INTERVIEW WITH STRANGER BLAZE

The speed thrash metal band Stranger Blaze released their debut album one year ago and the second one, Soulbreaker, is coming soon; in the meantime the band gave us some time to answer key questions about their history, past, present and future of the band.

If you like to check the review of their 2013 album Let destrution begins, click here

Hello guys and Thank you for taking the time! Tell me a bit of history of the band, how did you decide the band's name?

Hey Hello and thanks for the space… well, basically the name of the band is because we were trying to get something to represent what we are doing with our music. You know, we come from a country that unfortunately hasn't a well-known band to represent our land, you know so we felt identified with these 2 words. Stranger, because, like I told you, we come from the unknown Mexican scene to the global metal stuff but we want to burn it down like a fire, a blaze (in a good sense haha). It could sound funny but that was the best option we had at that moment hahaha

 As far as I know the band was formed four years ago and the first full length was released last year, how do you value the process of creating and recording the album?

Stranger Blaze, as a band, started in 2011, 2010 was the year when we started to play guitar, and I’m talking about Albert Gaona and me. That foo taught me the first chords and notes on guitar, but in 2011 we completed the first line up. The LET DESTRUCTION BEGIN album was released in august 2013 but, we released the first EP in October 2011. The composition process was easy to be honest, it took a time when we were at recordings, cause it was the first time that we worked on the studio. The drums section was pretty quick to record, then the bass line stuff, the rhythm guitar section was very easy, but the real problem came with the lead guitar. at that time, the lead guitarist was not interested too much in the music business. This guy missed a lot of recording seasons, as a matter of fact, we lost a lot of time. But once completed, we didn’t have any other problem. The whole recording process took like 3 weeks so far. I can tell you that we tried to show what we felt in every single song at that time, we weren’t well experienced musicians at those days, but everything was honest, I mean, we don’t want to write about a billions of demons in a song just to make people think we are true and scary metalheads, we just wanted to put our ideas on the album. People could say "they are not the greatest band in the world but these motherfuckers are real.

You mention in your bio that the band started on a heavy speed metal style idea, but the final sound reveals a high thrash metal influence, how this influence came to the band's sound?

That’s a good question because nobody asked it before, but it is very simple, we love thrash metal bands specially Albert Gaona and me, since the beginning, we wanted to make fast music but a little bit different. Adolfo Sanchez, the current drummer, comes from black and death metal influences but we had clear that we would make fast shit and actually we love the results.

Its easy to see that you carry the true spirit of thrash metal attitude, how is the people reacting on the concerts?

The crowd is always insane, sometimes we are in the gig clubs, bars or whatever, and there are like 30 or 25 people and we are like "oh man this sucks" then we are on the stage and you see a lot of motherfuckers killing each other. They always multiply like fuckin' gremlins haha, it is awesome.

After your first album, how is the international metal scene reacting?

We received a lot of good reviews around the world, as an underground metal band, you don’t expect too much with the first strike, but this time it happened. we received good comments from people around the world, one guy in Osaka Japan asked us to send him a couple of CD's for his metal store, we already sent the album to Europe, the United States, and that shit is kicking over south America too...and obviously in Mexico. And after the Colombian tour the status of the band is growing and growing, like we say, you cannot stop the indestructible machinery...

I see how true metal in Mexico is getting bigger in consequence of the growing wave of traditional heavy metal bands worldwide, how do you value this situation?

It is a good thing but at the same time a bad thing, because there’s a lot of people listening to metal but a reality about this country is that always one wants to be better than the other one, the people is fighting each other to see who knows more about old school thrash metal bands, and it’s like, stop being a moron go and listen all the bands no matter if they are old or new, fuck that, it’s about the music, who cares if you know what colour Gary Holt´s underwear was when Exodus released Bonded by blood, just go and enjoy metal dawg .. But at the same time there are a lot of people with open mind that knows how to appreciate the new stuff as they do with old school music, I love that.

Could you name the bands that most influenced your style?

 Actually, I have non usual taste, because I can listen to Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, and Destruction but also I love Metalcore bands, like Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold, stuff like that. I like Mexican American rap music too, but I don’t let the rap world to influence my compositions haha. Albert Gaona prefers the old school metal stuff, bands like Slayer, Exodus, Violence, DRI, Testament, Heather, and Adolfo Sanchez is more like Cannibal corpse, Cannabis Corpse Immortal, Burzum, Brandon Reyes likes Thrash metal stuff but he is more into blues music.

The production is on the average quality as a first album for a independent release, how was the work with the band members in the studio?

At the beginning was kinda hard, cause like I told you we had not been working on the studio before, metronome was a challenge for us, but we beat that motherfucker. We wanted to make something professional, and I guess we did it. Every one of us knew the purpose and the expectative of the album, so we did our best on the recording seasons, and we enjoyed that shit as fuck.

You are working on the the second album, Soulbreaker, how do you feel recording this album?

We are exploring on different ways regardless of people comments, but we love to do it, and we know the people will enjoy this album from beginning to end, we are taking a time to think in every single detail, the purpose on this, is to make something bigger and better than the last album, we want to take the next step to find our own sound, it is exciting.

Could you anticipate any details of the new album? 

This shit will be fast, aggressive and technical; every single song will be like a kick in the balls and a punch in the face. you will find thrash metal, heavy metal, a lot of riffs, melodies, instrumental and technical songs...damn were gonna take the people from the neck and beat the shit down of them. At the lyrics you can find something to feel identified with, and real histories, for example there’s a song called "Into the gates of darkness" it is a song that i wrote when i got enough inspiration from the army life. There is the instrumental song "Dreams on the steel" dedicated to the Central American immigrants that cross Mexico to reach the American dream, leaving the family and facing death every single day just to give a better life to their people, real heroes dawg.

Have you had any promo agencies, record label offers since the release of Let destruction begins?

Well, to be honest, we received some invitations with Mexican agencies, but we wanted the first album to be independent, and we would try to get a label for the second one. So we're gonna send the album to some American and European labels, to spread the fire over the world.

Could you tell me how do you remember the best gig you performed?

 One of my favourites was the first one, because we were the unknown band, it was a homemade gig on someone’s backyard and that shit became a hell when we started to play... But homie, the real one wasn’t even in our country; it was in Bogota, Colombia. I remember that pretty well, full house, those fuckers killing each other, doing stage diving, singing the songs, I remember in the last song of the set list, it was thrash demolition, we asked the people  to make a wall of death.. that shit was a war zone, I remember after the show I saw some kids bleeding as fuck, and one of them was like, hey you Mexican fuckers, you are awesome this shit was the best gig in my life... and I was like "thanks foo it was mine too... by the way I’m sorry for your blood" hahaha

Which countries would you like to visit In the future?

Well we want to play in every single country around the world, right now we are planning to go to Central America, cause we heard those fuckers are insane and we want to be witnesses of that. Also we want to go to the rest of south America, visit Europe, Asia for sure and personally I want to go back to the United States, even if we have to go illegally, fuck the migra hahahha I’m kidding but yes, we want to break people ears over the United States too, Canada.. Basically we want to play in every single country on earth.

Which bands would you like to share stage with?

Obviously we have our favourite bands, personally I would like to play with bands like Angelus Apatrida, Trivium, Metallica, Exodus and those legendary bands, you know what I'm sayin'?

What are the plans after the release of your album Soulbreaker?

 Well were gonna make the first Official video, I won’t tell you which song we chose for that, it will be a surprise. also, we want to make a tour over central America, south America  and the big jump to Europe for sure, were gonna tour over Mexico again for sure, like I told you we would try to sign with some big world company, so we can spread the Stranger Blaze music easily over the world. We will work on the third album too; in fact, we already have a couple of ideas for the third one, so the indestructible machinery is getting bigger and stronger.  

To finalize, could you leave a message for your fans?

We don’t have fans, despite what fuckers think, we just have brothers and sisters, so we want to say to all our raza over there to support and believe in the new school metal bands, no matter which sub genre they play, if you love metal, take a chance to listen the new bands, support for their local scenes and stop being pendejos hahaha ... greetings to all the crazy fuckers around the world! 

Thank you very much guys! Hope we see you soon in Europe!

Thank you very much for the interview brother, peace

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Post by Daniel Ortiz from Metalheads Union and Metalheads Union FB