In Part I of an interview series with Cristian Machado of Ill Niño, among the many topics discussed with Ghost Cult scribe Aleida La Llave were the common bonds of Latinos in the metal community. One of the things that has always stood out about the band has been how heavy music has been intertwined with Latin culture and influences. Aleida asked Cristian about some of his experiences and how he feels about the state of Latinos in the metal and rock communities now, as opposed to when he first started out in the scene.
“Until I became a musician, a Latino in a metal band, and I got to meet a lot of the other bands that I had looked up to for years, I never realized how many Latinos were actually in those influential bands. The first time I met Tom Araya and Dave Lombardo from Slayer, we spoke Spanish. Fifty percent of Slayer was hanging out with us and speaking to us in Spanish so that was a really cool experience. Also, Robert Trujillo, a Latino who’s now in Metallica. Another hugely influential band, Suicidal Tendencies, and even hardcore bands like Agnostic Front and Roger Miret being a Latino and being able to speak Spanish with him. It depends on what band you’re looking at but there’s so many Latinos in the metal scene. Dino Cazares (Fear Factory), definitely one of the top five most influential guitar players in metal, he’s Latino and we talk in Spanish when we hang out. To me, it’s something that is already embedded in metal. Latinos are everywhere. They’re in a lot of bands that you would never even think that those guys speak Spanish but they do. It’s something that I never really took huge notice of until I started playing culture metal and started meeting people and they would be drawn to us more because we were pushing the culture thing and we came from the same part of the world rhythmically. They’ve always been there, we’re definitely not the first ones. We’re far from inventing anything, we’re just approaching it differently and definitely very focused on culture in metal.”
ALEIDA LA LLAVE
