Black Zodiac

This is some really cool heavy metal that goes into thrash metal at times. There is a girl singing and she has an awesome voice as well. One of the best female singers I have heard that is for sure. The production quality on this is really good and I love the guitar sound that is on this. I bet this would be a killer live band. Well worth checking out and I'll try and get an interview with her as well. - metalcorefanzine.com review 9/24/07

Ugly music for ugly people is the cliche catagorization for metal music. I would have to agree. However, Black Zodiac's vocalist Mayelin absolutely destroys that cliche. Mayelin's beauty rivals Selma Hayek.

Getting back to the cd, "Psychotic Hatred" is Black Zodiac's most recent release. It contains 11 tracks that takes you through a wild rollercoaster ride of metal emotions. On some tracks you'll get all out ball busters like "Final Conclusion," "Awakening," and "My Enemy's Blood." Then on some tracks you get subdued, ominous ballads like "Fanatico," "Healing With Your Hate," and "Coming Out."

Black Zodiac even incorporates elements of industrial/rap/nu-metal throughout Psychotic Hatred in tracks such as "Consequential Hatred" and "My Enemy's Blood."

"Psychotic Hatred" was recorded by Punchy at D.O.W Studios, which would explain the excellent production quality.

I have only seen Black Zodiac once live, and as good this CD sounds, I don't think it totally encapsulates the total Black Zodiac sound. In my opinion they sound much heavier. - Rivot Rag Sept. 05 issue

Black Zodiac's recent signing with Sonic Wave International was no small feat. Lead singer and front woman Mayelin had been in other bands, but says, "It didn't work at all. We always had to depend on somebody else to get the job done, and somebody else always had an issue with the music. So I decided I was going to do a solo project, and I hired Aaron and we worked together very wee, musically."

According to Mayelin, Black Zodiac's signing was the result of hard work, presistence and a demo critique of the band's four song demo in Music Connection magazine. "This record offer came just after our review was published in Music Connection. And then we started getting phone calls and we started getting record contracts in the mail."

Even with the assistance provided by their review, however, there was still the matter ofnegotiating a mutually satisfactory agreement with potential labels, which Mayelin soon discovered to be as much a hurdle as getting the offers in the first place. Most labels wanted Black Zodiac to relocated and record in their studios, but Mayelin stuck to her guns. "We had other offers from different labels and we tried to negotiate a deal, but it didn't work. And I was definitely not going to sign something that wouldn't work for me as an artist."

That was until they met with Sonic Wave executive producer Anand Bhatt. "Negotiating the deal with Anand was very pleasant. He's a great person when it comes to business, and he didn't treat us like "you're the artist and I'm the boss." "He treated us like equal human beings."

Black Zodiac is currently in the studio working with Morbid Angel co-producer Juan "Punchy" Gonzalez on their upcoming debut, "Psychotic Hatred." - Music Connection

Black Zodiac is a very cool mteal band from Florida and I got singer Mayelin on the phone and here is what she said to my questions.

MC: We will get the 1st obvious question out of the way. How did the band form and were you or any of the othere band members in any famous bands or were you just all in local bands and then came together?

BZ: I had always had a vision of waht I wnated to do artistically and my influences when I was growing up was Ozzy Osbourne and all the classic metal rockers and I met Aaron the guitar player and he was in a band. His band broke up and I was also playing drums in another band that broke up. I discussed with him my artistic vision of how I wanted the music and a band to be, and what I expected out of it. He joined with me, and we started working together and from then on everything started to come together.

MC: I have your cd next to me and was that released on you own label or a small indie label?

BZ: That was a indie label we were signed to.

MC: Prior to you putting the cd out, did you demo a lot of songs and stuff like that and did writing songs become easy when you started collaborating with Aaron?

BZ: Yes, Aaron works on the music side of things, and I work on the lyric side of things. It was pretty easy of both of us. - Metalcorefanzine.com