GENRE:

True Heavy Metal

ORIGIN:

Chile (Santiago), 2002

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Fox-Lin Torres (vocals)

Daniel Román (guitar, backing vocals)

Luis Arenas (guitar)

Rodrigo de la Hoz (bass)

Francisco Vera (drums, backing vocals)

BIOGRAPHY

BATTLERAGE is a true heavy metal band from Santiago, Chile, born in 2002 from a personal project of the ex-Steelrage drummer, Francisco Vera, who wanted to play some tough and loud heavy metal.

Vera left STEELRAGE and contacted Mauricio Cavalla (guitar, member of AFTERLIFE) to compose the first songs for this new-born band, and a few months later Christian Willembrinck (bass, ex-member of STEELRAGE) and Fox-Lin Torres (vocals, ex-DAMA NEGRA) joined Vera's project.

In February 2003, after the release of their first demo "Metal Slaughter", which got a very good reception among the fans of this genre, the band started to play some shows. A few months after the release of "Metal Slaughter", Alejandro Oliva (guitar, ex-member of AKRAMEN) joined BATTLERAGE and in December the same year recorded with the band their second demo "Return Of The Axeman".

2004 was a roller-coaster of good moments and line-up changes. The band signed a record deal with Highland Records/Octagon Music Group, but unfortunately Mauricio Cavalla had to leave BATTLERAGE due to personal reasons. Cavalla was replaced by Nicolas Arce before the recording of the debut full-length, "Steel Supremacy", that was released in November 2004. This album, like the demo, got a great reception among the Chilean public. Not much later after this, another band member left: Alejandro Oliva parted ways with BATTLERAGE to work on his own project and was replaced by Daniel Roman (member of VALKIRIA).

Another good year for BATTLERAGE arrived in 2005. With many shows ahead and a new record coming, an EP called "Battlefield Belongs To Me" that is a sort of a "trailer" for a next full-length album, their success in the Chilean metal scene was confirmed. Unfortunately this EP got delayed due to some label problems. Late in 2005, guitar player Nicolas Arce left the band to focus on his own band called LOST HIGHWAY (splitted early 2006) and was replaced by Luis Arenas.

In May 2006 "Battlefield Belongs To Me" was finally released and gained many good critics again. Unfortunately Christian Willembrinck had to leave the band, being replaced later by Rodrigo de la Hoz (member of ABOHRRENT, ex-ANIMA IMMORTALIS).

This July BATTLERAGE will be supporting GRAVE DIGGER in Chile.

The two demos from 2003 were limited to 200 copies and not available since a long time. Being the lucky ones who have had them, we thought it's a shame for these real heavy metal hymns not to be available for a wider audience, so Metal On Metal decided to re-issue both demos on one CD, remixed and remastered, under the title "The Slaughter Returns", with a new artwork, booklet with lyrics and 2 additional, previously unreleased songs. Look forward to this release in November 2008.

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