By | Carlos Olloqui
Plastic beer cups flying across the venue, mosh-pits and headbanging throughout the crowd, stale cigarette smoke lingering in the air — and on stage was Metalachi.
On Wednesday night, Jan. 25, Metalachi took the stage at the Sapphire Palace inside of Blue Lake Casino. A heavy metal mariachi band, what? That’s right, from Slayer to Vicente Fernandez, Metalachi gave the audience the best of both worlds. An unlikely meshing of metal classics with traditional mariachi instrumentation, the band has been named one of the top 5 cover/tribute bands in Los Angeles by LA Weekly.
From the streets of Los Angeles, California, Metalachi is a 5-piece ensemble of classically trained mariachi musician siblings. The band features Vega De La Rockha on vocals, El Cucuy on trumpet, Queen Kayla on violin, Nacho Picante on guitarron, and Vato on guitar.
First off: Where did Metalachi emerge from?
Vega: Well, we are originally from Juarez, Mexico. But we were raised in LA – East LA, since we were chiquitos. The thing is that we used to be mariachi – just straight mariachi.
How did the heavy metal aspect come into play?
Vega: One day we kind of experimented with one song – we did Ironman, that was the first metal song we covered. We played that one and everyone started dancing, dude. So, we said “this might work out if we do something original” – you know?
And you guys are all siblings, is that correct?
El Cucy: We all have the same mama, different dads though — so that kind of tells you something about our mom — she knew how to party, dude.
What does she say about Metalachi?
El Cucuy: This is like right up mom’s alley – it’s the rest of la familia that’s into mariachi, she was more into the metal crowd and stuff. She comes to our shows but like she doesn’t stick around to the end – she’ll find somebody horny and just go with them.
How does it feel to be the only lady of the group?
Queen Kayla: I like being the only girl – I get more love, so yeah — I like it, it’s exciting.
What does Metalachi have planned next?
Queen Kayla: We are touring with Mac Sabbath – we are touring March and into April with them. It’s going to be about four weeks, and it’s going to be awesome.
El Cucuy: We just released Dos and we are already working on our third album.
Vega: Tomorrow we go to Novato, and after that we are going to San Jose – Santa Cruz after that. The we are going back to LA and we have Long Beach — Santa Barbara y Las Vegas. Puro party, bro.
