|
Yet this is no ordinary metal concert. From
under his silver sombrero, trumpeter El Cucuy then breaks into a
mariachi melody, and Twisted Sister's classic "We're Not Gonna
Take It" morphs into its Mexican folk equivalent - "No
Toleraremos".
This is Metalachi, the self-proclaimed first and only heavy
metal mariachi band.
"I think we've transformed the music enough to say that we
actually came up with our own genre," El Cucuy (The
Bogeyman)told Reuters backstage at a recent Los Angeles concert.
"There's some people that consider either mariachi music or
metal music almost like a religion ... Every once in a while you
come across people like that, but most of the time, people love
what we do," he said.
Behind the flamboyant outfits and tongue in cheek stage names,
the band keep their true identities cloaked in mystery. They
hail from Los Angeles, may or may not be related to one another,
and have been playing together in one configuration or another
for about eight years.
Beyond that, they're not giving much away.
All classically trained mariachi musicians, the band plays in a
traditional five member set-up - vocals, guitar, violin, trumpet
and acoustic bass guitar, known as a guitarron. What's missing
is the drum kit, which is usually the backbone of heavy metal
music.
"The guitarron handles a lot of the bass drum parts," said
guitarist Paco Halen. "The guitar fills in a lot of the cymbal
work and the toms, the snares."
The usual lead guitar parts and solos fall to the electric
violin of Kyla Vera, the only woman in the band. A
self-described metalhead, she says metal fans have become
converts to mariachi after seeing Metalachi play.
"Everyone seems to have a really good time. Even if they weren't
into one or other of the genres, most of the time this kind of
bridges the gap for them," she said.
Metalachi are currently on a U.S. tour in support of their third
album, "Tres". In 2019, they are taking their fusion sound to
the high seas joining music fan cruises "Monsters of Rock" and "MegaCruise."
(Reporting by Jane Ross; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
