realize that every obstacle can be overcome by working hard and with conviction.”

Both brothers are clear on the fact that things have improved for musicians since then. “The desire is the same”, Martín states. “The difference is that the level of production for the shows and the capabilities of the musicians in Peru have improved significantly. And that is amazing.”

“The differences between Lima and the rest of Peru are even getting smaller”, Lobo adds. “These days, there are great bands from various parts of the country that do well. Several of them have made a good start on their way to internationalization.”

The band even contributed to the improvements in the Peruvian metal scene by starting the long-running festival Ataque Metal in Lima. “Ataque Metal arose from the desire to offer the bands that were active at the time a space where they can present their sound to local metalheads with a certain minimal quality standard”, Lobo explains. “The prestige of Ataque Metal is based on the fact that it has become the most important festival for the genre in our country.

Our policy is to satisfy the three actors of a festival: the audience, the bands and the producer. We have been able to do this every time. That may also be the reason why the festival has been going through a 36-year journey. It would still be nice to have a radio or television medium that would promote our local bands.”

2024
01/26
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Adrián Del Aguila (Miserable): Passion Never Dies

With three albums under their belt in just over six years – and a fourth one on the way – thrash metal band Miserable is remarkably prolific by Peruvian standards. When talking to their singer and bassist Adrián Del Aguila, it immediately becomes clear why: he is a man of many ideas, with a clear hunger to turn them into something tangible.

Del Aguila first rose to prominence with one of Peru’s premier heavy metal bands. “I was playing with M.A.S.A.C.R.E, but I had the feeling that I had to do something else”, he explains. “However, I couldn’t find any band members with enough time and a similar taste in music. So before Miserable started, I had actually already been working on it for a long time.

Then came the day when I just said: fuck it, I’m going to do it on my own, and let’s just see what happens. I started working on what would become ‘Gran Náusea’ with Giovanni Lama (co-producer and Epilepsia’s singer/guitarist). At the time, it was only the two of us. We did the pre-production: I went to his studio with all the ideas I had in my head, and we started working on all the riffs.

There was no band at the time. I did the recording of ‘Gran Náusea’. The whole thing except for the drums. There were midi drums just to get a feel for what the parts should be. When the day came to record it properly, the second member joined the band: our drummer Diego Porturas. Giovanni told me to approach him to record the drums. He did it, and when he finished, I asked him if he wanted to be a part of the band. He said yes immediately. That was in 2017, and then there were two of us.”

Generational Gap

Porturas was not the only Miserable member Del Aguila found by chance after temporarily putting his idea of forming a proper band on hold: “Suddenly, I found a guy on the metro: Jonathan Bustinza, one of our guitarists. We started talking, there was some magic, and I asked him: do you want to join the project? He said: yes, let’s do it!

It kind of went the same with our other guitarist at the time, Marcelo Vasquez. We met somewhere and I asked him to join. That’s how the band formed properly. I started alone, by myself, trying to see what was going to happen. I was waiting for a long time to find my bandmates because I was trying to search for people. And only when I stopped searching, I found the right people. I’m a lucky guy: I found a bunch of good fellows and good musicians.

I am 49 years old, and these guys are now 23, 24 years old. So when I found them, they were 18 or 19. There is a huge generational gap, but despite that, we found out that we connected very easily. When we started the rehearsals for ‘Gran Náusea’, the ideas for what would become our second album ‘Esclavo Miserable’ started forming immediately. That was a kind of magic to me. And since we are recording our third album right now, the magic is still there.”

Fight to Be Ourselves

While Miserable essentially started as a solo project for Del Aguila, he greatly values the input his young bandmates have these days. “It starts with a riff from any of us, then we all cook the final dish”, he describes the situation. “We all work on the compositions and the arrangements together. On my laptop, I have plenty of material for further productions. Not completed songs, but ideas, riffs, halves of songs, all waiting to be worked on.

Miserable has a lot of work to do for the next few years. We have to find the time to work on it, because we can’t live from metal. But we like getting together and trying out different sounds. Eighties Metallica and Death’s material from ‘Spiritual Healing’ onward are big influences, but we try to do it our own way. We have different hands, we have different souls. We don’t want to copy anyone. It should start with the influences and then go wherever it has to go.”

The fact that there are no possibilities to make a living wage playing metal in Peru was never a reason for Del Aguila to give up. “On the contrary”, he says “We want to do it despite the problems there are. Life is what it is; it’s passion, and passion never dies. To tell you the truth, we are a fucked-up country with a lot of economic, political and social problems. I grew up listening to the bombs of terrorists throughout the city. I see it as a fight to be ourselves. We do this because there is no other way to live.”

It is a theme that is surely reflected in Del Aguila’s writing, both as a lyricist and as an author, who published the novels ‘Necio’ (2012), ‘Sistema Perfecto’ (2018) and ‘Peste, Odio y Voluntad’ (2021). “Lyrically, the albums deal with a main theme: the submission of people, of their will, of their spirit”, he explains. “Submission either to necessity or duty. Anything that crushes passion must be destroyed. That is my fight. That is my war.

In that sense, the previous albums have more to do with criticism, but our upcoming album touches on the theme of jumping into the abyss of freedom, where freedom is surrendering to your passion, with all its consequences. All this also has to do with the literary works that I have done, which based on telling stories deal with the same topic, but in prose or aphorisms.”

All the Fury

“Since we have Spanish lyrics, I didn’t expect to be heard by people in countries that don’t speak Spanish. I would like it to happen, but I didn’t expect it. Maybe I’m wrong, because music is universal. When we started Miserable, I was absolutely certain that the language was going to be a barrier. But I see now, after having come into contact with people from Europe – Greece, France, the Netherlands – as well as places like Indonesia and Japan in the last few years, that I was wrong, that there isn’t that much of a barrier. People like you can hear us, enjoy it, and we can talk about it.

However, Miserable is never going to sing in English. The lyrics will always be in Spanish. That’s for sure. There is no way I can write in anything other than Spanish. I can speak English, I can sing in English, but my mother tongue makes it possible for me to express myself with all the fury that I need. And it’s just different in a different language. It could be good in English, but it would not express what I would want to express.

The idea was always: let’s do Peru first, and then other countries in South America and Latin America that speak Spanish. And Spain, maybe. But now we are seeing that maybe we can play in other countries. We are going to work on that, starting with the new album. If it is possible, we are going to expand our vision.”

Capturing Rehearsals

At the time of writing, Miserable’s most recent release is 2022’s ‘Náusea Celebre’, which was recorded live at the band’s rehearsal studio. “We work with a guy who organizes events”, Del Aguila explains. “Then the pandemic came around, but he had some budget left. So he asked us: do you have any ideas what we could do with it? We could not play any concerts at all, but there was an opportunity to do something. So we thought it would be interesting to do a live session of nearly all our songs.

We thought: let’s do it organically. Let’s capture the way we sound in rehearsal. Let’s try to demonstrate ourselves, and we can record that sound with no processing at all. Raw. Let’s show the audience how the band really sounds. On our studio albums, we used to do two rhythm guitar tracks per side. On ‘Náusea Celebre’, there is one rhythm guitar on each side. And if there is a solo, you hear just one rhythm guitar. Our plan for the new studio album is also to do it as organically as we can.

I really don’t like the sound of bands that use too much processing. If it’s too clean, I don’t like it at all. You know what I hate the most? When you hear a snare drum that always sounds the same. That’s not natural. I have had a couple of experiences in other musical projects outside of metal with processed or electronic drums, trying to make it an option, but the truth is that it sucks. It doesn’t express anything. The good news is that I’m seeing new bands out there that are trying not to lose themselves to processing too much.

With Miserable, we have found a way to sound as natural as we can. There was some processing on ‘Gran Náusea’, less on ‘Esclavo Miserable’, and now we try to be as natural as possible. In the eighties, it could be rough, or it could be raw, but it moved your heart.”

Hungry Kid

The eighties are not a random mention, as it is the decade Del Aguila started playing music. “Keep in mind: people here mostly like reggaeton and cumbia; tropical music”, he describes the musical climate in Lima. “A little rock and pop maybe, but metal is very underground. When I started playing guitar, I was about eight years old. I started by playing some folk music, which I didn’t like at the time. I like it now, but at that time, I was a very hungry kid who just wanted to play rock ‘n’ roll.

I joined my first band when I was 14 years old, but that was a rock band. I didn’t listen to metal at all until I was 15, I think. I had a friend whose older brother played in Hastur, which nowadays is recognized as the first ever black metal band in Peru. So that friend said: you play guitar, right? Can you play this? And he gave me a TDK cassette – a white cassette, I remember it very well. That cassette had ‘Fight Fire with Fire’, ‘The Trooper’, ‘The Call of Ktulu’ and a recording from Hastur.

At the time, that recording from Hastur – something very satanic – was too much for me. These days I like it a lot, but the first song I heard I listened to was ‘The Call of Ktulu’. And what I liked the most that there were no vocals, but it was still very interesting. That’s how I got started with metal.”

Step By Step

“In terms of audiences, Peru is a very small country. Here in Peru, most metal bands are extreme metal bands. In terms of local concerts in Lima, no more than 300 people generally show up. When there are 500, that would be a resounding success. In other provinces, the audiences are smaller, of course. But professional international mainstream metal bands may draw crowds of 1500 to 2000 people.

When Slayer came here for the first time, there were no more than 3500 of us there. When Iron Maiden came here for the first time – when I had the opportunity to open for them with M.A.S.A.C.R.E – there were 30,000 people, but the second time, there were no more than 10,000 people. So there were a lot of tourists the first time around. And Maiden is the most mainstream metal band that I know!

That’s the reality. We all know that. That’s why we try first of all to play in all the cities in Peru we can play. Lima is the biggest place in terms of bands and population, of course, but a lot has been happening outside of Lima. There is a number of concerts in the south, north and east. Add to that the wonder of playing in different geographies, sometimes in front of the sea, sometimes at 4000 meters above sea level.  After that, we can move to foreign places. Step by step, and it takes a lot of time, but that’s the idea.”

Creating Opportunities

“Many musicians in Peru have home studios where we can work on our own music. It’s cheaper, it’s possible, and the sound is good. There are no major labels here. They have gone a long time ago. So there are no opportunities here; we have to create our own opportunities. But in terms of the work being done, there are a lot of recording bands here. We do not stop, because we can do it. Despite the problems going on here, we still do a lot of work. There is a legacy for the future.

In terms of the infrastructure to play, we have grown up too. For example: nowadays, we’re using amplifier modeling for playing gigs. We don’t have to worry anymore about what equipment they will put in the venues for us to play. The backline is not an issue anymore. For me, that’s such an improvement, especially outside Lima.

I was one of the guys who said: no way, I don’t want that crap. But in 2022, we started to play in a lot of places outside of Lima again, for the first time since the pandemic: Ayacucho, Arequipa, Juliaca… There was no other way to do it if I want to keep my peace of mind. So I am a convert. All we need is a mixing console and drums, of course. If the sound engineer does his job, we can sound great everywhere.

However, there are not a lot of venues to play. That’s a problem. We have not evolved anything on that front, not a step. We still play in discotheques, with mirror balls hanging from the ceiling. There are no appropriate venues for playing rock and metal concerts. There are one or two, nothing more. We have a serious lack of that.”

Growing

The release of Miserable’s third studio album is on the horizon. “We have done the recording process at Giovanni Lama’s studio, the same studio as the previous albums”, Del Aguila explains. “This time, for a series of reasons, it has taken us a little longer than we had planned, but we are already finishing the final mix and hope to have the album released by March.

We are happy with the sound, because we are achieving what we want, which is to sound as natural as possible, avoiding that modern sound that sounds like super-processed plastic, especially when it comes to the drums. It’s not that it was like that on previous albums, but we are definitely getting closer to what Miserable sounds like in our heads.”

The album will be the recording debut with the band for guitarist Luis Sáenz, who replaced Marcelo Vasquez about two years prior. “Luis’ entry into the band has been important”, Del Aguila emphasizes. “And of course, like any family, a change of members influences what is done. Luis has contributed his vibe, his ideas and arrangements for the new material, and most importantly, his way of playing. We have really gotten better since he joined us, and everything has been growing more and more with him in the band.”

2024
01/22
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Album of the Week 03-2024: Mauser – Más Fuerte que la Muerte


Mainstream metal doesn’t really seem to be a thing anymore. Even as late as the early 2000’s, there was always a band with somewhat heavy guitars on fairly frequent rotation even on the most metal-averse radio and music tv stations. A band like Mauser, however, proves that an accessible hard rock and metal sound is still well worth exploring. Their combination of equal parts Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and classic heavy metal, with maybe a hint of nineties Metallica thrown in, is powerful, catchy and simply highly engaging. In a just world, Mauser would be selling out arenas all over Latin America. Possibly even worldwide.

Songwriting-wise, Mauser succeeds where many mainstream metal bands fail. While all the songs on their excellent second full-length ‘Más Fuerte que la Muerte’ has a fantastic chorus, the band realizes that a good song has the potential to have multiple good hooks. As a result, many of the riffs are extremely memorable. Moreover, Mauser shows that catchy songwriting doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to simplify your songs to the lowest common denominator. There genuinely is a lot going on throughout ‘Más Fuerte que la Muerte’, both in dynamics and clever songwriting twists, but it’s all surprisingly easy to digest.

First things first: ‘Más Fuerte que la Muerte’ itself is one of the greatest rock songs of this century. After the fairly dramatic riff that dominates the intro track ‘Cruces’, the title track starts with probably the most thrash metal riff on the album, only to develop into a powerfully stomping hardrocker with an amazingly cathartic chorus, in which the vocal harmonies of singer Alex Rojas and guitarist César Gonzáles Salaverry create something that is simply magic. Rojas’ passionate, powerful delivery is something that sets Mauser apart from other bands attempting a similar thing anyway. The vocals are incredible.

In the following 35 or so minutes, Mauser explores everything that is possible within their sound without ever sounding disjointed of unsure what they want to be. The hearfelt semi-ballad ‘Hey!’ is just as impactful as the arena rocker ‘El Hombre que Ves’ or the intense ‘Voces’, which feels closest to actual heavy metal due to its almost NWOBHM-ish main riff. Songs like ‘Llevas Dentro’ and ‘Explotaré’ bring together the tougher metal riffs and the memorable rock hooks very effectively and are sure to please audiences of both genres. There are even some nice Sabbath-ish grooves around.

There is something delightfully loose and spontaneous about how ‘Más Fuerte que la Muerte’ sounds. But at the same time, the songwriting and arrangements on the album are so well-thought-out that there is clearly more going on than just a band playing a bunch of riffs. Combined with some of the best vocals I have heard in the genre in a while – both Rojas’ lead vocals and the harmonies – this creates a template for rock music that I wish was more common than it actually is. Mauser honestly has the chance to appeal to many people across the rock and metal spectrum. Give them a chance and be as enchanted as I was when I first heard them.

Recommended tracks: ‘Más Fuerte que la Muerte’, ‘Voces’, ‘Llevas Dentro’

2024
01/21
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Coqui Tramontana (M.A.S.A.C.R.E): Great Expectations

M.A.S.A.C.R.E, then simply known as Masacre, was one of the first real heavy metal bands in Peru. Their debut album ‘Sin Piedad’ might actually be the first properly recorded metal album in the country. Guitarist and main songwriter Coqui Tramontana talks us through all the highs and lows the band has faced in nearly four decades, as well as his new band that will debut soon.

‘Versos del Inframundo’, M.A.S.A.C.R.E’s most recent studio album, was released in 2016. Since then, the band has continued to play live, but Tramontana is uncertain about the future of the band. “We did our last show in March of last year”, he explains. “With our first singer, El Loco Cervantes. Our official singer Omar Pizarro lives in Spain. It’s very difficult to maintain a band with one guy living on the other side of the world. We’re just waiting for somebody who wants us to play anywhere, but I’m not sure if that is going to happen.

We had a really good period with M.A.S.A.C.R.E around 2000, when ‘Demoledor’ came out. We headlined all the festivals here and played across Peru. In 2006, Omar decided to move to Spain. It’s hard to maintain a band without playing. We’re going to play with M.A.S.A.C.R.E, you can count on that, when Omar comes and the festivals want us. He always comes between November and December. We always play a couple of shows here, and people are satisfied. But that’s it.

M.A.S.A.C.R.E is considered an institution here in Peru. Every time I go to a metal show here, people look at us as if we are legends. But it doesn’t feel like that at all.”

Saving the Music

Even ‘Sin Piedad’, which is more or less unanimously considered an essential Peruvian metal album, had a bit of a troubled release history. While it was recorded in the late eighties, it did not see the light of day in Peru until much later. “It’s a sad story, man”, Tramontana confirms. “We were so hyped, because we had a deal with CBS in Peru. At first, we wanted to release an EP and went to them with four songs. But their manager told us: make it a full album with eight songs. So we paid for new recordings. They did not give us a single penny.

We had to find a way to get the money. We were teenagers at the time. Our parents helped us a little bit, but we had to do a lot of it ourselves. And then we bought the tape. That’s how we saved our music: by buying that Ampex one-inch tape. That was our best investment. After we recorded it, it had been sitting with Miguel and Martín (Tuesta, bassist and guitarist respectively) for fifteen years.”

Because CBS demanded more tracks, ‘Sin Piedad’ was recorded in two sessions. “With two different drummers”, Tramontana nods. “By the time we got to recording the four new songs, our first drummer was in the United States, so he couldn’t make it. We hired Pelo Madueño, who was the drummer for Miki González at the time, a well-known star here in Peru.

Miki González’ manager was our manager as well. He is the one who took us to CBS. That’s how it all started. Miki was a really great guy. And he really loved Masacre. They asked him about new bands he liked in an interview in 1988, and he said that Masacre was his number one. That was really good for us. He was kind of our godfather back then.”

Tramontana at Estadio Nacional, Lima, opening for Iron Maiden (2009)

Not Messing Around

Tramontana stood out among teenagers playing hard rock and heavy metal in the early eighties by having a quality guitar and a collection of effects pedals, a rarity amongst Peruvian teenagers at the time. “It was difficult to find anything good”, he says. “We’ve been under military government throughout the seventies, and because of that, there were no imported products, and no commerce from outside Peru. So pedals were a really uncommon thing at the time.

My dad used to work for a shipping company. He had to go to Houston every time there was a problem with the ships. And every time he went, I asked him: I saw this little thing in a magazine, could you please find me this pedal? A Boss distortion – not the black one, the first one (the Boss DS-1) – a chorus, the first phaser, a wah…

When I started playing guitar, my dad had brought me a Peavey T-25. That was a good guitar, made in the USA, but not for the purpose of playing metal. I still have it though. Getting a Gibson Les Paul changed lot. I recorded four songs on ‘Sin Piedad’ with a Gibson Les Paul, and the other four with a Charvel/Jackson Model 4. I switched in-between the sessions. If you pay close attention, you can hear the difference in sound.

That’s how we managed to have such a good sound on ‘Sin Piedad’. Also, the album was recorded in a good studio. We were really trying to make the most out of it by making it sound good. Before we went to that studio, we even went into another studio to prepare ourselves for the real studio. We weren’t messing around. Maybe we were the only band from the eighties in Peru that got a whole album recorded that well. It’s really hard to find a metal band from the eighties that has that sound.”

Underground Movement

While Masacre went through various line-up changes, the core of Tramontana, fellow guitarist Martín Tuesta and his bass-playing brother Miguel Tuesta remained intact throughout most of the eighties. “After the military government was gone and we had our first democratic government in the eighties, I met Martín Tuesta in 1983”, Tramontana explains. “There were a couple of bands around at the time. Frágil made an album, they were older than us, but there wasn’t really a movement. We later became part of an underground movement. Not only for the metal scene, but also for punk.

There were a lot of bands that were forming in schools. At the school Martín and Miguel went to, there were two bands that were already quite well-known. One is called Oxido, the first band that played heavy rock like Black Sabbath. And there was another band called G-3, which was a hardcore band. Around the same time, Martín and Miguel were trying to get Masacre off the ground.

A friend from my neighborhood, who lived one block from my house, was in the same class as Martín and Miguel. One day, Miguel came to my house and he brought me a cassette from Oxido. I still have that cassette from 1983. When he showed me that, I thought: I didn’t know there was a band that sounds like Black Sabbath in Peru. I was only listening to my albums that I bought, from Black Sabbath, Ozzy Ozbourne, Maiden… Everybody who was around in the eighties. Oxido had great lead guitar work too, I was impressed.”

The Word Was Spreading

“Two weeks later, Miguel came by again and after messing with my guitar a bit, he told me I had to learn the scales. I said: what the fuck is that? We didn’t have any information. Not a clue. We didn’t have any magazines or anything. Sometimes they played stuff like Maiden on Disco Club on tv, but we couldn’t record it, so we had to remember it. Oh my god, those times…

So he showed me the scales and when I could pull it off, he asked me if I wanted to be in Masacre. Three days later, he brought the worst drum set you could ever imagine and a couple of amplifiers, and we built a stage in my yard. We had only one song that we played about twenty times. After a while, my mother told me: you can’t play here, but we’ve got a little room in the back, you go and play there.

That’s how we got started. I’ve got the recordings of those first rehearsals. We tried for a year to get on stage somewhere, but we couldn’t make it happen. However, everybody started talking about Masacre. The word was spreading. In the meantime, we played every day. That’s how we got so good. Nobody rehearses every day anymore. But we did, for hours, every day.

It was difficult in the beginning, but when we discovered the harmonies like Maiden did – thirds – we expanded our music and started playing those in a lot of our songs. That’s how we slowly developed our own sound. We listened to a lot of Queensrÿche, Maiden, Dio, Sabbath, Judas Priest, Metallica… Everything. So we kind of got a little foundation based on that. And then we just played a lot.”

Demon

For a time in the mid-eighties, Masacre briefly broke up because the Tuesta brothers were planning on growing the band elsewhere. “Martín and Miguel went to Spain and wanted to continue Masacre there”, Tramontana explains. “At that time, I didn’t believe that we could make it. So I stepped down and they went to Europe.

When they came back, they started a new band: Sacra. I had a band called Grael myself at the time. And in the middle of that, I reached out to the Tuesta brothers again and said: let’s start Masacre again. The other guys hate me for that to this day. They hate me because I took El Loco Cervantes from Almas Inmortales, and Miguel and Martín from Sacra. So I disbanded two bands to have Masacre back again. I’m a demon, man, I tear a lot of bands apart, haha!”

Another Life

Eventually, Masacre split up before ‘Sin Piedad’ was even released. The Tuesta brothers moved to Venezuela, while Tramontana lived in Seattle for a while in the early nineties, seeing all the bands from the grunge scene before their breakthoughs in small bars. Masacre did eventually reform, but without Tramontana, who did not play on the 1999 live album ‘En Vivo Hasta el Final’ and the 2001 studio album ‘Demoledor’.

“When they called me – I think it was in 1997 – I was living another life, working for my family business”, says Tramontana. “I didn’t have much interest in playing metal at the time, since I was mostly immersed in blues of grunge. I’m not only a metal guy; I’ve always liked all kinds of music.

Miguel was struggling with cancer by the end of the nineties. They even told him at some point that he only had a few weeks left to live. But a miracle happened. He’s okay now, and it never came back. One day, he came to my house and told me: Martín is leaving the band to go to the United States and I have nobody else to play with, so I want you to join the band again.

By that time, I heard the new music from ‘Demoledor’. It sounded really good. That was also the first time I heard Omar, who was amazing. He’s amazing on stage too. He’s a savage. He has a personality I haven’t seen in anybody else here. He’s a monster.

‘Sin Piedad’ was written by Miguel and me. When I occupied Martín’s place, I kind of started to take M.A.S.A.C.R.E back, little by little. Then we decided to work with Germán Villacorta for ‘En Pie de Guerra’ (2004), but after that, we couldn’t play much. There were a lot of expectations because we were going to make our international debut at Milwaukee Metal Fest. Then they didn’t give a visa to Omar. That was really like a flat tire.”

Machinery

While M.A.S.A.C.R.E is on hold, Tramontana and Martín Tuesta are working on a brand new band. “Martín has been my pal since we were sixteen years old, and now we are making music”, he explains. “We will have our live debut in March, opening for one of the bigger pop bands in Peru, Mar de Copas. So I hope I can get into metal again, play some gigs and try to play at some festivals.

The name of the band is Black Mode. It’s Black Sabbath meets Depeche Mode. It’s metal, but it’s groovy. Our singer has kind of a grungy voice, but the guitars are metal. But we are not a virtuoso band. The band consists of Martín and me, and a really good singer called Diego Taboada, who is from a well-known band here in Peru called …Por Hablar. The drummer is Iván Sotomayor, and the bassist is called Picote. Picote used to be a roadie when I had just rejoined M.A.S.A.C.R.E in 2000. He was just a little kid back then, and now he plays with me, haha!

We are going to kick ass. I don’t want to sound goofy, but we are talented. We know how to make songs. The thing with M.A.S.A.C.R.E is that we couldn’t make the machinery go because the band was incomplete. But now I’ve got a band that is so solid. I’m thrilled, man. It’s metal to the core.”

Joining Forces

“For me, it’s something really big to be playing with Martín again right now. That’s the first guy I played guitar with. He taught me many things. It’s great to be joining forces with him again. It’s been a while. I got really emotional when Omar got back with M.A.S.A.C.R.E, I thought we were going to tour Europe and start playing with him there. But he plays with a big orchestra in Spain. He has 180 to 200 shows a year. That’s why I’m focusing on my new project right now.

This time, I have a joy that I haven’t had in years, doing these new songs that come from the gut, playing and composing with Martín. I used to compose with Miguel. When someone came up with an idea for Masacre, I often said: that doesn’t sound like Masacre. So I ended up doing almost everything. Now I am much more open to different things than in Masacre. That is why Black Mode sounds so different. Because Martín is approaching it with new rhythms and new material, totally different from what I explored before.”

Special thanks to Adrián Del Aguila for his help setting up this interview!

2024
01/19
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Fernando Jara (Abigail): The Origins of Ancestral Metal

Abigail could really not have come from anywhere else than from South America. While the influences from European extreme metal bands are apparent, their 2022 debut album ‘Imperio Maldito’ is clearly influenced by the band’s Andean roots both musically and lyrically.

Although ‘Imperio Maldito’ was released recently, Abigail has been around in some shape or form since the late nineties. “When we started the band in the late nineties, we tried to look inside ourselves”, guitarist and main songwriter Fernando Jara explains. “And doing so has brought us back to our origins. Everything eventually came back to the traditions of Andean music, or as we like to call it: ancestral metal or Inca metal.

We thing we chose the right time to finally release our debut album, since we felt making a more lyrical album out of the raw material we had, in which the influences of rock with Andean music were more present, was something complementary. That album came, and we felt it was a premonition of completing our essence.”

Interesting Journey

“Prior to the album, we have recorded five demos: ‘Lacrimae of Passione’ in 2001, the instrumental demo ‘Abigail’ in 2003, ‘Winter Tears’ in 2005, ‘Evans’ in 2009 and ‘The Curse of the Evil’ in 2017. Songs from ‘Abigail’, ‘Evans’ and ‘The Curse of the Evil’ have found their way onto the album. We still have some good material left: the song ‘Sacrilegio’ from the ‘Evans’ demo, as well as multiple songs from ‘Lacrimae of Passione’ and ‘Winter Tears’ will be on the second album.

As the band matures in our search of the right sound, it is mostly a matter of knowing who you are. And life itself is already enough of a search for who you are. We tend to return to the past at certain moments, because our essence is in each part of our nature. This is a very interesting journey, because we are still alive as a band after all these years, but even more so because we have managed to create a mix of the ancestral and black metal, with all of its branches. We are always looking for new horizons, without losing the primordial essence of how the band was formed and has always maintained since then.

We have gone through a lot of musical growth, because of our willingness to learn to grow more than anything. The limitations that have existed years ago have been disappearing, but the most important thing is the band’s conviction to expand the range of what is possible within our style of black metal. For the second album, the fact that the entire band will take part in the composition process will have a significant effect on how everything will sound.”

Andean Essence

With that Jara shows his appreciation for the current line-up of the band. Although he is the only remaining original member, vocalist Marco Tovar has worked with the band since 2003, while guitarist Gonzalo Porturas and his younger drumming brother Diego have been working with Abigail since 2015, with Luis Medina joining about two years ago. “What has made it possible for the current line-up to function so well is the fact that we are a brotherhood with the conviction, integrity and loyalty to maintain our essence in Abigail”, Jara states.

“Although I have written all the songs on ‘Imperio Maldito’, and although the sound is somewhat reminiscent of early black metal, it is important to note that when the material was presented to the rest of the band, we all fully agreed to focus this project on the origins of the Andean people. In that sense, we can say it sounds fresh and modern. It contains everyone we would like to hear in our own music. It has become an epic and multi-layered album. Please give it a chance to enjoy it in all of its Andean essence. It is better to listen to it than to talk about it.”

Part of why ‘Imperio Maldito’ is so difficult to describe is because even the extreme metal segments aren’t simply black or death metal. “Metal is incredibly varied”, Jara asserts. “Although we categorize ourselves as black metal, the basic essence has been there since the beginning, with bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, UFO, and the original bands from the first era of black metal, such as Mayhem and Emperor. Around the time we started the band, we also listened to bands like Opeth, Tool, In Flames, The Gathering and Insomnium a lot. It’s quite difficult to clearly definite our musical tastes, but appreciating metal in its totality has been an important part of who we are.”

Traditions of Tahuantinsuyo

The connection to the band’s Andean roots and the Inca empire is also apparent in the lyrics on ‘Imperio Maldito’. “The ideas of our lyrics focus on our love and passion for extreme metal, combined with our Andean Roots”, says Jara. “‘Imperio Maldito’ tells the story of what the arrival of the invaders was like and how proud we still are to have the origins that we have.

Inca mythology was nourished by a series of myths and legends of its own. Our Inca people worshipped beyond death, beyond our origins – essentially our ancestors. Even beyond Tahuantinsuyo (the Quechua name by with the Incas referred to their own empire). Our lyrics refer to the battle against the false religion that was forced upon our people and its deadly legacy.”

These themes are further enhanced by the use of indigenous instruments, such as the charango and various wind instruments. Jara emphasizes that it was not as difficult as some might think to incorporate those instruments into Abigail’s extreme metal sound. “We have been connected to the ancestral traditions of Tahuantinsuyo, from the pre-Inca era to the Inca era, since birth”, he explains.

“Our culture is very rich in these aspects. South American culture is wrapped around our souls. Andean music, in all its magnificence, together with the pure passages of nature, magic, blood, purity and roots that black metal evokes, has been our nature as long as we have stepped into this world.”

Huancayo

While Abigail operates from Lima these days, the band was actually founded roughly 300 kilometers east of the capital, in Huancayo. “My studies brought me to Huancayo”, Jara explains. “And when I finished them, I eventually ended up moving to Lima. It was never that difficult to find members for the band, since we always had the same idea of what the band should be. The ancestral rules have been in the souls of everyone who has been a part of Abigail throughout the history of the band.

In the late nineties, there were a lot of bands in Huancayo, all of whom were also a part of the ancestral metal movement at its peak. There were also bands that were more strongly influenced by death metal, as that style influenced a lot of bands at the time. Bands like Sarcoma, Ayahuaira, Stygia Tenebre, Carccaria, Reo, Via Crucis, Legión, Esquizofrenia, Tenebris Filis, Yana Amaru, Khroda, Mystica and many other bands that were around at the same time will always be a part of the legacy of the scene.”

Spreading Metal to the Masses

That is not to say that things have always come easy for Abigail. “There are always political difficulties of some kind in South America”, Jara states matter-of-factly. “But we have always maintained our conviction and strength to achieve our goals. The effort that we all put into obtaining the economic means and facilities – with the help and support from our metal brothers abroad, who have contributed by helping us get the instruments who helped us develop ourselves musically – has been worth it.”

The Peruvian metal scene is also quite different from how it was when Abigail just started. “It has changed a lot”, Jara nods. “What is most noticeable is that people have started to expect less from rock and metal, mostly due to issues that have to do with commercial parties who are no help in spreading South American metal to the masses. Fortunately, the loyal metalheads that have always been there are still around!

On a national level, productions have grown even outside of Lima. There is more access than ever to decent productions, as well as more access to music in general. And the good thing is that there is a group of extremely promising young bands. Let’s hope that they will continue like this and their potential will come to the light in the South American metal scene. It would also be great if divisions between metal bands based solely on the specific styles of metal they play will disappear.”

2024
01/16
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Album of the Week 02-2024: Miserable – Gran Náusea


When ‘Gran Náusea’ was recorded, Miserable was still pretty much the solo project of Adrián Del Aguila, fresh off releasing his first album with M.A.S.A.C.R.E after a decade fronting that band. But two things are clear immediately: one is that this material couldn’t really have worked within what M.A.S.A.C.R.E was doing at the time, the other that Del Aguila already had a very clear vision of what Miserable was supposed to be. Interestingly, all members that would lately form Miserable’s first line-up contribute to ‘Gran Náusea’, though the vocals, bass, rhythm and acoustic guitars are all Del Aguila’s work.

Compositionally, ‘Gran Náusea’ is a work of fairly traditional thrash metal, with the occasional hint of early death metal in the riff work. There are clear Metallica and Death influences in the guitar department, and yet, I cannot think of any thrash metal band that sounds remotely close to what Miserable does here. Part of that is the fact that Del Aguila focuses on memorability and atmosphere rather than trying to overwhelm the listener with breakneck-speed fits of virtuosity. Also, while I would not call Miserable a progressive thrash band, the songs often go through surprising changes that make ‘Gran Náusea’ a very engaging work.

Second track ‘Venganza’, for instance, has an extensive verse that is carried by nylon-string acoustic guitars. Together with Del Aguila’s fairly haunting vocal performance, this creates a listening experience that stays with you for far longer than it would have if it had just continued with its admittedly cool thrash riffs. Closing track ‘Náusea’ is another adventure. The first half of the track is largely based on riffs that by themselves could have been just another handful of thrash riffs, but the way they unfold feels truly fresh, and the massive, emotional climax of its second half is otherworldly.

However, when Miserable sticks a little closer to what thrash metal was in the eighties, their music manages to be every bit as enjoyable. ‘La Gran Voluntad’ is built upon a handful of uncomplicated, but excellent riffs that would have not been out of place on a classic thrash album. Opening track ‘Peste’ effectively toys with the time feel of the riffs to create a highly dynamic song, which is lifted to even greater heights by the skill of Miserable’s young drummer Diego Porturas. Those craving something a little closer to extreme metal should give ‘El Mal que Nos Eleva’ a shot.

Miserable proves that it’s perfectly possible to be influenced by classic thrash metal without sounding like a retro act largely operating on nostalgia. Both ‘Gran Náusea’ and its follow-up ‘Esclavo Miserable’ sound familiar, yet fresh. Also, they remain engaging when you listen to the albums multiple times, because the songwriting structures don’t follow the expected formula. While the songs have clear verses and choruses, they often end up being constructed fairly differently, making for an interesting listen every time. Some people complain that thrash just isn’t made as it used to be anymore. If you share that thought, Miserable should be right up your alley.

Recommended tracks: ‘Náusea’, ‘La Gran Voluntad’, ‘Venganza’

2024
01/14
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