Divas of Metal: The Colombian Chapter - Laura Paez

Greetings Almighty Legions,

And now, all the way from her comfortable bed in Bogota, Colombia, Yours Truly would like to report some serious Metal activity after being part of an event titled A Night of Pleasure at the Rottenblock (or Cuadra Picha, as it is most commonly known around here) this past Saturday night. Initially, I had gone for two reasons:
1. One of my new friends, whom I like to call Rocio Nocturno, was organizing the gig and made me promise her over a month and a half ago that I would attend, and
2. To support a friend's band who does a tribute to Manowar, called Pleasure Slave.

In all honesty, Manowar and I are in absolutely no way compatible, so whatever I say about the tribute itself will be completely bias and unfair to those who do enjoy that kind of music. Thus, I will reserve my opinion of the tribute to myself, and encourage you to check it out and see whether you like it or not. However, one is still ought to show some support, specially here, as bands really put their hearts and souls into what they do. On that note, I give the Manowar tribute an A+ for effort :)

Moving on... I had no expectations, whatsoever, about the bands that were going to play at the event. From what I was told a few weeks ago, I was to expect some Thrash, some Death and a serious Black Metal cult band, c'est-à-dire. After such vague description, all I could truly do was to go with an opened mind, bring lady camera along, and be alert to any surprise that potentially awaited for me.


I got there at around 8:30pm, which was supposedly an hour and a half after the show was scheduled to start. As I have mentioned before, this country and punctuality are not exactly synchronized, so as you may expect, the show had obviously not started by the time I arrived to the fine venue. By then, there were only around 20 bodies inside, which was not surprising at all, given that on that same evening another show was taking place on the other side of the city (Oh, it was just nothing, you shouldn't mind it, really. It was only Spain's most GORE-FIC BRUTAL DEATH METAL BAND OF ALL TIMES, AVULSED -so, nothing really...- Jesus "Sweet Lobotomy" Christ! GOD DAMN IT times 87256! and I FUCKING MISSED IT. I DESERVE NOTHING LESS THAN TO HAVE MY EYES EATEN BY CARNIVORE PLANTS AS LEMON IS POURED ONTO THEM, UGH!).


Anyway... back to where I left off (I am still trying to get over the last parenthesis). While waiting for Lethal Warrior to finish setting up, I made my way towards the bar and purchased a delicious beer just to kill sometime (that beer became more like 5, by the time the band managed to get its beans together. It was quite challenging not to succumb to the arms of pleasant sleep at that point; yet I gathered all my energy and remained awake like a champion ^.^). After a while of having my ears continuously bombarded by annoying feedback due to an awful sound setup, the band started playing what seemed to be a cover of Metallica's Seek and Destroy. Fair enough, there were some coordination problems among the musicians, and quite frankly I really think that even a band like, let's say Cannibal Corpse, would have had issues with that atrocious sound engineer. Anyway, that was something I was willing to overlook due to various reasons:

1. As I just mentioned, I had the alcohol of 5 beers running around my circulatory system, making me quite  forgiving and understanding,

 

2. I really, REALLY, like that song and the fact that they chose to open with it was a nice thing to do, and

 

3. I had bigger problems at the time, as I was trying to figure out a way to protect my eardrums from the horrendous feedback, which apparently was a challenge impossible to overcome by the person in charge of the sound. Jesus "Ouch, my fucking ears are bleeding" Christ.

So, back to the band. Something I had completely forgotten to mention (which is the main point of me writing this entry. Pardon me silliness) was that the band playing this spectacular song had two vocalists: a dude that looked like a Slayer fan and a lady with really long hair, fine facial features and a Gothic corset. First thought that went through my head: I am about to hear something that will probably sound like Nightwish or Tristania, which was not the frame of mind that I was in at the moment (had you asked me at the time, I would have said: Fuck that shit and I want my money back....), as I was looking for truly raw Metal.

Anyway, the music started:

♫tuntun tada tada tadadada

♫tuntun tada tada tadadada

♫tuntun tada tada tadadada

♫tadadadadad, tuntuntun tururu♫ 

And then goes the part of what usually sounds like James Hetfield going: 

Alright!♫

We are scanning the scene ♫

in the city tonight. ♫

...

♫

Not in this case (no, the lyrics weren't changed, but there was no sign of Hetfield influence). The voice that emanated from that stage sounded more like freakin' Martin Pedersen from Visceral Bleeding. Sweet Mother of Kirk Hammett and Rene Iguita! I was so perplexed that I even tried to associate such gruesomely awesome voice to the male counterpart of the band, yet after paying close attention, I realized all the power came from the lady singer. I got goosebumps from the excitement. 

I mean, how often do we come across a lady that does incredible guttural singing, without sucking some major African member? Yes often, but certainly not always. Pardon me if this sounds a little sexists, but the most extreme divisions within Metal are truly not meant to be sung by women, especially when the end result turns of to the something like Kitte (ew...). Fortunately, every rule has its exceptions, as it is seen in the following cases:

Ms. Angela Gossow from Swedish DM legend Arch Enemy 

Otep's Shamaya

Canadian Melodic Death Metal Queen, Alissa White-Gluz from The Agonist (Canuck Pride All the Way!!!)

Maria "Tristessa" Kolokouri, from the Greek Black Metal Band, Astarte

Bolivian Queen of Melodic Brutal Death Metal, Zdenka Prado, the lead vocalist of Cincinnati's Estuary

Candace Kucsulain from Walls of Jerico

Viktoria Belikova from Russian Nu-Metal Band, Save

Grindcore Princess, Mallika from Marlborough's Abnormality (this girl kicks some serious derriere!)

Pyrrah's Lead Vocalist, Christine P. Newman from my very own Toronto, Canada (Canuck Pride, all the way!!!!!)

Josephine, ex-Decompose my Dying Daughter (filthy naughty Brutal Grind)

And the list goes on (and yours truly is quite happy about that, by the way). This time I am thrilled to introduce a new name to the list above, and even more excited to announce that she's 100% Colombian product:

World: Meet Lady Laura Paez, Colombia's Death Metal Diva!

Her name is Laura Paez and she's the lead vocalist from Thrash/DM band Lethal Warrior from Bogota. The power behind this woman's vocal ability goes beyond anything I have ever seen live (hence me writing about it), and believe me, I have seen plenty. Even though things didn't work out that evening for Lethal Warrior, as an ensemble, I must express my contentment about having been a part of the event. Fortunately enough, I witnessed her full potential last night, as we ended up having a few drinks after Congregation Fest, where lady Laura and Mr. Bizzarrio from Cuentos de los Hermanos Grind had a full-on Brutal duet to Metallica's Enter Sandman. Oh, the power of booze makes moments like this priceless ☺.

From what I was told recently, they are working on a video and on more music, which will be posted on their Myspace website. For now, I will leave you with a rehearsal video of the band playing Seek and Destroy (the quality may not be the best, but I hope you are able to get a good grasp) and with the photos I took at the show.

Hails to the Diva of Colombian Death Metal! |m|

-Stay Metal-

Fraulein Andrea MMXI