Singled Out: Half Blood's Crisis

Santiago, Chile based metal band Half Blood are gearing to released their self-titled debut later this year and to celebrate we asked frontman Manuel Castillo to tell us about the lead single "Crisis". Here is the story:

"Crisis" was the first track we showed to the world, and it's a very special track for us because of the meaning behind the lyrics. First: it had to be in Spanish. We really wanted to show our Chilean roots with the track, and, beyond that, it is about the Chilean dictatorship, commanded by general Augusto Pinochet. That era of our country's history is one of the darkest and it deeply divided the country; even now you can feel the political opposition within the population.

Augusto Pinochet took over power in Chile by force with a full scale assault on La Moneda,, killing president Salvador Allende, with law and atrocities following. People were being killed for their political beliefs, the media was censored, and the CIA was involved in the assault, etc. After that everything changed. We started paying for health care, education, and the new pension system called "AFP", all for worse, and controlled by an elite few, leaving the poor people behind.

The lyrics are about the way the CIA was involved, how the Chilean military force was forced to kill Chilean brothers, and finally, the way they took our country and identity from us.

On the musical side, it is a very heavy track, and the riff was Sebastian Aguilera, our guitarist's, first contribution; he entered the band when we were writing the demos, and the first riff we heard from him was this violent, rhythmic, aggressive intro. What a way to introduce himself to the band!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself here

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