Metal Church - 1st Album Remastered

Compared to newer albums, the albums that were released on CD during the late 80's and much of the 90's had a very low volume and in some cases some very "tame" mastering. Such is the case of Metal Church's debut album. A thrash metal classic, this album was released in the 80's, thus the sound is tiny and lacks the punch of current metal releases. Now, I'm not a sound tech geek, but at least I think an OK job in making this album sound fuller (higher volume, more pronounced bass).

Perfectly tagged and compressed into high quality (160 kbps) mp3. Enjoy!

Download:

http://www.mediafire.com/?jnydmwnn3mg

Draksen: El Album!

En español:

Bueno, para todos aquellos que habian querido tener nuestro material en MP3, aqui esta! Es el album que grabamos para Mix Records en 1993. En Diciembre del año pasado, Tuti Perales de los Studios OIGO lo re-masterizó. El disco esta comprimido en mp3 de alta calidad (160 kbps) y esta con sus tags correctos, asi que solo tienen que arrastrar y dejar caer en su iTunes o el programa que usen para administrar musica.
Muchos de ustedes solo conocieron nuestro demo, "From Beyond" (el cual pronto pondre para download), pero aqui encontraran algunas canciones que salieron en ese demo pero tocadas mucho mejor y con un sonido más brutal y tecnico.
Aprovecho este espacio para agradecer a algunas de las personas y bandas que fueron nuestros amigos durante los casi 8 años de existencia de Draksen: Todos los ex-miembros de Draksen: Martin Lugo, Andres Rodriguez, Oscar "Jobito" Del Rio, Luiz Ahumada, Francisco Uribe, Mike Moon, Fabian Medina, Ignacio "Tacho" Torres, Alejandro Isaac, Carlos Muñoz y Gregg Argenziano. Tambien a: Cesar "Lennon" Romero, Juan Carlos y Victor Guerrero, PENTAGRAM, TWITCH, SEDICION, MELLISSA, MURDER, Ariel Dueñas, Olinka Villanueva, Ramiro "Master", Juan Carlos Flores, Sergio Naranjo y Roberto Catalan de Mix Records, Arturo "Tuti" Perales, Galo Ochoa, Carlos Avilez, TRANSMETAL, NEXT, MORTUARY, CENOTAPH, ATTOXXXICO, ANARCHUS, RIPPING FLESH/AGONY LORDS, GLADIATORA CLAN, DEMOLISH, Luis "Temo" Dominguez, Alejandro "Pantera" Sanchez, Globy Thompson, Las revistas ROCK POP, SONIDO, BANDA ROCKERA, METAL MANIACS, HEAVY METAL SUBTERRANEO, CREEM's THRASH METAL, THRASH METAL España, todos los fanzines que nos apoyaron en Peru, Chile, Francia, Alemania, U.S.A, Mexico, Brasil, Noruego, Suecia, Inglaterra, etc... Pedro Rodriguez, Cesar Perez, Carlos Suarez, Aldo Muñoz, LOS CONTRAS, CUCA, TENEBRARUM, EXTINCION CEREBRAL, FAECAL TRIPE, SACRED REICH, IRON MAIDEN, Los Nitos, Luis London, Veronica Negrete, Roberto "Compa" De Alba, BRUTAL, GARIGOLES, Lauris Morales, las tiendas 5to Poder, Los programas de radio: ALEACIONES, EL DESPEÑADERO, SUBMISION, Valentin Segura, DEVASTER, MORTEM, A.D.I., ASTAROT, ESCAPE (ags), SIX BEER, PUÑO DE HIERRO, BESTIAL INVASION, Javier Carabaggio, Jesus Huerta, Mauricio Borrego, Miguel Angel Lares, Carlos Sainz, Gabriel Uribe, Luis "Megarocker", Jorge "Rocker" Godinez, Toda la gente que alguna vez nos escribio (son un buen!), etc, etc, etc!

Espero poder actualizar esta lista de manera periodica ya que obviamente algunas personas/bandas/publicaciones se me fueron por ahi!

Draksen: The Album

A lot of people have asked for this so here it goes: the complete, remastered debut album from 1993. It was sad that our label at the time, Mix Records (a small, local, independent label) deemed that our material was not a "priority" to be released on the then "new" format (compact disc). This lead a lot of our followers to believe that we'd just done a better sounding demo with re-recorded versions of old demos and some new songs. The album took us about 2 months to finish because other Mix Records projects got in the way that were "priority".

We were originally signed to release 3 albums and, by the time we broke up, we had at least 6 songs finished or close to being finished for the second album.

Not only Mix Records had something to do with our demise. Timing, which is everything to a band, played a crucial role. By late 1993, alternative/grunge music was dominating the airwaves. Not that I hated it, mind you, in fact, I was all for it. Better that than the new Madonna, don't you think? Anyway, locally, it wasn't "grunge" that killed our "thrash". It was somenthing more "ironic": Death Metal. Even our ex-manager at the time told me that we needed to "downtune" our guitars and sound more "aggressive". Mmmm. I wonder if he ever truly listened to the album. It sounds pretty aggressive to me. Because of our technical sound and our tendency to do Metallica covers (as well as doing some Sepultura, Megadeth, Bad Religion & Nuclear Assault tunes), people thought we were going "soft". Mmm. Still, we managed to play with just about any hard sounding band, from SEDICION to CENOTAPH to peers TRANSMETAL.

After the break up, we lost contact with Mix Records, who folded a couple of years later. All we had were some copies of our album ON CASSETTE!!! Early in 2001 I did a digital transfer from my tape to mp3. It sounded ok, but with lots of hiss. Luckily, a couple of years later I managed to contact the guy who had the original DAT tape of the album. Unfortunately, DAT machines are hard to come by these days and it took me a while to find someone who had one and someone who could to a decent transfer.
After many unsuccessful attempts, in December 2008 I contacted Arturo "Tuti" Perales at OIGO Studios to do a transfer and a remastering. Tuti did our first demo, the one that got us the record deal, as well as bands such as CENOTAPH, GARIGOLES and AGONY LORDS.
Tuti did a great job but he could only do so much with the original sound. The people who recorded our album at Mix Records Studios were not too good at recording and mixing a thrash metal band, thus the sound was not entirely to our liking. Still, it was the tighest we've ever been as a band, so it was better than nothing.

We decided to re record songs from old demos as to give them an update. After all, tons of bands do that: Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, etc. So why not us? "Thrashcore" ended up sounding really aggressive, a far cry from the cheap sounding "thrashcore" demo. "From Beyond" took on a whole new level and "I Want My Money Back" finally sounded proper. The new songs were obviously our favorites: "Bigger Than Life" was a sign of the more technical direction Draksen adopted when Alex Isaac, Tacho Torres and Fabian Medina came on board. It was one of the more difficult songs to record. "Improved Hatred" had a riff that was just as hard as a solo! It was played blazingly fast, a mixture of SADUS and WEHRMACHT, or so I think. "Subversive" was also one of the newer songs and it had many time changes.
The original album missed one track, "Uncertainty" which is restored to the complete album. I had my reservations with the way I sang the song. It became a live favorite despite being the most radically different Draksen song. It was our, dare I say, "grunge" song! Still, for a "grunge" song, it had plenty of solos, double bass, palm muting and time changes. This was the song that Mix Records liked the most and were interested in us exploring this side on the next album. In the end, it was decided to include the song on the next album, which would've been half thrash, half this type of song.

I hope you guys enjoy the album. It is compressed in high quality mp3 (160 kbps) and perfectly tagged. Just drag and drop into iTunes or whatever program you have to administrate songs. Let me know what you think of it and for those old school fans, I'll be uploading the "From Beyond" demo in January 2010. Stay in touch!

Download!

http://www.mediafire.com/?zr4hjjknjom

Stamina - Parte I

Stamina fue la banda a la que perteneci al poco tiempo que se desintegro Draksen. Yo estaba buscando hacer algo un poco mas melodico y sin tantos cambios de tiempo en las canciones, asi que cuando mi amigo Luis "Temo" Dominguez me comento que queria hacer algo por esas lineas decidimos formar Stamina. Luis ya tenia algun rato con Alex "Pantera" Sanchez (Luis en el bajo y Alex en la guitarra). De inicio pensamos en un vocalista e inclusive audicionamos gente (ya ni me acuerdo quien fue o quienes eran!). Al final (para variar) quede de vocalista una vez mas. Nos hacia falta un baterista para concluir la alineacion. Debido a la ruptura de Draksen, originalmente no pense en Ignacio "Tacho" Torres; habiamos quedado de tomarnos un buen tiempo aparte y que cada quien siguiera con sus proyectos individuales de musica. Pero cuando Temo me dice que hablo con Tacho y aceptaba entrar, realmente me anime porque Tacho es un gran baterista y sabia que ibamos a hacer algo interesante.

Oficialmente la banda empieza a formarse en Diciembre del '95 y para Marzo del '95 ya estabamos ensayando material original. Para Octubre del mismo año, armados con 3 canciones bien ensayadas, entramos a los Estudios Oigo de Arturo "Titi" Perales. Tuti es un excelente ingeniero de sonido y sabiamos que sacariamos un sonido con el cual estariamos contentos. Para una produccion de 9 horas (incluyendo mezcla!), "Quicker" salio bastante bien y es quizas, a manera muy personal, la mejor grabacion que jamas haya hecho en mi vida, en terminos de calidad sonora. Los temas que grabamos eran distintos unos de otros; "Stay True" tiene una influencia medio PIXIES y SUGAR, mientras que "Second Thought" es mas "dark", con un sonido grunge metalico a la ALICE IN CHAINS, SOUNDGARDEN y NIRVANA. Para cerrar, y retomando la velocidad a mil por hora de Draksen, "Osteoporosis" fue nuestra propuesta de "thrash-pop"; melodico pero intensamente rapido, inspirado en el hardcore de 7 SECONDS, SNUFF y LAGWAGON.
La gente que lo oyo le agrado y nos abrio muchas puertas, sin embargo, la misma variedad nos puso limitantes. Hubo una compañia que nos dijo que le gustaba mucho la banda, pero ellos buscaban algo mas en la onda de "Osteoporosis", o sea, hardcore rapido! De igual manera, alguien mas por ahi comento que si las canciones fueran mas a la "Stay True" nos tomarian en cuenta. En lo personal, concluimos que esta muy dificil darle gusto a todos y tocamos las canciones que a nuestros oidos se oian bien.

Entrando el '96, con muchos proyectos en stand-by y ya ensayando material nuevo, Temo decide dejar el grupo, lo que nos quito mucho momentum y delisiono. Ironicamente, en su lugar entro Fabian Medina, amigo y bajista de Draksen, asi que, durante el tiempo que el estubo, Stamina era "casi" Draksen! Esto, creo que causo aun mas que ciertas personas nos odiaran y nos gritaran "vendidos" !!! Al salir Fabian, entra Juan Pablo "Nito" en su lugar. Nito era fan del Stamina que toca rolas como "Osteoporosis". El lado mas "grunge" no le interesaba tanto. Aun asi, con el en la alineacion, Stamina toca en el festival del libro infantil, "Papirolas" en Guadalajara, lo cual fue uno de los puntos altos en la historia de la banda.

Al Poco tiempo que sale Nito, Alex Sanchez tambien sale por sus compromisos en la universidad. La verdad ya no me acuerdo bien como estubieron los meses siguientes pero cuando la arena se asento, Cesar Medina (hermano de Fabian y ex-guitarrista del grupo de thrash DEMOLISH) entra en el lugar de Alex y Salvador "Chava" Ponce en el bajo. Chava era una persona extremadamente calmada y en esa epoca estaba estudiando musica. Llegue a pensar que quizas la musica de Stamina era "poca cosa" para el, pero al contrario. Chava tocaba con los dedos y le dio otra tonalidad a la banda. Con esta alineacion, Stamina toca en el foro alicia en la ciudad de Mexico en 1998, otro punto alto para Stamina.

Para 1999, Cesar deja la banda (ya ni me acuerdo en que mes o porque razones se fue) y durante el resto de ese año Stamina queda como trio. La banda realmente desapareció cuando Tacho se retira y Chava casi detras de el. Carlos "Bauti" Bautista del grupo local X entra como baterista y un amigo de Nito, "Jason" toma el lugar del bajo. Bauti, a parte de baterista, es compositor, asi que fue grato tocar temas que no fueran mios. "Hacia Adelante" fue un tema de Bauti que tocamos en el Hard Rock Live, abriendo para NOFX. Por desgracia, ese fue el ultimo concierto de Stamina en Gudalajara por los siguientes 5 años. Entrando el año 2000, por cuestiones de trabajo me mudo a la ciudad de Tepic, en donde el proyecto de Stamina se resucita una vez mas...


continuará!




Descarga la coleccion oficial de Stamina:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mmddmmdmgmt

Hardcore Anarchy, Vol. I

Hardcore was a big influence to Draksen. As with most thrash bands of the era, what we mostly borrowed from hardcore punk was the sheer intensity and aggression an the speed of the music. Some of our songs were all out hardcore songs, like "El Informe" and "I Want My Money Back". I was so fond of hardcore back then (86-89) that I began making my own compilation tapes. Back then it was difficult to get your hands on a lot of hardcore albums. In Mexico we only got what was popular, underground-wise, in the U.S. A lot of the scene's most valuable bands were never even heard at the time. Still, through tape trading and record buying and borrowing I had the chance to listen to most of hardcore's key bands: Black Flag, Minor Threat, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, D.R.I., Agnostic Front, Bad Brains, Hüsker Dü, Suicidal Tendencies, G.B.H., Discharge, etc.

I named my compilation tapes "Hardcore Anarchy". I did my first compilation in mid 1987 and from then on I did one 90 minute compilation tape a year until 1999 (14 years of Anarchy!!!).

Now I present to you a sort of "best of" Hardcore Anarchy. It's a personal compilation but I think you'll like it. The MP3's are properly tagged and volume level is even on all tracks. Hope I'm not breaking any rulz becuase this is a self made compilation.

Download and enjoy!



Hardcore Anarchy, Vol. I :

http://www.mediafire.com/file/xmn4uzwzkwh/Hardcore Anarchy Vol 1.rar