ADVENT OF BEDLAM Costa Rica

Bio

Advent of Bedlam is a Death Metal band from Heredia, Costa Rica. Founded in 2000 under the name of December's Cold Winter by Max Gutierrez (guitars) and Jorge Chacon (former keyboards), the band saw the light officially that same year on a well received first concert, quickly gaining space and name in the Costa Rican metal scene. The band won the 1st place in the National Battle of Metal Bands later on that year. The original line-up was: Isak Arroyo (Guitars), Jorge Chacon (Keyboards), Max Gutierrez (Guitars), Esteban Monestel (Bass), Alberto Montero (Vocals) and Christian Rodriguez (Drums).

On 2001, Monestel and Rodriguez left the band, so Jonathan Leon (Bass) and Allan Chaves (Drums) joined right in. Such changes bred new forces within and they continued conquering audiences with devastating success, which brought the opportunity of being invited to Panama twice between 2001 and 2002. In such period the band also won the National Battle of Metal Bands contest for the second time, demonstrating that they were being capable of reinventing themselves in their very unique musical style. After that show, Leon decided to leave the band and Esteban Gonzalez (Bass) joined the band as the full time bass player. The band was invited to support the well known Brazilian band Sepultura on a double date show in late 2003, in San José Costa Rica. After four years of hard work, unstopped rehearsing and live shows, the band was able to put out their first album, Decaying Recollections, released through a local label named Freak World Entertainment on October 2005, having Steve Austin (who also worked with Today is the Day and Lamb of God among others) mixing and mastering it. The album received positive reviews by fanzines, metal magazines like Metal Maniacs and online metal information media. Then they put together an official tour named Awakening Tour along with their friends from Pneuma, another local band. Founder keyboard player was replaced by Allen Obando (Keyboards) before the tour started, followed by successful live shows on national festivals and supporting international acts such as Dismember, Behemoth, Fear Factory and Death by Stereo on their Costa Rican. In 2007, the band carried out with some deep changes, musically and lyrically speaking, deciding to continue without keyboards in order to explore a more straight forward Death Metal sound. In early 2008, Montero left the band and the vocal duties were taken by Alfredo Guzman (Vocals). Meanwhile the band was finishing the pre production phase of their second album, Ablaze All Shrines. The album was released on December 2008, out as an independent record and fully produced, recorded and mixed by Gutierrez at Cavan Studio and mastered by Esteban Rojas (Cisma Producciones). After all recording sessions were finished for the new record, Chavez left the band on September 2008, and his position was fulfilled by Alex Ovares (Drums). During the first semester of 2009, the album was widely and got great reviews in several specialized zines and sites like Metal Eater, Metal Storm and Zero Tolerance among many others. All songs from the album were aired on USA to Netherlands, France, Spain and Japan radio stations. The album also got North American Distribution with one of the most important Metal Labels all around the World: Relapse Records. It was also distributed in Mexico, Colombia, Japan, Spain and has been sold through the band’s website to fans from Malaysia to Australia. The song “Manipulating Human Emotions” can be found in UK's Zero Tolerance Covermount CD for Issue 027. It was distributed in UK, Europe, North America, Canada and Australasia with a News-stand distribution of 17000 copies. The band also got an endorsement deal with In Tune Gutiar Pics, a North American company that produces the best pics around the world, which also endorse bands like Black Sabath, Alice Cooper, Katatonia and Belphegor among many others. On May 2009, Isak and Max won the ACAM (Costa Rica’s Authors and Composers Association) 2008 Best Metal Album award for their work on Ablaze All Shrines. During June 2009, prior the beginning of the Envenomed Tour, the band and Guzman split up half way and Roy Zumbado (Vocals) joined in right away. After nine years, in late 2009, the band left behind the name "December's Cold Winter" to be known as "Advent of Bedlam". The change was made after several months of reflection, as the band realized that the old name was not showing the actual lyrical and musical direction they were heading to. In early 2010, the band entered Cavan Studio to record their new album, Behold the Chaos, again produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Gutierrez. The artwork was made by Alex Hoffman from Cypher Visual (Behemoth, Psycroptic, Suffocation, Arsis, Beneath the Massacre). The result is a new album of pure, brutal, fast and tight Death Metal that keeps the essence of the band's past albums, however far much intense and extreme. On April 2010, the band recorded their first video for the single “The Stench of Your Faith”, which was released one year later, having more than 11000 views 6 months in Youtube. The song was also part of Zero Tolerance Issue 036 for the July/August 2010 publication. Also, the song “The Darkest Alliance” was exclusively recorded for the Heavy Metal Club Georgia Metal Alliance (G.M.A. INT’L), a Heavy Metal organization which stands for respect; loyalty, dignity; integrity and honour which was a perfect fit to the band’s ideology. More than 100 fans joined the recording of the song’s chorus. On November 2010, the band was part of the first Metal Culture Reunion, supported by Costa Rica’s Ministry of Culture, an activity that gathered metalheads, bands, stores, zines and all kind of national acts related to Costa Rica’s Metal. Some days later, the band shared stage with Obituary in their Latin American Tour. From January to April 2011, the band joined forces again with Pneuma and raised the Awakening Tour ‘11, which brought both bands through several cities and spreading tones of Metal through all the country. On March 2011, the band shared stage with Tim Aymar and Grecco, while their performed officially live for the first time ever Control Denied’s “The Fragile Art of Existence”, a unique experience for the band and metalheads in Costa Rica and all around the world. On April 2011, the band visited Mexico for their first North American Tour with 11 booked dates. For the first time in country’s Metal history, a band exported their music as a Costa Rica’s Cultural Matter thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture and Costa Rican Tourism Institute. After successfully headbanged Texcoco, Tehuacan, Cordoba, Toluca and Queretaro and driving more than 2000 kms, the band had to cancel the rest of the Tour due the unexpected and irresponsible departure of Ovares (drummer). Although that was one of the band’s worst moment ever, AoB raised again faster than ever after Luis Ortiz (Drums) joined the band, which was ready to play a complete setlist in less than a month of rehearsals. The band also got great news after Soultone Cymbals and Knucklehead Strings endorsed AoB with their products and the MMA Supremacy videogames franchise added some tracks from the “Behold the Chaos” album to the game and soundtrack. On December 2011, Advent of Bedlam entered Cavan Studio to record their new album called “Flesh Over God”, which was self released on February 2012. The new album evolved to a far new brutal, fast and aggressive sound that definitively got the band to a brand new level in composition and execution. Tim Aymar (Death, Control Denied) recorded some guest vocals for the song “Indoctrinated Wrath”. On May 2012 the band toured Spain, Portugal, Germany, Slovakia and Czech Republic under the “Europe Over God” Tour, where AoB shares stage with bands like Exhumed, Rotten Sound and Magrudergrind. Also on May 2012, the band also played in Managua (Nicaragua) for the first time. The band also shared stage with Malevolent Creation (June) and Atheist (August) in Costa Rica and Septic Flesh (November). Also, another Costa Rican Tour with Deznuke brought the band to different venues around the country. On December 2012, a video for the song “Nimrod’s Rebellion” was released and a new way of supporting the band’s work was created and improved. Advent of Bedlam is now one of Costa Rica’s most important Metal Bands, evolving from a Black/Death Metal with keyboards to a much more brutal and straightforward Death Metal which will be reinvented as the band experiments and matures their craft.

ADVENT OF BEDLAM is:

Isak Arroyo: Guitars

Max Gutierrez: Guitars

Fabian Salas: Bass

Luis Ortiz: Drums

Roy Zumbado: Vocals