Rata Blanca
| Rata Blanca | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Hard rock , heavy metal |
| founding | 1985, 2000 |
| resolution | 1998 |
| Website | www.rataweb.com.ar |
| Founding members | |
guitar |
Walter Giardino (1985–1998, since 2000) |
Drums |
Gustavo Rowek (1985-1998) |
singing |
Rodolfo Cava (1985-1986) |
bass |
Yulie Ruth (1985) |
| Current occupation | |
guitar |
Walter Giardino (1985–1998, since 2000) |
singing |
Adrién Barilari (1988–1993, since 2000) |
bass |
Guillermo Sanchéz (1988–1998, since 2000) |
Drums |
Fernando Scarcella (since 2000) |
Keyboard |
Danilo Moschen (since 2010) |
| former members | |
singing |
Saúl Blanch (1987–1988) |
singing |
Shito Molina (1988) |
singing |
Mario Ian (1994-1996) |
singing |
Gabriel Marián (1996-1998) |
Keyboard |
Hugo Bistolfi (1988–1993, 2000–2010) |
Keyboard |
Javier Retamozo (1993-1998) |
Rhythm guitar |
Sergio Berdichevsky (1988-1998) |
Rata Blanca ( Spanish: White Rat ) is a heavy metal band from Argentina . It was founded in 1987 in Buenos Aires and is one of the best known, most influential and commercially successful bands in the country.
history
From the foundation to the first dissolution
Rata Blanca emerged from the band V8 , founded in 1979 , which was one of the first bands of the genre in Argentina, but had temporarily split up in 1985 due to disputes. Guitarist Walter Giardino had briefly played in the band in 1985 and drummer Gustavo Rowek since 1982. Other bands that emerged from the separation were Hermética , from which Almafuerte later emerged, as well as Horcas and Logos . The first line-up of the band was completed by the singer Rodolfo Calva and the bassist Yulie Ruth, with whom Rata Blanca recorded their first demo in 1985. The songs on the demo were originally composed for V8. Three of the songs from this demo, "Gente del Sur", "Rompe el Hechizo" and "Chico Callejero", were later released on the debut album. However, the band did their first live appearance two years later on August 15, 1987 at the Club Luz y Fuera in Buenos Aires. This line-up included the singer Saúl Blanch, the bassist Guillermo Sanchéz and the rhythm guitarist Sergio Berdichevsky.
The band received a recording contract with the Argentine agency of Polygram in 1988 . The self-titled debut album was released on August 22nd of that year. Keyboardist Hugo Bistolfi also joined the band for this album. Saúl Blanch left Rata Blanca before the studio recordings due to lack of interest. However, since the Shito Molina, who was intended as a replacement, suffered from vocal problems at short notice, Blanch was asked to sing the album. The album was a huge success commercially, selling 20,000 copies within seven months of its release.
Saúl Blanch's successor was Adrién Barilari, who had previously sung with the band Vietnam . With Barilari, the band recorded their second album "Magos, Espadas y Rosas" (Eng. Magicians, Swords and Roses ) in 1989 , which was released in 1990 and gave the band the final breakthrough. To date, this album has sold nearly a million times in Argentina. A classic of this album in particular also released as a single song "La leyenda del hada y del mago" (dt. Apply The legend of the fairy and the magician ) and the popular particularly in the Radio love song "Mujer amante" (dt. Woman In Love ) . The tour through Argentina called Por el Camino del Sol was similarly successful . The highlight was the performance in the multi-purpose hall Estadio Obras Sanitarias in Buenos Aires, which was attended by 7,000 spectators. The band later appeared here as opening act for Ian Gillan .
In 1991, the band made a total of 120 appearances in Argentina, which together were attended by 170,000 spectators. In addition, 205,000 Rata Blanca records were sold that year. At the end of the year the band went back to the studio to record their third album "Guerrero del Arco Iris". This album was released in the same year and achieved platinum status even before it was released through pre-orders . The title refers to the ship Rainbow Warrior of the environmental protection organization Greenpeace .
The tour for the album was called Gira Guerrera (German war tour ) and opened with a performance on December 28 at the Estadio José Amalfitani of the CA Vélez Sársfield football club , which was attended by 30,000 spectators. The other tours for the album took the band through Latin America and, for the first time, to Portugal and Spain .
After these tours, the band recorded the EP "El Libro Oculto" (Eng. The Occult Book ) in 1993, which steered the band's musical style somewhat in the harder and less melodic direction. However, Adrién Barilari decided while on tour to leave the band for personal reasons. He was also followed by the keyboardist Hugo Bistolfi. He was succeeded by Mario Ian on vocals and Javier Retamozo on keyboard instruments. With this line-up, the album "Entre el Cielo y el Inferno" (Eng. Between Heaven and Hell ) was created in 1994 , which took up the style of the EP, but was less successful. In 1996 the record company also released the live album En vivo en Buenos Aires (Eng. Live in Buenos Aires ), which offered recordings with Adrién Barilari and Hugo Bistolfi from 1992. A chamber orchestra is also represented on this album.
Due to the lack of success with "Entre el Cielo y el Inferno", Mario Ian left the band, and Walter Giardino gave the band a new stylistic direction. In 1997 the album "Rata Blanca VII" was released with the new singer Gabriel Marián. The music on this album was increasingly oriented towards modern rock music and also shows influences from punk , alternative and even local folk music, but could not satisfy the old fans of the band either. In 1998, Rata Blanca therefore disbanded.
From the reunification until today
In the meantime, Walter Giardino tried to build on the most successful days of Rata Blanca with his project Walter Giardino Temple , or Temple for short . This formation quickly fell apart after Giardino had found frustrated at a concert that his musicians were unable to spontaneously play the song " Burn " by Deep Purple on stage. Giardino then took Guillermo Sanchéz and Hugo Bistolfi into the band, and Adrién Barilari also agreed to take part as a "guest" at performances by Temple .
These changes in line-up had boosted interest in Temple , and in autumn 2000 Rata Blanca was able to announce their return with the drummer Fernando Scarcella. In this line-up, which largely coincided with the most successful albums, the band performed again after more than six years in front of 10,000 spectators in the stadium of the Bolivian football club Real Santa Cruz . The following tour was accompanied by the publication of the best-of compilation "Grandes Canciones". On December 19, 2000, the reformed band appeared again in Buenos Aires for the first time and by the end of 2001 they had more than 150 concerts in Spain and Latin America. The tour ended with a series of performances at the Teatro Gran Rex in the Argentine capital.
Rata Blanca returned to the studio in 2002 to start a conceptual “gold” trilogy with the album “El Camino del Fuego” (Eng. The Way of Fire ). In Argentina, the band published the album on the specially founded label Rata Records itself, but also received a distribution in Europe for the first time, which was organized by the Italian label Underground Symphony . Musically, the album ties in with the works from the early 90s, although overall the traditional hard rock component was emphasized. On the tours for the album Rata Blanca u. a. in November 2002 in front of 23,000 spectators in Luna Park , where the material for the 2003 live album "Poder Vivo" was recorded. The band's first live DVD was released in 2004, called "En Vivo Estadio Obras" and was recorded in March 2003 at the Estadio Obras , according to the title .
In 2003, Adrién Barilari's solo album caused a sensation, which was recorded in Finland with Nightwish members Emppu Vuorinen , Sami Vänskä and Jukka Nevalainen and Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson and released by Drakkar Records . From this "Barilari" titled album, a version with English vocals was recorded; it also contained a cover version of Rainbow's song “Stargazer” , which was sung in Spanish.
In 2005 the next studio album “La Llave de la Puerta Secreta” (Eng. The key to the secret door ) was released and was once again awarded a platinum record. Again tours led through Latin America and Europe. The last studio album so far was released in 2008 and is called "El Reino Olvidado" (Eng. The Forgotten Kingdom ). This album was also very successful and was awarded a gold record weeks before its release. The tour for the album initially led through North and South America. Tarja Turunen made a guest appearance at Luna Park on June 5, 2009 and sang two songs for the band. This appearance was filmed for a so far outstanding live DVD and Blu-ray .
In order to be able to market the band better internationally , an English-language version of the album entitled "The Forgotten Kingdom" was recorded in the same year with the singer Doogie White . In 2010 the band went on a European tour with this singer to present their material. However, Hugo Bistolfi announced his departure from the band on March 24th of that year. Successor was Danilo Moschen, who previously u. a. at Beto Vázquez Infinity and also at concerts for Adrién Barilari's solo albums.
style
The band developed their own style on their early albums. The basis was not so much the metal genre popular at the time as Thrash Metal or Glam Metal , but rather the traditional hard rock of British bands of the 70s, especially Deep Purple or Rainbow . Due to the virtuoso guitar playing of Walter Giardino, the sound of the band developed in some places in a direction similar to the work of Yngwie Malmsteen . Sophisticated instrumental pieces such as “Preludion Obsesivo” (Eng. Possessed foreplay , 1988), “Otoño Medieval” ( Eng . Medieval Autumn , 1988) or “Por que es tan dificil amar” (Eng. Why is it so difficult to love , 1990).
Some of the songs on the first three albums are tempo in the direction of speed metal . These are e.g. B. the pieces “El beso de la bruja” (Eng. The Witch's Kiss , 1990) or “Los ojos de dragón” (Eng. The eyes of the dragon , 1991). Also noteworthy in this context are the instrumental contributions by Hugo Bistolfi, who, unlike contemporary metal bands, was just as strongly involved in the songs as the keyboard players of the hard rock bands mentioned.
On the EP "El Libro Oculto", the band oriented themselves in a harder direction. The keyboard played a minor role, the riffs were in the foreground, the tempo was slower and the tone of the vocals was more aggressive. This line is continued on "Entre el Cielo y el Inferno" and is also present in the main on "Rata Blanca VII". Characteristic for this style are songs like "Basura" (German garbage , 1993), "Bajo control" (German under control , 1994) or "La Caja" (German Die Kiste , 1997). As mentioned, however, the influences on “Rata Blanca VII” are altogether more modern, and there is more emphasis on acoustic passages.
With the albums since 2000, Rata Blanca is more oriented towards the classic hard rock of the 70s and less towards the metal genre. This went so far that in the Rock Hard review of the album "El Camino del Fuego" a quote from the Deep Purple piece "Hush" was located in the song appropriately called "Lluvia Púrpura" (Eng. Purple rain ).
The lyrics of all the songs by Rata Blanca are in Spanish. What is striking, however, is the change in the content over time. Initially, fantasy texts and love songs dominated (see “La misma mujer”, “Mujer amante”), but over time the texts became more and more political. "Guerrero del Arco Iris", named after the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior , marks a turning point here. From “El Libri Oculto” the lyrics of all songs were almost exclusively politically and socially critical until the band split up. On the other hand, with the reunification, Rata Blanca also returned to classic fantasy texts.
Discography
- Rata Blanca (1988)
- Magos, Espadas y Rosas (1990)
- Guerrero del Arco Iris (1991)
- El Libro Oculto (EP, 1993)
- Entre el Cielo y el Inferno (1994)
- En Vivo en Buenos Aires (Live, 1996)
- Rata Blanca VII (1997)
- Grandes Canciones (Compilation, 2000)
- Rata Blanca (EP, 2002)
- El Camino del Fuego (2002)
- Poder Vivo (Live, 2003)
- Oro: Grandes Exitos (Compilation, 2003)
- En Vivo Estadio Obras (Live-CD / DVD, 2004)
- La Llave de la Puerta Secreta (2005)
- El Reino Olvidado (2008)
- The Forgotten Kingdom (new recording, 2009)
- Magos Espadas Y Rosas XX Aniversario En Vivo (Live, 2011)
- Tormenta Electrica (2015)
Others
A type of fireworks widespread in Peru is also referred to as rata blanca .
