Very few bands play eighties-style speed metal with the energy and the conviction that Mexico’s young quintet StarForce does. After storming the scene with their already impressive 2022 debut EP ‘The Universe Is Mine’, the international release of their first full-length album ‘Beyond the Eternal Night’ introduces an even larger audience to the band’s infectious sound. Guitarist Kevin Valencia tells us more.

“Here in Mexico, there is a huge metal scene”, Valencia emphasizes. “Over the past five years, keeping in touch with our fans, heavy metal maniacs who have supported us, is a vital part of the band. In the meantime, the way we compose and write songs has gone one step further as well. We have grown with this band in how we produce an album, a video, how we get more gigs, and things like that. The way we manage the band has gotten a bit more professional. But the attitude we have when we do all these things is just important as well.

The songs were largely written after the EP was recorded. We wanted to play the songs at live shows, because a lot of metal maniacs wanted to see what StarForce had to offer. We wrote ‘Andrómeda’, ‘Rock and Roll Slave’, ‘Space Warrior’ and ‘Sign of an Angel’ early enough to play them at a lot of live shows. With the EP, these songs were enough to put us on the map in the Mexican metal scene as a promising new band.

After that, we wrote the rest of the album. ‘Stay Heavy’ was written by Yeux (García, guitarist) a couple of years ago, and he even played it with me in our old speed metal band. The song was modified, obviously, and it is not like the original version.

When we entered the studio to record the albums, the songs were very well-rehearsed. We all have jobs besides the band, so sometimes it was tough to find enough time to rehearse with the entire band. Sometimes we wanted to play a new song that we started working on two or three rehearsals before the gig. Sometimes it was great, sometimes it was not. Every song was played live at least once, though.”

The Initial Ideas Just Get Better

“Our creative process is quite simple. Yeux and I come up with most of the ideas, which they track on the PC, creating some pre-production and pre-songwriting with digital drums and bass. After that, they share the main ideas with the whole band to show what the writing is like – keys, structure, things like that. At this point, Mely (‘Wild’ Solís, singer) will start working on the lyrics. Sometimes Yeux or I have an idea of what the song will be about, but most of the time, Mely is the one in charge of that.

After that, we will have rehearsals just for working on the ideas. We love this part of the process, because the initial ideas just get better when the others are contributing ideas to the songs as well. You know, we add the drum fills, the breaks, remove or add riffs… We use the rehearsals for finishing the main ideas, because we live quite far from each other, so we want to take as much advantage as possible from the moments the band is together in the rehearsal room.

All vocals and choirs are written by Mely. We really have been grateful with her for singing in StarForce, because her vocal range can start with a soul, blues or jazz voice, but evolve into a powerful heavy metal voice. And more. When the rest of the band explains something and we explain it to her, she can always sing it without any issues. But she always puts a lot of care into the vocal work.”

The First Proto-Version

“We have known each other since some years before we assembled the first StarForce line-up. You know, just at some local gigs, parties, concerts… Social media helped out a lot, as StarForce started in the pandemic era. Some of us would meet each other before the pandemic, but not really all of us together.

In 2021, we started talking about starting a new band. Yeux and I played together in a speed metal band, while Ángel (Pineda, bassist) and Rockdrigo (Rockdríguez, drummer) played in a death/thrash metal band for a while. Mely and Yeux have been friends since 2017, and since then, they have always talked about starting a band together. It was just never possible until 2022, when Yeux joined the band.

Ángel and I started the first proto-version of StarForce with our first guitarist Isaac (Rodríguez). Mely joined the band in late 2021, and after that, Isaac left the band, and Yeux joined in 2022. The first song Yeux wrote was ‘Sign of an Angel’. It was perfect.

Every member had experience playing around Mexico with other bands, session projects and things like that, and every member is really skilled at their instruments. At that point, we already had the first EP ‘The Universe Is Mine’ done, and it felt like we had put a dream team together, because when we announced the line-up on Facebook and Instagram, people here in Mexico just started supporting us before we released our first EP, because everyone knew what level we were at as musicians.”

Coming Together in the Same Place

“Every band member brings in their own influences. For instance, Rockdrigo has been influenced by old school thrash metal and some punk classics from the seventies and nineties, which is true for our bass player as well. Mely came from a family of musicians. Her mother is a singer as well. She is more from a glam, hard rock, sleaze school of traditional heavy metal. I have death metal influences and old school heavy metal influences, while Yeux has influences from both old school and the new wave of traditional heavy metal.

In StarForce, we but all these influences come together in the same place, along with bands we have all loved, such as Luzbel, Cuero y Metal, Ultimatum, Khafra, Cristal y Acero, Raxas, Aspid, Ramses, Coda, Megaton, Mask and Kuman from the eighties, as well as Los Dug Dugs and Enigma from the seventies. These are all pioneers of proto-heavy metal and heavy metal here in Mexico, and we have had the chance to play with some of them here.

In terms of foreign bands, we are all inspired by Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Saxon, UFO, Gravestone, Scanner, Grave Digger, Slayer, Skull Fist, Enforcer, Riot City en Santa Cruz. Also, when you listen to the guitars on the album, you can really hear that Yeux and I have been influences by these guitarists from the eighties, such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert and Bruce Bouillet with Racer X, Tony MacAlpine, Jason Becker and Joey Tafolla

Mely has been influenced by a lot of singers from the thirties and fifties. And obviously from the seventies and eighties, such as Aretha Franklin, Azuzena Dorado, Joe Lynn Turner, Adrián Barilari, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson and Etta James. Ángel loves bass players like Billy Sheehan and Steve Harris, while Rockdrigo is a big fan of Kiss and Gene Hoglan, Tom Hunting, Joey Jordison, John Bonham, Bill Ward and Ian Paice. We love music and as muicians, the classics have been a huge influence for us.”

Knowing the Sound

“For StarForce, we have always loved vintage sounds. For the guitars, Yeux and I are big fans of Marshall JCM 900 and 800, Peavey 5150, and things like that. These guitar amplifiers with analog delay, reverb, and chorus, with a huge distortion sound, are an essential part of the StarForce sound.

For the bass as well. Ángel loves the big bass sound from players like Steve Harris and Geezer Butler. He is not just any bass player, he is always concerned about his sound. My drumming style if very unique, and angry, it has to be tiny and fine on the kicks and snare. Mely uses her own gear – mics and cables – because she knows her sound and vocal range the best.

Our gear was not easy to get. Here in Mexico, it’s not easy to find vintage gear, for instance. It was tough to get the amps for the recording of the EP and the album. Fortunately, we managed to find what we need, with friends of ours buying part of it.”

Supernovas and Antimatter

“We like writing lyrics in both Spanish and English. It really depends on the song. But we do listen to the final idea for the song first to get the vibes or the meaning that we want to give the song. At that point, we decide whether a song will be in Spanish or in English. We are Mexicans, and the pioneers of heavy metal in Mexico write their songs in Spanish. We identify with that.

As for the subjects: I love sci-fi and every thing regarding space. I studied physics, so that’s why the concept of the band is about space, the universe, the stars, and all that stuff. But we use space and the wonders of the universe as a metaphor for the troubles of mankind. We mix this concept with the darkness and light we have got inside ourselves. We can be a star, we can be a supernova. You can shine, but sometimes you are antimatter, you are darkness.

It can be difficult to find cover artists who work with this concept. We try to get this retro, vintage sci-fi from the seventies and eighties look. We have worked with various artists. Sometimes we find them through social media, or by listening to new bands and looking for the artist who designed the album cover if we like wat we see.

These days, we love hand-painted artwork. There are a lot of artists who do this. The covers for the ‘Lejos de Ti’ and ‘Andrómeda’ singles, as well as the cover artwork of ‘Beyond the Eternal Night’ are all paintings. When we were talking about the cover art, we just knew we wanted hand-painted art. The main concept is inspired by old comic books, books and movies.”

A Monster of a City

“Mexico City is a huge monster of a city, and it has a large number of bands playing every kind of music. It is a great place to play, but there is now a surplus of bands, even if you consider just the metal bands. The main factor we have that makes us stand out is having a highly talented female vocalist in Mely.

Secondly, we are like a dream team, because all over the country, people know every member in StarForce from previous projects, and for the way they play music, the virtuosity, because we are young, and because we appreciate our colleagues and our fans.

We love heavy metal, and we have got friends from the old school metal scene, guys who are now in their sixties for instance. And they have taught us a lot. Band to listen to, ways to play, to record, and much more. We take the best part of every person we know. We respect and honor those we deserve it, and they seem to respect us as well.

There are a lot of great bands in Mexico. Apart from the bands I already mentioned, there are bands like Voltax, Strike Master, Black Mask, Freeroad, Phantom, Härdrocker… Some heavy metal bands that the world should know. There are also a lot of death metal and thrash metal bands. I have two death metal side projects – In Obscurity Revealed and Piquerism. Yeux has a side project called Belmont, and Rockdrigo plays in a thrash metal band called Oxaded.

We like to support the bands who have supported us, like Hellmidian who recently played at Wacken. They won the Wacken Metal Battle here in Mexico. I really recommend checking them out.”

A Uniform You Can Put On

“We have been received very well outside Mexico. According to our streaming profiles and Bandcamp profile, Germany and Sweden are the countries who support us the most, but the entirety of Europe has listened to us. Some of our Mexican friends or even foreign friends tag us or send pictures when they see people at European festivals wearing our T-shirts or patches. It is great to see that.

Now that we have signed to Jawbreaker Records, we want to release more music in physical formats, like tapes and vinyl. It was so hard to find a label that liked our stuff. There were a lot of them who were just busy or full of releases. But we are very thankful to Jawbreaker for believing in us. They have worked with bands we like and friends of hours. They love the sci-fi stuff as much as we do as well.

Our new material has more traditional stuff and more angry speed metal. Next year, you will be able to listen to new stuff for sure. Music is everything to us. Heavy metal is a way of life. It’s not like a uniform you can put on at a certain time. You always have to use it, live it, believe it, and listen to it.”