Episode 11: TOURING IN MEXICO (PART II)

Episode 11: TOURING IN MEXICO (PART II)

...The next day didn't start well for Vinyl Mint. On their way to the National Museum of Anthropology she realized the absence of their Mexican Guide. He was the only person that she liked in this group besides the Metal Missionary. Juan had already realized her "needs" for metal by noticing her cut metal Τ-shirts and he had promised her a little escape from the main touring in order to show her the "metal temples" of Mexico City where she could find records while the rest of the group would tour in the Basilica de Guadelupe. To her disappointment she found out that the spoiled old goat who had complained about the drizzle the previous days had maliciously asked from the club to fire him. And that could now explain the sudden change of the initial touring programme, as according to it that day they were about to visit Teotihuacan, where the Mexican guide was needed, and not the National Museum of Anthropology. Vinyl Mint was really pissed off and asked them to bring Juan back, as she could not accept such an unfair behavior against this hard-working person. That moment she realized that there is a category of human beings that can not hear the voice of someone with empty pockets and wrote this fact down on her notebook in order to ask IRIS in later time about this strange human malfunction. She listened to a kickass song by the Mexican band REPTIL on her earphones to calm down and from then on she decided to ignore the shitty-heads and focus on the museum's exhibits.

The Museum had very interesting cultural pieces such as the Original Aztec Sunstone and the Jade Mask of Pakal, a funerary mask which was found in the tomb of the Mayan King Pakal.

After having spent her whole day in the Museum studying the Mexico's glorious pre-columbian heritage, super dizzy from the great volume of information that her brain had gained, she started roaming around at the museum's patio wondering how the hell she could find some free time for metal hunting.

As she was walking lost in her thoughts, she suddenly just stumbled on two long-haired guys with a pure metal attitude.
VINYL MINT: Hey guys! Are you metal fans or metal band?
The guys a little bit surprised by her sudden question looked at each other and answered her with one voice "Both!"
These were the first metalheads that she had met during her stay in Mexico until that day, so she felt really excited. They had a small talk to get to know each other better. In the meanwhile the other two band members joined their conversation too. All of them were really friendly and seemed to be down-to-Earth persons with a charming confidence. She asked them about their band. They told her that they are Onslaught Kommand from Chile and that they had come to Mexico in order to play live in Irapuato and in Mexico City.
(You can read more about Onslaught Kommand here - you can read their interview for Filthy Dogs of Metal here.)

Afterwards, they moved all together towards the Central Courtyard Umbrella of the Museum where they introduced to her the members of another band who also played at the above mentioned live concerts. That band was Embrace of Thorns from Greece! Nice and attractively mysterious guys. That was another strange coincidence to meet on the other side of the Earth metalheads from the country where Filthy Dog lives. Although she had never listened to their music before, they looked familiar to her and she was sure that she had many times heard Antiposer, a friend of Filthy Dog on Crete, mention them and say that they kick ass. In any case, even only the fact that they travelled so many miles outside the European boundaries to play live in concerts, shows much about the quality of their work for sure. (You can read more about Embrace of Thorns here - you can read their interview for Filthy Dogs of Metal here.)

By the way, Vinyl Mint got informed that other great bands played at these live performances as well, such as Invocation from Chile. (You can read their interview for Filthy Dogs of Metal here).

She ended up deeply regreting that she hadn't discovered the live shows on time in order to find a way to attend at least one of these events. A lot of coincidences led to that pleasant unexpected metal meeting at the Museum that finally enriched the metal collection of Vinyl Mint with quality-material of two more awesome bands that would lead her metal experience into new, for her, music paths...

The next day Vinyl Mint and the group of disaster visited Teotihuacan where they admired the Piramide del Sol, the Piramide de la Luna and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. This place was so imposing that the Metal Missionary decided that it was the ideal place to honor the memory of the Metal Priestess.

Late in the afternoon they went to Mexico City downtown for a small walk. Unfortunately, Vinyl Mint didn't make it to visit El Chopo, a flea market where she could find metal material. Besides that she was told that it was open only on Saturdays so there was no point to visit it not even the next day.

The next day they visited the best-known for its canals Xochimilco, where they rode on colorful boats, the so called trajineras. They enjoyed the beauty of the landscape while listening to Mariachi bands playing live on the trajineras.

Afterwards they visited La Casa Azul, the building where the great Mexican artist Frida Kahlo was born and grew up. The building today is a museum dedicated to her life and work. After Vinyl Mint gained more knowledge about Frida's life, she considered her not only as an inspiring spirit of creativity but also as a symbol of superhuman strength.

Later they had a walk in the neighborhood, in Coyoacan, where VINYL MINT tasted delicious Churros and watched an outdoor live performance of a band. There she listened to a song, the so called "Bonita pero Mentirosa". That song made even very old local people stand up from their chairs and dance...some others even left for a few minutes their work and started dancing with each other outside their stores. Vinyl Mint really enjoyed the spontaneous and authentic, full of life spirit of the Mexican people.

As the melody and the lyrics of that song "dices te quiero, te quiero mi amor..." somehow persistently stuck on her mind after that experience, she decided that she needed a heavy dose of metal in order to return to her default state of mind and the great Mexican band APOCALIPSIS had the way to satisfy her with that FUCKING AWESOME song...she pushed on the play button and she started a crazy headbanging while singing "...a todos quiere matar, ese piloto infernaaaaaaaaal..."

(...to be continued...)