BLASFEMIA “Guerra Total” LP reissue out TODAY: an interview with RAMON RESTREPO! Part 1
To introduce the official street release date of BLASFEMIA “Guerra Total” vinyl reissue on FOAD Records, we are proud to present an interview with original PARABELLUM and BLASFEMIA‘s lead vocalist/bassist Ramon Restrepo.
We are particularly excited about this re-release because, in the thrashy gold-digging tradition of FOAD, we have unearthed a seminal gem of pure EVIL transferred into music. An introduction to BLASFEMIA is necessary: forget all the preconceived Western stereotypes about extreme music, and try to clear off your mind, because the historical sense of this band cannot be understood trough the filters of others more institutionalized forms of black and death metal.
BLASFEMIA are as dark as the streets of 80’s Colombia, where drug lords and racket tycoons ruled the daily chronicles. As a consequence, “growing up wrong” and getting a guitar would not have necessarily created the same effect as it did to many more “fortunate sons” in other parts of the Western world. South America, and especially Colombia in the 80s, was a place where playing bestial black-death-thrash-war metal was a necessity, not a scene trend for cool death metallers. This is why BLASFEMIA‘s sound is so primitive, distorted, almost unbearable… a true incarnation of real pain, violence, death and social mischief. There is one Colombian movie that could depict in truthful details the scenery of misery, nihilism and fear the country was experiencing back in the day, “Rodrigo D.: no futuro”. It is not a case that BLASFEMIA are featured in the movie, ripping ears with their immortal hymn “Postmortem”. BLASFEMIA is the musical equivalent of a Colombian necktie, or better, when you get your throat sliced from side to side and your tongue is pulled out of the deadly cut, sticking out like a freaky, gross tie. Can you understand what I mean, or you better go back to the safety of your Cannibal Corpse Cds??
Coming to Ramon, he is one of our personal heroes and, besides playing bass and singing in BLASFEMIA, is the frontman of raging hardcore speed violence RESTOS DE TRAGEDIA, and singer of total South American black metal piooners PARABELLUM (1983!!), so shrieky, lewd and horrendous to put Dead-era MAYHEM to pose on the bandwagon of the “corpse paint” sissies…. this two part interview is a presentation of the seminal complete discography release you can now purchase on FOAD, and a testament of true death, deep from the beginning of the 80s musical hell. But now it is time for Ramon to speak…
GTB- How do you feel about seeing the legendary “Guerra total” LP finally re-released on vinyl after so many years?
Ramon- This reissue is so significant for me as a rocker who has resisted and survived all kinds of wars and personal tribulations, all the time. I am excited knowing that everyone welcomes this work with passion, and considers it as our ultimate musical heritage. 23 years ago, in the mid-80s Medellin, Colombia, BLASFEMIA made his way through the dark, barbaric and widespread injustice plaguing our social environment. The members felt the need and obligation to bring a significant contribution to metal, to balance the emotional burden endured during those crazy years, and the radical sound and extreme contents could express the harsh reality of the moment. This strength supported the formation of an identity, a movement you can call Metal or Ultra Metal, which has also stood as a resistance to the exploitation and trade of this music genre.
Initially conceived as a radical musical genre, and very regionalist (this music was only for the city’s metalheads, with little attention to anything happening elsewhere), later on we adopted a broader way of thinking, seeing things to the national level. Today, I can see that this recognition has reached more expansive levels.
As an active vocalist and representative of the band, I would like to see this reissue on vinyl becoming the lead start to the possibility of being invited to perform the songs on this release at international festivals. Furthermore, I have other old material retrieved from the vaults of time, and I would like to have other releases out, in order to give more living proof of the Colombian metal scene to the present and future generations of rockers.
- BLASFEMIA- Ramon rocking the Dead out of Hell!
GTB- What are the best memories coming back to your mind when you think about the period when BLASFEMIA were together?
Ramon- Today I acknowledge the past difficulties of those times as good memories, because I am sure that If we had had more support, enough money, and a comfortable and peaceful life, the making of BLASFEMIA “Guerra Total” would not have been possible. I also think back to those groups of friends in the gains, the energy of the scene, as well as to those moments of inspiration where all the elements that would serve to compose or bring life to a new song convey at once, and even better the day when those songs ended up captured on tape.
GTB- BLASFEMIA’s music is very noisy and fast for those years, it’s like you guys were among the true pioneers of extreme music in South America. What were the main influences that gave you the start to play this kind of music?
Ramon- For the guitarist John Jairo and me, our previous band Parabellum was undoubtedly the biggest influence, but only on a musical level. As far as the lyrics were concerned, we shared a desire to go beyond Parabellum’s ideas; of course our roots belongs to those non-commercial hard rock bands which we used to call “old school”, as well as the heavier sounds coming from the rest of North America.
Medellin black brigades of primitive thrash, Colombia
GTB- Your sound transmits a feeling of rawness, rage and violence that is unique and much more effective than those band with a super production and ultra-skilled musicians. How much the violent reality of Colombia has affected your rage and your attitude in playing extreme music?
Ramon- Because of the lack of economic resources, little could be done to absorb and reproduce a “foreign sound”, we had to adjust to what was available: not professional instruments, anti-musical techniques (the musicians were largely so-called musicians), few practice rooms, limited family support and lack of friends with money, insecurity for the common crime happenings, police raids, political corruption and false religion, war between mafias and their consequences, the screwed ones among our bunch who were never missing, the metal lifestyle… all of this characterized our sound, called Ultra metal or anti-technique. Also other situations helped the definition of that crude, loud and heavy sound… and that is exactly what everyone of us had inside, and the bad critics didn’t matter, as long as we could keep on relieving the heart playing metal.
TO BE CONTINUED
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