El Diablo is a mexican psychedelic stoner power rock trio which includes ex-members from The Sweet Leaf, 34-D and Bloodsoaked. They have at least two recordings on CD.
http://www.myspace.com/eldiablorocks

EL DIABLO IS AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN: FERNANDO BENITEZ (drums) VIC SANTILLAN (bass) and IVAN NIEBLAS (guitar and ocassional vocals).

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We are EL DIABLO and that should be enough saying!. But before you think we're a satanic cult, a black metal band, the resurrection of Anton La Vey, a bad B-movie or any other nonsense you think of, well you're wong. Broes and sistas:

¡¡EL DIABLO IS A ROCK BAND!!!!!!!


We came up from the ashes of 34-D, a pretty forgettable hardcore band by the way.

Iván (guitar, ex/Obliteration, Trauma, Una Realidad Aparte, Bloodsoaked), Fernando (drums, ex/Raxas, Death Arise, Acrostic, The Sweet Leaf), and Gerardo (vocals, ex/Suicidio Juvenil) left the Warpig (bass and fascism ex/Atoxxxico, Suicidio Juvenil) and wondered what to do.

EL DIABLO started playing a psychedelic riff- rock induced by loads of pot and mushrooms, after realizing that hardcore was no longer fun ("you know, you grow older and the body no longer works as it should, aside doing illegal subtances MAKES YOU have to play slow like hell!!). Get rid of that stupid moniker 34-D ("well, what with it, dammit?!. At that time we thought it was a cool name, give us a break!!. Hey, are we talking to ourselves here?!") was the first step.

Then our lord EL DIABLO did the rest: sent us after millions of failures and countless losers the right bass player: El Shaggy (bass, ex/Semefo, Esperpento), ("¡at least a fucker on the same trip like us!").

We started jamming some songs, played live a few times, then entered Estudios Tequila in México ("Oh yeah, that's where we're from!"). And recorded a couple of songs.

The tunes included on that, now classic, first recording were:
Piss and Love, Mirror Love, Price to pay, Dragonfly, Space Butterfly Blues, Dance with the devil, Grand Finale and our "piece d' resistance" (Hats Off To) Edgar Broughton.

With a little help from our friends, added cowbell, congas, sitar, maracas and flute, getting a wider spectrum to our riff-rock trio line up. The lyrics were about Iván 's problems with his then girlfriend (" you really don't want to know about it do ya?. OK good, Iván soon will open 'Sgt. Nieblas Lonely Heart´s Club Site' on the net"), and the rest were about Fernando and Gerardo's drug bad tripping.

So, the record was on and we just needed someone to release it. We tried some of the local record labels but they told us: "I'ts too slow", "Sounds so old", "Bring us some ska or hip hop and we sign right now", "We'll call you".

Then all hell's broke loose: Shaggy got married and left the band, Gerardo's interest on the band decreased due to his lack of good singing, among many other reasons. So we stayed bassless until Jesús (bass, ex/QV7) showed up ("not the uncomprehended hippie commy, you fools!"), and played a while with us.

Shaggy got back, so Jesús ("who by the way resembles more to Glenn Danzig than to that guy on the cross") took on second guitar but that didn'd last long thanks to Shaggy who went off again to take care of a little child coming from París.

And Jesús took off trying to get together his Van Halen-Marilyn Manson project ("you really don't wanna hear it, trust us, you really don't!. OK the guy is still looking for a drummer, but be forwarned: your hair's gotta look like ¡ Stryper!. hell no!").

We played a last gig with Shaggy and there we met Vic (bass, ex/The Crush) our actual bass player. He came to our rehearsal space, jammed a little, didn't talk at all; he didn't even drank water, and well, he was in the band!!. Later Gerardo left to get married too ("what the hell is wrong with this people anyway?!"). Iván took on the vocal duties ("and play guitar at the same time, wich is a pain in the ass! Iván's note").

New and better songs were created and rehearsed. The trio line up was the better way to work. Now we had bigger amplifiers, better drums set and a shitload of weird effect pedals!.

So we combined our twisted mental trips ala: Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Guru Guru, Amon Dull, Blind Faith, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Miles Davis, Can, Bloodrock, Decibel, Magma, Humus, Alexandro Jodorowsky, King Crimson, Cream, Plastic People of the Universe, Iron Butterfly, Santana, Embryo, Captain Beyond, The Corporation, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Gong, Gravy Train with the groovy, bearded, thick and heavy rock of: Black Sabbath,COC, Nebula, Monster Magnet, Fu Manchu, Spiritual Beggars, Budgie, Ace Frehley, Kyuss, QOTSA, Down, Firebird, Atomic Bitchwax.

All of a sudden we had a bunch of new songs (almost 20 and still counting) to record. We decided doing it again at Estudios Tequila, and record only ("not for lacking of will, but of money") the longest songs we had, wich were almost absolutely instrumental, more psychedelic and less heavier as a result of tripped out exahusting jams.

Those songs are: Huautla, A Mind Bender (Liquid Skies II), Purusha, Captain Obeatleration, Womoon (the only one with vocals), Equus, Rumanian Blues and Samelbaheson.

It was 1999 and we launched our first web site (shared with The Sweet Leaf) and at the same time we contacted Jose Luis Garnica from the locally legendary label Smogless Records. We gave him a demo with the new songs and after we brainwash him with the millionaire sales he would get, he naively accepted to release our debut CD entitled just "El Diablo" je, je, je.

At that time we released on our own "The Devil Made Me Do It", a vinyl picture-disc recorded completely at Fixion club, in front of our 8 fans, our girlfriends, a few friends and the place's waiters.

It has live versions of: See men fall, Mastertrip, Mirror Love, Love Trust Kill Love and Liquid Skies and includes Grand Finale and (Hats Off To) Edgar Broughton from that first and still unreleased recording. It was a 300 copies only edition and incredibly went sold out!. Not bad for begginers huh?.

Later on 2001, we recorded two new records ( provisionally entitled "Mastertrip" and "Paradise Mescaline") , this time at Estudios Scooby, under the wing of Uncle Scooby himself ("pederastrian, junkie and sax extraordinaire") wich we hope someone wants to launch or lend us the money to do it.

"Mastertrip" has our heavier songs like: See men fall, Mastertrip, Mirror Love, Liquid Skies, Love Trust, Bad Rash, Star and Kill Love.
And "Paradise Mescaline" is a combination of both styles, psychedelia and riff-rock, on songs like: Voodoo Child (Slight Return)/Electric Sex Messiah, Paradise Mescaline, The Power of Denial y Hollow. Wich include new sounds like didgeridoo and sax among other mind benders.

In the meantime, our friends from Argentina, Sin Ilusiones re edited our debut cd on their label Progreso Records. Also we sent tracks to appear on compilations. We have Huautla from the debut CD, on the Luna Negra/Smogless Records Sampler. And Star from "Mastertrip", on "New rays from a rising black sun", the Dirt Cult Magazine double CD compilation.

It's 2003, and as our creativity is unstoppable we kept rehearsing, and ended recording again.We asked our friend Francisco Gatica (keyboards ex-Ramses) to take the dust off his old Moog and jam with us. This time it was just one song. A 37 minute song!. It was intended to record a 7 minutes one, for a soon to appear new Smogless Records compilation. But you know, music possessed us and we jammed and jammed, and couldn't stop but 30 minutes before!
This new record is intended to be called "The secrets of the planet soul". We want to gather again with Smogless Records staff and put something on their drinks to get this one released this year.

Also we're preparing our World Dominaton Plan including subliminal messages on our records ("the traditional El Diablo's way to work with the restless youth"), wich will lead you to demand legalization and consumption of the proper power plants, to open your minds to the separate reality (located here in Mexico's Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, from where we'll have our operational headquarter) so we can live toghether in harmony with the music of EL DIABLO as the soundtrack of our new life.

So say a prayer for Saint Jimi Hendrix and pray damn you!, pray! because:

WHEN YOU DANCE WITH EL DIABLO, DON'T EXPECT THE SONG TO BE OVER.
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