Razo. Interview with Val Barr

Interview by Andrew Stanton

Razo are a cool new Death Metal band from Bogota, Colombia. Andrew Stanton found out about this cool band.

- Can you tell our readers a bit about your story, please?

“We are a Thrash Death Metal band founded in the middle of 2013, in Bogota, Colombia, by the vocalist JONATHAN CUARAN and the first guitarist of this band CAMILO DUARTE; both were completing their musical studies. Over time new members arrived, our current drummer John Manzano and I VAL BARR. In 2022 we started with new members in our crew such as Sebastian Gomez Guitarist, Jairo Rubiano Cellist, and Steven Murcia bass. The objective of the band is to influence, transmit, and inspire people, in addition to giving our contribution to national Metal, innovating and creating new trends. We have a record album entitled «DEATHLESS», which has 10 songs; nowadays we are working to release 6 new songs with their video clip. It is difficult, but we are doing it with a lot of love. In addition, 3 singles that you can listen to on the main streaming platforms.”

- What bands did you like growing up?

“I liked Iron Maiden when I was a child because my older brother listened to it a lot, I also liked the music of the 80’s like Journey, Kim Carnes, culture club, among others, over time when I was teenager I liked Six Feet Under, Carcass, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, and some Colombian’s bands such as Leishmaniasis and Massacre among others.”

- What are your lyrics about?

“We have many songs, some of them are about the displacement in Colombia due to violence, and real life situations in our country, also we are inspired by pieces of literature and write about it, for example “The art of war by sun Tzu or the portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, we play with Dadaist poems, we also like to explore.”

- Why do you choose to sing in English and Spanish?

“Jony Razo and I want to reach to different audiences around the world, so we think that we can achieve this singing in both languages; each language has its own peculiarities, for example Spanish is a Romance language, so the words sound a little more delicately while in English those words sound more elegant.”

- Your logo reminds me very much like that of a Punk band. Is this intentional?

“We wanted to go back to how logos were before, the designs now are minimalist and out of context, most of the bands are using this kind of designs, for that reason we wanted to break rules with this trend to make a difference, attract attention, make that people turned their faces to see it, and keep in their memory.”

- How far are you off your new EP? What can fans expect from it?

“Our EP is going to be full of power from Razo Metal with energy to spare, it will be produced by Mitic re- cords from Norway, and we work with Alejandro Guido a bass guitarist from Mexico as a special guest; also we record a video clip to this song.”

- Is there a tour being planned?

“Of course, we had already be part of different festivals around Colombia, some years ago we have our own Metal festival in order to share our songs and help others bands that were started at that moment. Now with our collaboration with Alejandro we want to start our international tour next year with dates in Colombia and Mexico, and then we will see which other countries we can add in this journey.”

- Are your members associated with any other bands?

“All the members are committed with Razo, because they know that responsibility with the band is very important.”

- Do you have a message for our readers?

“The truth is that a few people like Metal and those kinds musical genders, my message is that we cannot allow to lose this music style, we should support more between Metal bands to make this music gender be appreciated for new generations around the world. Also, don’t forget to explore Latin American metal bands, it is done with a lot of professionalism and a lot of heart. I send a cordial greeting to all the readers of “Inside the Darkness, especially to you, Andrew, for allowing us to be in your magazine. You can also follow us on our web page www.razometal.com , on the main streaming platforms such as spotify, deezer, and itunes, our social networks,

TWITTER: @Razometal

INSTAGRAM @Razometal

FACEBOOK: Razometal

e-mail: info@razometal.com.”