Second and final part of an interview to Ramon Restrepo by Giulio the Bastard. Besides playing bass and singing in BLASFEMIA, Ramon 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….

GTB- What are you currently doing? Are you still active playing music and what is your current musical activity focused on?

Ramon- Currently I alternate between my metal band (Ramón solo) and the Hardcore unit Restos De Tragedia (RDT). I am working on my boxset discography collection which includes, among others, the CD with my other songs from 1989 that were recovered in 2009 and were not included neither in Parabellum’s or Blasfemia’s discographies. This boxset will also contain a book documenting the story of all the bands I played in. Regarding the other member of Blasfemia, drummer Luis Fernando Cano, he did not play with any any other group  after Blasfemia, and is now dedicated to his family and profession.

GTB-  BLASFEMIA’s LP is entirely dedicated to John Jairo Martinez (RIP).  Can you explain in which tragic circumstances this true metal brother has died?

Ramon- I limit myself to translate an article regarding this story:

“Recently, one of the typically absurd violence manifestations plaguing this city took the life of John Jairo Martinez Villada, talented underground guitarist. Since very young he loved rock: a fan of Richie Blackmore, Toni Iommi, Jimmy Page and influenced by hundreds of other monsters of heavy, hard, and metal, John crazily got into playing electric guitar. His talent graced bands such as Metal Naciente, Nemesis, Parabellum, Blasfemia and Censura. After a few years and different recording experiences, many shows and involvement in the local music scene, John Jairo acquired a very good musical hear and became an expert rhythm guitarist, strong of a fast, emotional style. He crafted his own style, equalizing his Gibson guitar with a heavy, fuzzy distortion, and emphasizing the eerie reverbation effects pulling the strings with slow hands.

On Saturday March 21st, John Jairo was out having a few drinks and enjoying a good time after his usual rehearsal time with Censura, and around midnight, while walking home, he met his sad ending: after getting into a fight, he got stabbed the left side of his chest. One single stab was enough to get an almost bled to death John into the emergency room of Barrio san Javier.  Weeks before, he had violently manifested his anti-social feelings and stated that he was forecasting something weird, and evil. He left a three years old daughter orphan, a family and many friends lost in the grievance of his strong vital energy, and also a band full of dreams and good prospects for the future.

John Jairo Martinez Villada, university student, worker, bohemian poet, good friend, taster of human pleasures and above all rock musician. A bright star which disappears after only 30 years of fast, intense life: nevertheless, his energy still pulses in the music that he left as inheritance. Might Metal rock him in the grave!!”

GTB- How do you feel about the many bands of today playing extreme metal? is there any band in particular that you like most? Do you recognize the big influence of BLASFEMIA and PARABELLUM in some bands of today?

Ramon- Apart from my solo project, where Parabellum and Blasfemia’s influence is obvious, I have great admiration for a Bogota band of this generation (2009) called Belkant, whose music and lyrics are the closest thing I know to Parabellum and Blasfemia. As Blasfemia played during the beginning of early hardcore, RDT was the band in which I followed, keeping a lot of grindcore elements. I can also say that Medellin’s own Mordaz is also faithful to the archaic grind sound, and that its members, although being youngsters of the present generation, are very close to the extreme spirit of the musicians in Blasfemia and Parabellum.

GTB- fans of BLASFEMIA are also extremely devoted to the legend of PARABELLUM. Is there something about this band that you want to say here, in relation to BLASFEMIA?  When can we expect a definitive re-edition of the PARABELLUM discography just like this one that came out for BLASFEMIA?

Ramon- I would start off saying that for the bands of our genre, the term “fans” does not exist or is not seen beyond mere sympathy or shared musical identity, otherwise it would be only considered as proper for the vanity of commercial music mainstream. As a witness and official guide, I would ask them to get a hold of my book “Prepara la Guerra, una Blasfemia, Sacrilegio o una obra de metal autorrealizada” (translated as “Prepare War, Blasphemy, Sacrilege or a piece of DIY metal”) present in my boxset.
There have already been many unofficila Parabellum editions, and this has created legal problems. The ex-Parabellum members have agreed not to yield to new offers for re-editions, besides the material contained in my boxset which must logically include the album “Tempus Mortis”. Just as a job resume contains many job references, same will be for my own complete discography.

Ok, that’s all… remember that BLASFEMIA “Guerra Total” vinyl reissue can be purchased trough FOAD Records directly, just click on the following buttons and order via credit card on our Scareystore…

BLASFEMIA “Guerra Total” regular vinyl edition

BLASFEMIA “Guerra Total” Die Hard Columbian Flag colored vinyl edition

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.

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

PRE ORDERS OPEN NOW!! WE START SHIPPING ON MARCH 20TH 2011!

OFFICIAL DISCOGRAFIA TOTAL including some never released before ultra-rare recordings!! Legendary Colombian blackened Thrash apocalypse featuring members of the immortal cult PARABELLUM!!

BLASFEMIA are one of those rare legends making music dangerous: one of Colombia’s most brutal and obscure outfits, so fierce and deadly as the country’s drug lords and rebels… this official re-release testifies a pure gem of EVIL thrashed-out mangling of metal in its blackest, fuzziest form. Notoriously nondescript, early Columbian black/death metal was as much an acquired taste for even the most seasoned death metaller. The wicked trio of Jhon, Luis and Ramon manage to come out with some really god forsaken piece of extremity, horrible to the core and quite unintelligible blackened metal of depravity… BLASFEMIA kills with a torrential wall of mangled noise that reverberates sickly from the strings like a vomit fuzz , anticipating eagerly for you to say, “enough is enough”!  Torturing their instruments into a black mass ritualistic fucked up noise of cruel chantings and drunken poundings, BLASFEMIA is the real Southern American Nightmare, and this total reissue comes to bring the madness back from the grave, and testify it forever on!! It would have been tempting to compare them with Parabellum, Astaroth or Reencarnacion but neither of these musicians have crossed that far into such unspeakable lunacy. For that matter, hands down to BLASFEMIA… you’ll always be remembered.

First run of 500 copies, limited edition!!!

The first 150 copies come in an incredible tricolored vinyl edition, a yellow-blue-red extravaganza to celebrate the Colombian flag! Order it now before it’s too late!!

FOAD 017 – BLASFEMIA “Guerra total” LP

OFFICIAL DISCOGRAFIA TOTAL including some never released before ultra-rare recordings!! Legendary Colombian blackened Thrash apocalypse featuring members of the immortal cult PARABELLUM!! A torrential wall of mangled noise that reverberates sickly from the strings like a vomit fuzz , anticipating eagerly for you to say, “enough is enough”! This is the definitive edition you have been waiting for!! Horrible to the core and quite unintelligible blackened metal of depravity,  torturing their instruments into a black mass ritualistic fucked up noise of cruel chantings and drunken poundings, BLASFEMIA are the real Southern American Nightmare, and this total reissue comes to bring the madness back from the grave, and testify it forever on!!

Only 500 copies limited edition, being the first 150 an incredible tricolored vinyl edition, a yellow-blue-red extravaganza to celebrate the Colombian flag!

FOAD 019 – GHOSTRIDER “Mayhemic destruction + reh. ’84″ LP

Before the legendary Italian thrashers NECRODEATH came GHOSTRIDER , a name F.O.A.D. records fans should be well acquainted with… Infernal thrash till total death from 1984, for fans of VENOM, HELLHAMMER, SABBAT (Jpn), early DESTRUCTION and raw, cavernous horror! This is the improved (or extended version) re-issue of F.O.A.D. 008 10″. Believe it or not, when the 10″ came out, some crazy collectors contacted us saying that they had copies of the GHOSTRIDER Demo sounding way better than what we had released on vinyl (from masters provided by the original band members!).  Being the crazy collectors we are, we made a new selection out of 5 new sources and got back into the studio to obtain a new final mastering that sounds worlds BETTER than the sold out 10″… this release is by no means a remastered rip-off, because it is enriched by a 1st generation copy of the megarare rehearsal sessions from 1984… not even original drummer Mark Peso had a copy of that at home!!! On this improved version you’ll find completely unreleased songs and covers of VENOM and OMEN!!

Only 500 copies limited run,with 150 copies DIE-HARD edition printed in oxblood red vinyl!!