Juan Garcia (guitarist)


Juan García is a Cuban American heavy metal guitarist. He is perhaps best known as the guitarist for the thrash metal bands Agent Steel and Evildead and the power metal/speed metal band Abattoir. García is also the rhythm guitarist of Body Count.

Biography

In 1982, García joined the newly formed heavy metal band; Abattoir along with bassist Mel Sanchez, guitarist Mark "The Shark" Caro, drummer Ron Gonzales, and vocalist Chris Maleki. He played on the band's early demos 'Abattoir ' and 'Demo 1984' ; He also performed on the debut Abattoir 'Vicious Attack' Lp released on Combat Records before leaving the band in October, 1984 to join Agent Steel. He recorded on two classic albums with Agent Steel 'Skeptics Apocalypse' and 'Unstoppable Force' as well as their EP 'Mad Locust Rising'. After leaving Agent Steel in 1987, García reunited with Mel Sanchez to form Evildead, with the intention to write heavy music with more hardcore and thrash metal elements; more so than their previous bands; EvilDead's debut show was at Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, California along with Possessed, Dark Angel, and Cryptic Slaughter. The band's name was inspired from the Sam Raimi horror film 'The Evil Dead'. Their lyrics focused on exploring political and social themes mixed with horror and nuclear war topics. During their initial career, Evildead released two albums, a live recording and an EP all on SPV/Steamhammer Records. After several lineup changes and an attempt to make a third album, the band broke up in 1995.
After Evildead folded, García, along with his former bandmates Karlos Medina, Dan Flores and Jon Dette formed a new band, Terror. This band would follow the same vein as Evildead, but with lyrics and vocals in Spanish. After managing to release their debut album 'Hijos de Los Cometas' on BMG/Culebra in 1997 and a self-titled EP in 1998; Terror split up and Garcia returned to Agent Steel to record co-write and record the comeback album 'Omega Conspiracy'. He was also contributed guitars on the Killing Machine 'Metalmorphosis' second release which featured James Rivera on vocals, and David Ellefson on bass.
In 2008, García recorded guitar tracks for the song 'Santa Claus Is Back In Town' featuring Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals, lead guitarist Steve Morse, bassist Marco Mendoza, and drummer Vinny Appice, for "We Wish you a Metal Xmas" compilation which landed on the U.S. Billboard charts. Also that year, García performed with Agent Steel at the 'Bang Your Head Festival' in Germany, and 'Graspop Metal Meeting' in Belgium. Evildead would reunite in the summer of 2009 and began rehearsals for 'Thrasho De Mayo' event that was held in Los Angeles on May, 2010. The band also performed at the "Way of Darkness Festival" in Germany later in 2010. The current line up features new vocalist, Steve Nelson, Rob Alaniz, Albert Gonzalez, Mel Sanchez, and Juan Garcia. Evildead had been writing new music for a 2012 release. However, it was announced on October 17, 2012 that the band was no more. In April 2013, García released a 4-song EP with members of Agent Steel under the moniker Masters of Metal. On November 9, 2013, García joined Body Count featuring Ice-T on vocals on rhythm guitar for a live appearance in Austin, Texas at the Fun Fun Fun Festival, and is now a full-time member of the band after completing a full U.S. Tour to support the release of the "Manslaughter" album as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. On March 31, 2017 Body Count released a follow up full-length album; "Bloodlust" on Century Media Records which received a Grammy nomination for "Best Metal Performance" category for the song "Black Hoodie". Garcia is currently working with Body Count on a highly anticipated follow up release entitled "Carnivore". Juan is also working with the Los Angeles-based metal band EvilDead on a comeback Lp.

Studio albums