GUILLERMO IZQUIERDO of ANGELUS APATRIDA Ahead of Upcoming Australian Tour
Marco caught up with Guillermo Izquierdo of Angelus Apatrida ahead of their upcoming Australian/New Zealand tour, with Aussie thrash legends Hidden Intent.
DS: Hey Guillermo, how are you doing today?
G: I'm pretty good. It’s 10am right now here, just woke up. So yes, start of a new day. How are you doing?
DS: I'm going well. Thank you. It’s 5pm here in the afternoon, different side of the world. Okay to get started, it's not long now until you're here in Australia. Are you looking forward to your Australian/New Zealand tour with Hidden Intent?
G: Yeah, yeah, of course. It's been a while since the last time there, we were there in 2016, so yeah, looking forward to doing this tour. I’d say it's gonna be a great time, doing these kind of underground tours especially with friends of ours like Hidden Intent, I’d say it’s going to be rad.
DS: What can Australian and New Zealand fans expect from these upcoming shows?
G: We’re actually introducing a new album, Aftermath, and there's been a lot of things that have happened since the last time there, so we’re a more mature band with much better spectacle with a super powerful show. I think it's gonna be, especially for the people who never saw us, they're gonna see a very powerful thrash metal band, and for the people that already saw us, I think everybody will be really, really surprised about the progress that we've been doing during this almost eight years.
DS: How has the response to the new album, Aftermath, been for the band?
G: Actually really good, all over the world all the reviews and all the comments that we're getting for Aftermath since it was released in October, it’s really good. I would say that maybe they are the best comments and reviews for an album so far. I think people are really, really digging this new album. Although it’s not like the most powerful I think actually it’s more a mix of all the efforts, a mix of all the ingredients of ideas of Angelus Apatrida. Yeah, I think it's the perfect presentation for somebody to hear us. I'm really sure that everybody agreed that it's our best album ever. It's already our eighth album but we’re like a band in constant growth and always trying to do new things, always trying to learn from ourselves and learn from our environment. So I think we put all these ingredients in this new album and I think everybody will be really surprised if they haven’t listened to it yet.
DS: Were there any particular albums or bands that you were listening to that helped shape the direction of Aftermath?
G: I would say, actually, the older we're getting the less music we’re listening to, to be influenced. I mean, we listen to a lot of music, to a lot of older bands, but you know, it's not the same like you do when you're a teenager and you try to copy your rock stars, that you want to sound like this or you want to sound like Iron Maiden, you want to sound like Megadeth, to sound like Sepultura or that kind of stuff. I think that during all these years we're trying to sound like ourselves the more we can and I think that especially during the last four or five years we're just influencing ourselves the most and trying to find something, which is really, really difficult nowadays like trying to find your own sound, particularly in heavy metal or thrash metal. It's really, really complicated to sound like fresh and original; of course everything is invented and we didn't invent the wheel, we're just playing metal, man. But even though, I think that we're reinventing ourselves with it with every new album. This is just a metal album with a lot of energy and I think, of course, there's a lot of influences there, the old time influences that everybody who knows the inner influences of any thrash metal band will find out their students of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, of course Metallica, Megadeth, Kreator, Sepultura, Nuclear Assault, everything from the Bay Area Thrash Metal, everything from the German Thrash Metal, all the way to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. But in the end it's just a heavy metal band trying to improve itself and trying to be relevant in this world of thousands of new bands every day. So honestly, we didn't invent anything and we're not the most original band ever, but I think we're a powerful band on stage and I think that whoever likes heavy metal, I think would love Angelus Apatrida.
DS: If you could put together a dream tour lineup for Angelus Apatrida, with bands past or present, who would you choose?
G: We've been lucky enough to play with almost all our heroes of all time. We’ve already played with the Big 4 bands. We’ve played with bands like Sacred Reich, Death Angel. We’ve played incredible festivals with huge bands. Maybe one of my dreams would be, I don't know, opening for Iron Maiden, even if it's not like the perfect match, but Iron Maiden is my favourite band ever, so yeah, if I could have the opportunity to open for them, you know, not play a festival together, but opening for them, I think it'd be something like a dream come true. And of course, entered in again a lineup like we played in 2011 with Slayer, Megadeth, we did a tour in Spain with them. Something like that would be also like a dream. But yeah, definitely I will stick to opening for Iron Maiden.
DS: If you could put together a Big 4 of modern thrash, who would you choose, and you can include yourselves as well?
G: Including ourselves? (laughs) Well, I would try to do with the newer bands, of course. Yeah, uh, I would choose Havok from Denver, Colorado, they’re good friends of ours. Um, maybe I would take Warbringer as well, and of course the Aussie brothers Hidden Intent and Angelus Apatrida, yeah, that would be the new Big 4, why not? (laughs). There's a lot of new thrash metal bands, okay, let's say “new,” all these bands, we come from the early 2000s-2010s like Warbringer, Havok, Gamma Bomb, Municipal Waste of course, Power Trip, it’s just amazing and I think it's a really, really good second wave of thrash metal bands. I think it's really, really sick.
DS: Finally, is there anything you'd like to say to your Australian and New Zealand fans before your upcoming tour?
G: Just do your homework, if you still don’t know anything about us just go to our social media, just go to Spotify and just play some tunes. I am pretty sure that you will be surprised and for all the people that already know the band, just expect a really nice tour, fun shows and all the energy, because we've been touring for a long time and we're doing a tour right now in Spain and we're doing really incredible shows. So we're coming down there with a lot of energy. So you better be ready!
ANGELUS APATRIDA w/ HIDDEN INTENT – AFTERMATH AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2024
February 15th – Perth – Amplifier Bar
February 17th – Adelaide – Churches of Steel Festival
February 21st – Melbourne – Bendigo Hotel
February 22nd – Canberra – The Basement
February 23rd – Wagga Wagga – Tilly’s
February 24th – Sydney – The Duke – FREE ENTRY
February 25th – Newcastle – Hamilton Station
February 27th – Brisbane – Stranded Bar
February 28th – Gold Coast – Vinnies Dive
TICKETS ON SALE NOW FROM:
www.churchesofsteel.com/events
