For nearly twenty-five years, guitarist and vocalist Isaias Guilarte has been soldiering on with his black metal band Noctis Imperium. First on his own, later as the band’s frontman. He has also been active as a recording and mixing engineer for several metal bands, mostly from the Puerto La Cruz area. Guilarte looks back on the biggest challenges and triumphs of his career.

“I was born in Maracay, which is in the center of Venezuela, a couple of hours from Caracas”, Guilarte says. “But I was raised on the northeast coast, in Puerto La Cruz. The music that inspired me to start playing was old rock music. The first vinyls I listened to were ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ and Queen’s ‘Greatest Hits’. Besides that, I also had the chance to listen to the music my cousins and other family members listened to, like Guns n’ Roses and stuff like that.

Those were mainly my first steps into knowing I was born for this type of music. I have a vivid memory from when I was around 5 years old, and I was in the electronics section of a department store on a Sunday, and they were playing the movie ‘Trick or Treat’. I think Ozzy is in it, actually. There was a scene of this guy playing the guitar, and it hit me right in the brain. I dreamed about grabbing an instrument and just playing on stage.

At the time, it was difficult to get a hold of an instrument to learn, so I would just write lyrics and stick to singing. But I was never a good singer; clean vocals were never my thing. But those were the first steps before I started learning about other types of music.”

Converted to Metal Completely

“Of course, I listened to the first two Korn albums when I was 13 or 14 years old. That stuff blew my mind. I knew I had to play rock music, heavy music. Those were the baby steps towards heavier stuff. Then came the internet. I met some people online in chat rooms and stuff like that, and there were three songs that blew my mind and converted me to metal completely.

There was ‘Deadnight Warrior’ from the first Children of Bodom album, ‘Dominate’ by Morbid Angel – the live version, that shit was so powerful, I couldn’t believe the drumming and the power of the music – and ‘Mourning Palace’ by Dimmu Borgir. There was a live bootleg of ‘Mourning Palace’ going around at the time that was like black metal grabbing me towards the dark side, so to speak. These were my main influences.

Of course, like anyone else, I listened to Pantera and Sepultura. There were some Argentinian bands, like A.N.I.M.A.L. and stuff like that. A lot of different styles, but always rock and metal. I was always looking for that heavier side of music.”

A Slow Process

“I was around 16 or 17 years old when I started to play guitar. It was quite late for me to start to play at this age, but I did have experience with some friends. They had their instruments, so once in a while, you grab a guitar and play some chords. But it was around that age that I got to it more seriously. It has been a slow process. Even right now, I’m still working towards getting better at the instrument.

There is always something to learn from meeting other musicians and talking to them. Especially people who have more experience. They always teach you something and leave you with something good. Noctis Imperium was my first real band. It was a bit more straightforward black metal in the beginning. It was never as raw as bedroom black metal, but it was rawer than we have become. It’s got its own identity.

Before Noctis, I was in the first line-up of something that later became the band Tribu. They played very latin-influenced groove metal, hardcore, something like that. I don’t want to say a Sepultura ‘Roots’ type of band, but that’s more or less what they were. Maybe a bit more technical. I was with them in the very beginning, before they even had a name. We did some Sepultura and Deftones covers. But I only sang in that band, because I didn’t have a guitar yet at the time.”

Using the Family Business

“It took a long time before Noctis Imperium became a band. I started with a friend of mine who also played the guitar, and we kept looking for musicians. But it was very difficult for us to find someone in the area, to the point that even he quit playing music. So I just decided to do it all by myself. By that point, I was already familiar with people like Chuck Schuldiner from Death or Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth. Before that, I wasn’t even aware of the idea of a main guy who basically writes all the music and lyrics.

Varg Vikernes from Burzum was also an influence in realizing: there are no singers around, there are no drummers around, my guitar partner left, so I’m going to have to do it by myself. So I started writing, and I got fixated with working on the songs from the drums to the lyrics, recording them, and releasing them.

At that time, it was around 2001, I also studied audio engineering in Caracas, where I had moved. That’s when I started recording guitars and programming drums on my computer whenever I could. Once, I had a friend who let me use his family’s business on a Sunday when they were closed. They had a computer store, so he let me use one of the computers to record the vocals for my demo.

The same thing happened with the second demo, until some people had heard the material, and they started reaching out to me to play the music. The idea being: let’s play these songs live, let’s form a band. That’s more or less how it came about for Noctis Imperium. In 2004 or 2005, we became a four-piece band for the first time.”

Part of History

“In our area, there are three cities very close to each other: Puerto La Cruz, Barcelona, and Lechería. It seems like one big city. There was a band from Barcelona who had a female guitar player who was a friend of ours. They disbanded, and their drummer and bassist (Daniel Haddad, who is still with the band) became Noctis Imperium’s rhythm section. Influenced by the fact that they had a female guitarist, we approached a friend of ours who also played guitar for the position, and she accepted.

In 2005, there were very few bands with female members, let alone guitarists. We actually got some backlash from people who didn’t feel like metal was supposed to be played by ladies and stuff like that. But I’m really proud to have Máriel (Marín) as part of our history, because she is a really close friend. She is actually still the guitarist for the band, even though she moved to Spain in 2007. She also works with us on our graphic design. She’s a real inspiration to us.

We have been a fairly tight unit since, only drummers have been hell for us. In a sense, that’s why we reached out to Nicholas Barker for ‘Imperium’ (2009) and ‘Nihil’ (2010). Before him, we didn’t quite connect personally with the drummer than we had. And after him, it was not easy to find someone who can play what Nicholas does. Fortunately, right now, we are working with someone from our area who can play the stuff. Being the good drummer he is, though, he has other projects, so we have to fight for him.”

Never Know When There Is a Chance to Play

“We have been less table in the line-ups that play live. We have had some people come and go. It hasn’t been easy to follow what we have done. Fortunately, we have had a chance to play with Máriel. Even though she lives in Spain, every time she comes back, we try to do some shows with her. Also, when we went to Europe to tour in 2010, she was with us.

Ignacio Rondón, who played in Landsemk, was a big help for us when Máriel wasn’t available. But he also ended up moving to Spain, so we weren’t able to keep him. Besides him, we were able to play with some good guitar players. Most of them have played in Landsemk as well. Luckily, there is someone in our area right now who is willing to help us, but we have played some shows as a three-piece without a second guitarist.

The fact is that there is no strict lead guitar or rhythm guitar in Noctis Imperium. Both guitars do lead and rhythm. The most difficult thing about this is that even though I create all the music, sometimes it’s hard to adapt when there isn’t another guitarist to play other parts.

Lately, we have been working on that to be able to cover all the bases. You never know when there’s a chance to play, and we won’t stop ourselves from playing if there isn’t anyone to play the other guitar parts. Then we just make it work as a three-piece.”

Twentieth Anniversary as a Four-Piece

“Noctis Imperium played its first show on the 17^th of April, 2005. This has become a special date for us, so when that day came in 2025, we thought: we have the chance to release our music digitally now, so let’s put together this special edition of ‘Nihil’ with a few changes made to it to celebrate our twentieth anniversary as a four-piece.

One song that wasn’t on the original EP is on the digital release, and we switched a couple of songs. We have tried to make it different enough for people who follow us to the point of noticing this kind of thing. Besides that, we are working on releasing the older songs that we have recorded, and have a lot of other material that has to be released. Some with Nicholas Barker, some with other drummers.

Also, we are working on new music. We’ve got to make it happen somehow. We’ll get there when we can. Sadly, those are the terms we have to speak in right now, but it is what it is. All I can say is: at least we’re feeling it. It’s not like we have to force anything. I think there is a lot of excitement. But we just have to tame it down a bit to not go crazy.”

Some Kind of Resurgence

“A friend of mine who also studied audio engineering had to record a few songs for his studies. So we started the project Inferno for him to record a few songs. I had this other music that wasn’t supposed to be for Noctis Imperium. It was mainly death metal, but it was also a bit experimental. It was written at a time when I was very influenced by Norwegian avant-garde bands, like Ulver. So we recorded that.

I taught the songs to Eduardo (Cárdenas, Landsemk bassist), and we recorded with Alejandro Ayala, a drummer from Caracas. He was the drummer for Krueger at the time. It was great working with this guy. One of the few drummers that I had met at the time who was truly specialized in extreme metal. It was a cool experience. I really like the songs from that project.

I have actually been thinking about remixing and re-releasing the Inferno stuff. But it’s not easy. I’ve got Noctis Imperium, a real day job, the situation in Venezuela… Luckily, over the years, we have collected and put together our own rehearsal space. We don’t need to pay if we need to rehearse like a lot of bands need to. And if we have to record things, I have my own method to record our music.

Still, it’s not easy for us to keep this thing alive in 2025 in Venezuela. Other band members may have to deal with things like maybe getting a second job. That might not sound like a lot, but itś not easy when you have one job that occupies most of your time, and you don’t really earn a lot, and you need another job. You don’t know when you’re going to do the first job, let alone the second job, let alone live your life.

We’re losing steam because of that, but we’re trying to make it work. Right now, we are going through some kind of resurgence. When I lived outside Venezuela from 2013 to 2022, the band wasn’t really going 100 percent. We were able to play some shows when I came back to Venezuela, and then I went back again. But right now, we realize we’ve got to take things slowly and work on what we can. But whatever it takes, we’ll make it happen. We just have to be patient.”

Lucky to Be in the Middle of It

“I recoded a few bands before I left Venezuela. While I was away, I only worked on Noctis Imperium music. But before I left Venezuela, I was able to work with Scythe. They are a brutal death metal band from Puerto La Cruz, and I was lucky enough to work with them on their first album (‘Merciless Pain’, 2011).

Also, I recorded Intestinal Infection. That’s another band I don’t think exists anymore, but I’m really proud of that EP (‘Internal Deformities’, 2009), because I was able to get a really good drum sound without the use of triggers. Even though we’ve used them in our music, triggers are something I have criticized a lot. Sadly, we have to take advantage of these tools sometimes, but I was able to get a real good drum sound without them on that Intestinal Infection EP.

Besides that, there were some smaller bands from my area that I worked with on demos and stuff like that. Nothing really big. It was just a period of time when a lot of bands were emerging from the scene, and I was lucky enough to be in the middle of that right when it was happening. But it was just before the big crisis that happened here, so a lot of those bands don’t exist anymore.

There was a thrash metal band called War Machine. Really young dudes. Most of them were 18 years old. I helped them out with their first recordings, but they disbanded after a while. Their drummer Keivin Campos is actually playing with Noctis Imperium right now. He’s an awesome dude, and an awesome musician.”

An Audience to Play to

“Looking back at the early days of Noctis Imperium right now, I realize that the whole scene was still young in our country. We were lucky enough to play in a lot of different places since the beginning. They weren’t always the best production, but it was really good compared to what people are able to afford nowadays.

Even though metal wasn’t a new thing, it was a young scene. Not everyone was able to produce shows. When you bring in bands from other cities, and you’re still able to pay for things like their hotel rooms, you are investing money. You are giving them something to be able to cover all the costs of what you need to bring bands from the outside, even though the space may not be the greatest.

I think one time, we played in a car workshop, where they just put up a stage, some lighting and a sound system, and it was great. People went to these shows. There was an audience to play to. I played in Landsemk for a while, and we shared the stage with other legendary bands in another city, where the stage was the back of a big truck. They put the drums and backline there, with sound towers in front of it, on the parking lot of a hotel or something like that.

People were putting things together however they could put them together. There was an audience for this type of music that was young and growing. These days, most people into our type of music are older people. We are all old guys just keeping the scene alive. The type of music that’s popular here now is disgusting. And that’s an understatement.”

An Example to Follow

“Being from Puerto La Cruz, we were lucky enough to see and be part of really well-produced shows. There were some local producers who were an example to follow. They worked on creating something that was very well done for how young the scene was at the time. I don’t know who influenced them, but they were a high-level thing that came from here, which actually still influences us to this day.

We had the chance to go to other cities. In Caracas, there was always high-level stuff. We weren’t familiar with bar gigs. That was never a thing here, because there weren’t any metal bars or even rock bars. Maybe during the eighties and nineties, there was a scene for some kind of rock thing that wasn’t really metal. But when we were of a certain age, there wasn’t really a local bar scene.

When we first started going to Caracas, we learned about this bar culture, and playing in this type of venues. Later, with time, some bars started popping up here in our area as well. Also, we were lucky enough to play in what was one of the biggest places of our country for a while. It was called the Tiburón Club, which means shark club. Bands from all over the country came to play there. Even super big commercial bands. It was like our home here in our area.”

A Big Brotherhood

“The owner of the Tiburón Club was a real metalhead. He supported all of us: Landsemk, Noctis Imperium, all these bands. My experience in the metal scene here is that our local scene is really strong compared to other places. We were a big brotherhood. We all know each other, we all help each other, and we all support each other.

I don’t know if this is because we knew each other before creating the bands, or maybe because we all play different styles, so we don’t compete directly with each other, but we have strong bond. We help each other out as much as we can. For example: I played with Landsemk, and a lot of the Landsemk guys played with Noctis Imperium.

I think this type of mentality was characteristic of our area. At first at least; later it spread a bit towards other places. People from other cities already pointed out how strongly everybody supported each other in Puerto La Cruz. Maybe people from Valencia, Caracas, and other places in the country also wanted that. Or maybe we all grew up, and stopped being children in general.”

Many thanks to Marcial Meléndez for helping set up this interview.