So as you all know by my introduceyourself post, I am a gringo living in southern Chile.
Well last night, I went to my first Chilean version of a metal concert and it was a blast!
I have some friends that have come together to create a christian metal (yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh it up at the thought of that genre) band and they were able to contact the Brazilian band "Antidemon" and join their concert date in Puerto Montt during their "Apocalypse Now" world tour. There were a total of three bands; Soriasis from Temuco, Chile, Consumado from Puerto Montt, Chile and Antidemon from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In the above picture is the lead singer/bassist of Antidemon -Antonio Batista. He is incredibly talented. Contrary to popular belief, the sounds that are made in metal vocals are very challenging to make....So no, he's not actually screaming, but rather distorting his voice, Similar to how you would distort a guitar. I took the crappy photo on the left with my phone, from quite a distance, so that's why it is blurry. The picture on the right is from here - source
In this picture is the drummer Juliana Batista and she's an incredible drummer. She is also Antonio's wife. How cool is that? I mean, a couple doing what they truly love together and spreading the word of the Lord at the same time? Awesome. Again, left picture is mine and right picture is from here - source
And above in this picture is the lead guitarist Marcelo Alves. His 'fro was pretty great. After the concert he came up to me, shook my hand and proceeded to tell me that I would make a good jujitsu fighter...I'm assuming because I was one of the tallest/largest people there. haha (Chilenos are typically rather short). Aaaand again, the left photo is from the concert and the right photo is from here - source
When I was around 14, I saw the music video for "crawling" by Linkin Park on a music channel called FUSE. I like to consider Linkin Park my gateway-drug as they caused me to fall down the rabbit hole known as alternative rock. Later on I began listening to more metal bands such as August Burns Red, Haste the Day, Underoath and War of Ages. My love for metal and the deep lyrics behind most metal songs grew and began to run deep. I went to many concerts throughout my teenage years and loved every thing about them -the loud music, the hype, the moshing, the realness that metal lovers seemed to have..all of it.
Obviously metal isn't for everyone, but it's one of my favorite genre's of music, and it will always remain nostalgic to me.
This concert was very different than what I was used to in the states. There were very few people there, which in turn meant there was no moshing nor other craziness. Also, music venues aren't really a thing here, so this concert was held in a school gymnasium...which means that there was a lot of echoing. I will say though, that this experience will never be forgotten and I will definitely be going to the next one that I am invited to. I had a blast.
Here are a couple videos from the concert: