Oficial Bio.
Peste. Pestilente. Pestilencia. This game of words evokes the smell of a country in contradiction, Colombia, the one with clean skies and carrion birds, but over all it evokes the history of the most important generational band of punk rock in Colombia: LA PESTILENCIA. The history of a group that began with a cassette with four songs, without cover or titles, and that twenty years later has five long play albums, whose songs all the Colombians have sang at some point of their lives. LA PESTILENCIA reunited these songs in a live, emotional and political DVD called “20TH ANIVERSARY” (EMI Music, 2007). This DVD celebrates their 20 years of trajectory and confirms the loyalty of their fans, a band that went from the deepest underground rock scenes to the mainstream spheres of music without giving away its political beliefs.

“Vive tu vida” was one of the first songs of the band, when Héctor Buitrago and Dilson Diaz, the founders of LA PESTILENCIA were hardly known and just 80’s punk rock disc collectors. The underground project of Héctor & Dilson caused commotion in the house where they used to rehearse in Los Alcazares, a Bogota suburb, soon their music spread to other areas of the city like La Candelaria, Bavaria and the National University. There, punks, metal heads, upper-class kids, children, police, intellectuals and journalists increased the reputation of the band, the concerts would ended in altercations and the headlines in the press would read: “La Pestilencia is one of the most controversial rock bands of Bogota and reflects in a very accurate way the discontent of the young people” wrote the prestigious journalist Eduardo Arias at the end of the 80' s. One decade later, with two LP' s (“LA MUERTE, UN COMPROMISO DE TODOS” and “LAS NUEVAS AVENTURAS DE LA PESTILENCIA”) and a yellow CD under the arm (“EL AMARILLISTA”), Dilson Diaz took the band to a new era, without Héctor Buitrago but with two friends from Medallin that soon would become their companions and brothers: Juan Gomez on the bass and Marcelo Gomez on drums. At the time in Colombia the official currency was Pablo Escobar, a currency with two faces, on one side of the coin a non-future called drug trafficing and on the other side hope in the hands of soccer.

With their albums circulating around Colombia and other countries like Germany, Brazil and Spain, LA PESTILENCIA played in the most important outdoors music festival in South America, Rock al Parque, in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. Dilson Diaz and their people also opened for Metallica before an audience of one hundred thousand people and were the headliners at the music festival Rock Bogota next to Molotov, ANIMAL and Angeles del Infierno, just before leaving to the United States to record its fourth album, “BALISTICA”. They recorded at the Indigo Ranch in Malibu, one of the most mythical recording studios, and recorded “BALISTICA” produced by Richard Kaplan (who produced Slipknot album debut), the success of the album took the band to MTV (with the video of the song “Soñar Despierto”) and to the catalogue of the multinational label Universal Music, with whom they signed a contract in 2001. “BALISTICA” was (and it is) a powerful album that made them even more successful, conquering Central America and touring Mexico with the Brazilian band Sepultura (meanwhile, in Colombia, they were nominated by the most important magazine targeted to young people, Shock magazine, in the categories of Best Colombian Band, Best Metal Band and Best Video).

In 2001, three new members joined LA PESTILENCIA Andres “Popa” Erazo (keys, synths & samplers), Carlos Marín (guitar) and Javier Valencia (visuals and arts). This line-up would be the definitive one. It was then that the six members decided to moved to Los Angeles, California. While they were playing in important venues in the United States, like the Viper Room and House of Blues, among others, Dilson Diaz and LA PESTILENCIA recorded their most recent album, “PRODUCTOS DESAPARECIDOS” produced by Mark Needham (famous by his work in the debut album of The Killers). The album is a straightforward album with a straightforward message. “PRODUCTOS DESAPARECIDOS”, landed a contract with the multinational record label EMI Music, the album caused a media frenzy and put the band in the spot light of the Colombian music scene and in 2006 five thousand people attended LA PESTILENCIA national tour. Also, “PRODUCTOS DESAPARECIDOS” (one of the best digipack releases for the rock genre in Colombia) became the first Gold Record in Colombian history for a punk rock band, eighty thousand people saw LA PESTILENCIA in the edition of the 2006 Rock al Parque and the band was nominated to all kinds of awards: Best Central Artist at the 2006 MTV Latin, Best Recording Package at the 2006 Latin Grammy Awards and Best Album Cover, Recording of the year and Best Metal Band at the 2006 Shock Awards, event where Dilson Diaz received a Life Achievement Award.

Sponsored by Gibson and with the music available in I Tunes, LA PESTILENCIA has shown with their album “PRODUCTOS DESAPARECIDOS” that they are the most combative rock band with the greatest international projection of Colombia, a band that conserves classic style punk rock of the 80' s but that at the same time evolves with the new musical genres, without leaving behind the emotional conflicts to which the modern man is exposed coexisting and interacting in the system, and their point of view on international policies, the arbitrary commercialization of the rainforests and the war against the terrorism. These themes are evident in their videos “Nada me Obliga” and “Pacifista” (airing continuously in music videos channels like MTV) and in the lyrics and sound of their song “Ahora me Cuesta ”, that have a place of privilege in the Top 100 songs 2006 according to the main public radio in Colombia, Radiónica.

Text. Chucky Garcia

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Banda Colombiana con mas de 20 años de nacimiento, su mas conocido album "el amarillista" los hace conocer comercialmente, entre sus exitos mas conocidos estan: soldado mutilado, ole , pacifista, soñar despierto y su último exito Ahora me Cuesta. Son una de las bandas más representativas de la escena del rock Colombiano y llenan plazas en cualquier lugar que se presenten. La Peste se ha presentado ante más de 60.000 personas en el festival Rock Al Parque en Bogota, donde nadie para de saltar cuando la peste sale al ruedo.

Actualmente estan radicados en la ciudad de Los Angeles, California.

Colombian band with more than 20 years in the local scene, their are well known for songs like "Soldado Mutilado", "Ole", "Fango", "Pacifista", "Soñar Despierto" and their latest hit "Ahora me Cuesta". They are one of the symbols of Colombian hard rock and move big crowds everytime they perform. Their biggest apparences have being in Rock Al Parque in front of +60.000 people that don't stop rocking with "La Peste"'s performance.

At the moment they are living in Los Angeles, CA.