Life moves fast sometimes.
That adage holds especially true for the guys in Shattered Sun, one of the bands that roars into the White River Amphitheatre on Tuesday as part of the annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, headlined this year by Slayer and King Diamond.
“It’s all kind of a Cinderella-stars-all-aligning-in-the-right-place-kind of story,” lead vocalist Marcos Leal said of the band’s rise.
A six-piece metal band from the South Texas oil-town of Alice, Shattered Sun formed in 2005 but only began to take off in 2011 after solidifying its current lineup of guitarist Daniel Trejo, drummer Robert Garza, guitarist/vocalist Jessie Santos, bassist Joseph Guajardo, keyboardist/vocalist Henry Garza, and lead vocalist Marcos Leal.
The band then set out to promote its latest album, which, according to Leal meant, “buying our way onto a big tour.”
Unfortunately, the transaction didn’t work out for Shattered Sun.
“This guy screwed us over,” Leal said. “But the good thing that came of it was I became friends with Spineshank.”
Leal said it was in part his friendship with Grammy-nominated Spineshank’s guitarist, Mike Sarkisyan, that provided the band’s first breakthrough.
“We sent him some tracks from the album (“Hope Within Hatred,” which was recorded in 2013), and he said, ‘I know this girl, Maria Ferrero, who does PR,’ ” Leal recalled. “She said, ‘Screw the PR deal, do you want a manager?’ ”
That conversation paved the way for Shattered Sun to ink a management deal with Breaking Bands LLC – a management company started by industry heavyweight and Adrenaline PR CEO Maria Ferrero, with MegaForce Records founders Jon and Marsha Zazula and Testament lead singer Chuck Billy.
“We got on the phone with Chuck and Jonny, who called us back that day,” Leal said. “It was just one of those things where something positive happens from something negative.”
Since then Shattered Sun has toured with thrash metal legends Testament and Exodus, signed with Victory Records and earned that coveted slot at the Mayhem Festival.
“That was huge,” Leal said. “All the hard work we put into the album and the long winding road, that was the arrival.”
Despite the amount of recognition the band has garnered in such a short time, Leal said, he doesn’t expect any of the members to get rockstar attitudes or big heads anytime soon.
“A lot of it has to do with where we come from,” Leal said. “We’re blue-collar, family guys. We’re not that stereotype metal head that people who aren’t into heavy metal think of.
“We all have families that keep us level, and we always remind ourselves that if it wasn’t for this music, we would all be working in the oil fields.”
Instead of slaving away in the oil fields, however, the guys in Shattered Sun aim to get heads banging at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Victory Records Stage at Mayhem.
“You can expect high energy, a lot of head-banging, and some beer drinking,” Leal said. “We want to show the rest of the world that heavy metal is not dead.”
This year’s Mayhem Festival numbers performances by Slayer, King Diamond, Hellyeah, Devil Wears Prada, Feed Her To the Sharks, Kissing Candice, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder, Jungle Rot, Sister Sin, Sworn In and Code Orange.
