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Heavy Metal Thunder NWAHM (Spanish-Language Heavy Metal)

Genres Heavy Metal NWAHM (Spanish-Language Heavy Metal)

NWAHM (Spanish-Language Heavy Metal)

Heavy metal in Spanish, with its own heroes, venues and history. A parallel tradition rather than a translation of one.

Active years
1980 – present
Origin
Spain / Latin America
Family
Heavy Metal Origins
Bands here
13

Start here

Four records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. Volumen Brutal Barón Rojo, 1982 The landmark

    Spanish, and recorded twice — once in Spanish and once in English, at Kingsway in London, because the band wanted an international career. The Spanish version is the one that matters and it is a genuinely great heavy metal record.

    Listen to Volumen Brutal

  2. Luchando por el Metal V8, 1983

    The founding document of Argentine metal, made in a country three months out of a dictatorship, and it sounds like it. Crude, furious and enormously important south of the equator.

    Listen to Luchando por el Metal

  3. Hermética Hermética, 1989

    Ricardo Iorio's band after V8, and the point at which Argentine metal became its own thing rather than an import. Thrash tempos with lyrics about work, poverty and the street.

    Listen to Hermética

  4. Guerrero del Arco Iris Rata Blanca, 1991

    The melodic end, and the biggest-selling metal record in Argentine history. Walter Giardino plays like Blackmore and Adrián Barilari sings like a man auditioning for Rainbow.

    Listen to Guerrero del Arco Iris

What it sounds like

Heavy metal in Spanish, with everything that implies for the phrasing. The music is traditional — twin guitars, galloping drums, high clean vocals, riffs from the NWOBHM playbook — but sung in a language with different stresses, so the vocal melodies scan differently and the choruses land in another rhythm. Lyrics run to politics and social reality far more than to fantasy, particularly the Argentine bands writing under a dictatorship. Compared with the British scene it is rawer and more direct. It has its own canon, its own venues and its own arguments, largely invisible from the anglophone side, which is exactly why it is here.

  • Heaviness 3 out of 5
  • Speed 3 out of 5
  • Aggression 3 out of 5
  • Technicality 3 out of 5
  • Darkness 2 out of 5
  • Melody 4 out of 5

Where the name came from

'Nueva Ola del Alto Heavy Metal' — the New Wave of Spanish Heavy Metal, named in conscious imitation of the NWOBHM. Spain's scene grew around Barón Rojo and Obús from 1980, and the Spanish-language canon spread across Latin America largely independently of the English-language one.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Barón Rojo Spain
  • V8 Argentina
  • Hermética Argentina
  • Rata Blanca Argentina
  • Obús Spain

And 8 more

  • Logos Argentina
  • Horcas Argentina
  • Tren Loco Argentina
  • Ángeles del Infierno Spain
  • Almafuerte Argentina
  • Riff Argentina
  • Malón Argentina
  • Saratoga Spain

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.