Album Premiere: Hodos – Del Infierno
I heard Hodos play live for the first time earlier this month at the bar Plan B in Esquel, Argentina (read more about Esquel in this previous post!). Like most metal events in Esquel, the show started after midnight, a major struggle for an American 30 year old grandma (me) who likes to be in bed by 11pm. Despite the late hour, I couldn’t help but be immediately sucked into the band’s energy. As Hodos took the stage to showcase their original songs and a handful of covers, the crowd sang along, shouted out requests, and cheered them on. It was clear that for the majority of people in the room, it was not their first time hearing the band perform.
This recital marked a particularly important moment for Hodos. It was at this show that the band announced the release date of their debut album, Del Infierno, which comes out today (August 30) on all major streaming platforms.
Hodos performs at Plan B Bar in Esquel, Chubut, Argentina in early August 2023.
“I think that it’s going to be a material that you’re going to like, especially the people who’ve been following us for a while,” Axel Roa, the band’s guitarist and lead vocalist, tells me on a sunny afternoon in Esquel. We’ve met up at the city’s cultural center, Centro Melipal, to discuss the upcoming album as well as the band’s history and plans for the future.
Hodos first formed in 2015 as a trio composed of Roa, bassist Ayelén Anticeo, and drummer Jeramías Navarro. As the band’s music grew more advanced, they decided to bring in a second guitarist. Several other lineup changes took place as members moved to attend university or pursue other commitments. The current lineup is composed of four members: Axel Roa on vocals and guitar; Ayelén Antieco on bass; Leo Mellado on guitar; and Nahuel Criado on drums.
Axel describes Hodos’s style as a mix of classic heavy metal and thrash metal. He names Megadeth, Metallica, and Testament as major influences. The members of the band share these favorites in common, which Axel sees as something that strengthens their dynamic and facilitates their songwriting process: “We have very similar influences in terms of music. That has made us very strong in terms of connection when creating our songs. There is a lot of fluidity and that lets us work very well together.”
The album Del Infierno is composed of tracks that were written by the band between 2015 – 2018. These are songs the band has been performing for years and ones that their fans know well. One of these tracks is “Autodestrucción,” which was released as a single and is the first track that Hodos ever wrote and performed. “It is perhaps the best known of the band to this day,” says Axel, “especially for the people who have followed us since our beginnings. It’s the first song we started out with. It is the song that people remember the best. Many times when we play it there are people who have already learned the lyrics and who chant and sing along with us every time we play it, which is awesome.” I observed this first hand at the show I attended, when an audience member requested “Autodestrucción” and the audience responded with enthusiasm.
Another one of the album’s singles, “No a la Mina,” addresses a decades-long anti-mining movement in Patagonia. The No a la Mina movement initially formed in Esquel in 2002 when a group of city residents came together to form the Assembly of Self-convened Neighbors. This organization was formed in order to raise public awareness about a proposed open-pit mining project just outside the city that posed a significant threat to local ecosystems and waterways. Following a massive organizing campaign by this group, Esquel’s citizens resoundingly rejected the project (over 80% against!) in a plebiscite held in March 2003. This unexpected victory revealed the power of the neighborhood assembly model and has since inspired environmental movements in other regions of Argentina and worldwide. Mining projects still pose a constant threat to the Esquel area, and the No a la Mina movement continues to organize. On the 4th of every month, Esquelenses gather to march through the city and keep the fight going strong.
The members of Hodos have many memories related to the anti-mining movement and consider themselves a part of this struggle. Axel recalled the night that inspired the band to write their song named after this movement: “There was a show that was held near the entrance to Esquel in a campsite called Camping Nahuel Pan. For a time there was an event here every year called Camp Rock where bands of all different styles gathered. At that moment we were just being born as a band. We were playing our set and in the middle of one of the songs I had a small technical problem. So that there wouldn’t be silence, my bandmates began to play around with the public, playing the bass and the drums while I fixed the issue. The bassist started playing like this: ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. And the people began to chant. And once I fixed the glitch, I started following what my bandmates were doing. And the rhythm stuck in my head. Because the people were so euphoric. And it was very close to the 4th of the month and the march for No a la Mina. So the people started yelling, “no a la mina, no a la mina!”. I got home after that and I said well, why not make a song out of this? That’s when the song “No a la mina” was born.”
Axel and his bandmates are thrilled to finally release their first album and are especially excited about the attention the album has received from places as far away as Europe and the United States. At the same time, the band is always looking to the future and they see the album as a turning point between the band’s original and current styles. According to Axel, “It will mark a before and after. This album is more than anything the music that we were making in our early years. What’s next after this record is what Hodos is today, so I’m excited about that as well. And well, this is only the beginning.”
Del Infierno is available starting August 30 on all major streaming platforms:
Del Infierno was recorded and mixed at Aleph Recording Studio by Nahuel Criado, mastered by Pedro Lanusse, and is a production of Nodos Sound & Records.
