Name is Aaron Mendiola, and I have been into the Death Metal scene since 1992. I was a freshman in High School. There are still some out there a lot more old school than I am, but I can hold my own, trust me. Before that I was your typical radio rock, or Mtv kid who didn't know any better. When introduced to this genre of music, a lot of opportunities have presented themselves to me throughout my life. Look back now, I wouldn't change a thing. It led me here to where I am today. I remember going to shows at The Showcase, Wacky's, or the DMZ Clubhouse and seeing some really awesome bands from the yesteryears such as DEATH, CARCASS, NAPALM DEATH, CATHEDRAL, EXHORDER, BROKEN HOPE, UNLEASHED, CANNIBAL CORPSE (original line-up), OBITUARY, KING DIAMOND, MERCYFUL FATE, MORBID ANGEL, PUNGENT STENCH, DISSECTION, IMMOLATION, DEICIDE, MONSTROSITY, ANAL CUNT, SUFFOCATION, KATAKLYSM, FEAR FACTORY, SEPULTURA, DYING FETUS, INTERNAL BLEEDING, DEMENTED TED, OPPRESSOR, BRUTAL TRUTH, MASTER, SINSITER, CYNIC, DEAD HORSE, and many others. Now I know a lot of these bands are still around, but I was honored to see them back in the day before line-up changes, music style changes, etc...
First thing first...I began my actual career in the music scene with a fanzine I did when i was only 14-15 years old called Beyond the Grave. It was fun interviewing bands over the phone or in person, especially at that age. I was in Metal heaven!!! It was great getting tons of promos to review and to discover new bands. It turned out it was a bit too much work for me at that time, so I ended that zine only after 2 issues. I did go back into writing again with a few interviews, reviews for various zines, websites, but nothing stuck until i did Witness the Sickness webzine. Then again, time restraints caused me to end that site as well. I still love writing, and will one day again enjoy interviewing or reviewing bands. For now I have hung that part of me up.
In 1993 I joined my first band as a vocalist. It was the band MALEFICENT. There were many years of great partying with those guys. Had a blast, and loved the experience I gained from being with them. Way too many successful shows, and probably just as many band ones too! hahaha. There is really no official recording we did when that line-up was together. But we did attempt one. We recorded a very poor sounding, shitty home recording that we actually called "Soul Departure". I don't even know who has copies of that tape, but they're out there somewhere.
MALEFICENT 1992-1997
After I decided to leave MALEFICENT to pursue music more my speed and writing more my style (gore), I joined a band that was already together called CARRION. They were from Seguin, TX. So after waiting 2 long years, I was finally ready to reveal my fiendish gore style writings to the world! Together with my lyrics and their music we combined to make the band known as PUTRILAGE. We first recorded an old school cassette demo called "Gorenography". After the demo and a couple of record labels later (long story) we finally released a full length CD called "Devouring the Gutted" on Forever Underground Records. This was the 1st experience for all of us in this band to record a full length CD, and watch it get put together and finally released. Good times.... A tour was put together by the record label to support the release. So, together with label mates LEUKORRHEA, and BEHEADED we hit the East Coast for what was supposed to be a month long tour. Everything about this tour sucked!!! It was poorly promoted, shows weren't put together right, and it all fell to shit. We didn't eat much, didn't drink, pretty much didn't get to do much. The only highlights were the 1st night of the tour, meeting everybody, and having a great fucking night of selling merch, and drinking lots of alcohol with the boys, the New Jersey metal Fest, Lafayette, LA, and finally when we arrived back to Texas in Houston. There were other cities in between all that, but not worth mentioning here. Fuck that!!! Frustration, and lack of any motivation caused this band to finally break up in 2003. A very sad moment in my life!
PUTRILAGE 1999-2003
But I didn't let it bother me that long.... Within the weeks after the PUTRILAGE break up, I was at it again. This time with fellow PUTRILAGE member, Eddie Blanquiz and a few friends of ours, we created EXULCERATE. The small popularity that we had gained with Putrilage really helped us get to a good start. We had good first shows, and a lot of hits to our websites. So no complaints...Yet! We did a pretty decent demo called "Samples of Sickness", which featured the original line-up of EXULCERATE and even had songs that never got played again after that. We soon signed to a label, and once again.. a couple of labels later our debut CD known as "Remnants of a Cannibalistic Debauchery" was released on Comatose Music. There were many line-up changes throughout our time, and the last line-up was to be the most promising. Things were happening though, in my life that was causing me distance from the band. I wasn't feeling the same as I was when we first got together. Summer, 2006 there was a tour that I was putting together for us, along with IMMERSED IN BLOOD, ETERNAL RUIN, and SOLIDIFICATION, known as The Annihilation of the Population tour. In the midst of this booking and planning is when I had to leave the band. I was originally planning on letting them tour without me, and return to the band when they got back, but I just decided it was best for me to step down completely. The tour still went on, but not as planned. There was a lot of miscommunication between all parties, including myself that cause this tour to go bad. I apologize on my part, but it was not entirely my fault that everything went the way they did.
EXULCERATE 2003-2006
Now this leads us to now... Summer 2007. Already been together with my new band, ENGAGED IN MUTILATING for a year now. We have had a handful of great shows so far. Meeting new people, and getting together with some old faces as well. This band is 3/5 of PUTRILAGE members. It feels great to be back with this line-up. There is so much more maturity this time around, and more great times are to come. We are in the middle of working out a deal with a studio to finally record a few songs for a demo. So if you are interested to know more about my new band, please get in touch with me.
ENGAGED IN MUTILATING 2006-????