Ekhymosis

Ekhymosis, was a Colombian rock band formed by Juan Esteban "Juanes" Aristiz?bal V?squez, along with friends Andr?s Garc?a, Fernando "Toby" Tob?n and Jos? David Lopera from Medell?n. The band was created in 1988 with heavy influences from Metallica and other important metal acts of the 80s, as well as some popular Latino music.

Career

Even since their beginning as a rock band, Ekhymosis showed the same pro-latino lyrics as Kraken (band). After some live performances to become known in their city (and more regions of Colombia), the band recorded a demo of two songs, which described the violence in Medell?n and the injustice of innocent deaths and other problems in Colombia. The demo sold out (thanks to friends and family of the band), and they decided to record a second. This time Ekhymosis had luck: In the studio was a Codiscos representative; she heard and liked the demo and the band signed with that label.

1993 saw the release of Ni?o Gigante, a heavy metal album that included one of the band's most well known songs, "Solo".

Controversy and the term "sell-out" surrounded the band with their next release: 1994's "Ciudad Pac?fico" produced by Federico L?pez, a more hard rock-oriented record with more Latin sounds. Ekhymosis was looking for their unique sound; they didn't want to be the "Spanish Metallica". Rather, they wanted to create Colombian rock.

In the following year, 1995, the band with its two new members, released "Amor Biling?e", topping the Colombian charts with the single "De Madrugada". The video of the song had incredible replay value on MTV Latino.

The same year, Ekhymosis recorded a rock version of the National Anthem of Colombia, which caused controversy among some but was well-received among Colombian youth.

Ekhymosis was the chosen band to open for Bon Jovi in November of that year, but due to the murder of the politician Alvaro G?mez the band decided not to play in order to allow the concert to finish earlier.

The next year, the band released their unplugged album, entitled "Ac?stico", and Ekhymosis decided to go to Los Angeles where they played in local pubs and began recording their new album.

In 1997, the band, now with four members (Juan Esteban, Andr?s, Toby and Jos?) recorded in L.A their self-titled album, which saw the re-makes of three of their best songs ("Solo", "Sin Rencores", "De Madrugada") and new ones, the most remarkable being "La Tierra", known by some fans as "the second Colombian Anthem".

The band was at its peak, but little knew the fans that those were the last days of one of the most important bands in Colombia.

In 1998, Ekhymosis won 3 Shock Awards (Best National Group, Best Song for "La Tierra", and Best Composer for Juan Esteban).

Some months later, due to internal problems in deciding the future of the band, Ekhymosis disbanded. Juan Esteban, then, began his solo career as Juanes; the drummer of the band, Jose Lopera, worked with him on his first album, and has continued to work with Juanes to this day; the guitarist of Ekhymosis, Toby, started to play with Juanes on his second album and has continued with Juanes as well.

Juanes has been known to perform Ekhymosis songs at his concerts, namely "Solo" and "La Tierra".

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Ekhymosis; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekhymosis