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James Rivera | |
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 Rivera in 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Bill Lionel |
| Born | April 15, 1960 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Genres | Heavy metal, power metal, speed metal, thrash metal |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1982–present |
James Rivera (born April 15, 1960) is an American singer, best known as the frontman for the heavy metal band Helstar. He was also the singer for Seven Witches between 2002 and 2005.
Rivera got his start singing with power metal act Helstar, a band established in the early 1980s in Houston, Texas. Rivera and guitarist Larry Barragan are the only remaining original members of the band after numerous lineup changes. [1] In addition to Helstar, Rivera has sung with several other metal bands (most notably Destiny's End and Vicious Rumors) [2] during his music career and belonged to several tribute bands.
Rivera, along with Helstar's other founding member Larry Barragan, rebuilt the original band with guitar player Rob Trevino, bass player Jerry Abarca and drummer Russ De Leon (now substituted by Michael Lewis). In 2007 the band released Sins Of The Past, a re-recorded best-of including the most famous Helstar songs. In 2008, came a new brand full-length studio album called King Of Hell. They've released a number of albums since then, most recently in 2016 with Vampiro.
Over the years Rivera and Helstar have been active with their live shows across the United States as well as touring in Europe. Helstar hits great stages like the ones of the Keep It True Festival and Headbangers Open Air, both in Germany, and finally the cult Heavy Metal festival in Italy called Play It Loud.
In January 2017, it was announced that Rivera was to join UK-based power metal band Shadowkeep and would record vocals for their fourth album. [3]
Ronald James Padavona, known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal singer. He fronted numerous bands throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven & Hell.
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Helstar is an American heavy metal band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1982 by guitarist Larry Barragan. They were an influential force in the American power metal genre emerging in the mid-1980s.
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Vicious Rumors are an American power metal band, originally formed in 1979 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was conceived by founder and guitarist/vocalist Geoff Thorpe, and has been actively recording and touring worldwide since their full-length recording debut in 1985. They are signed to the Germany-based label SPV/Steamhammer.
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Domine is an Italian power metal band formed in 1983. The group from Florence, who began releasing demo tapes in 1986, got some attention with their first album, Champion Eternal, released in 1997. Domine went on to release four more albums, touring Europe and playing at many festivals. They have been linked to heroic fantasy and sword and sorcery writers like Michael Moorcock and Robert E. Howard for their lyrics related to the Elric of Melniboné and Conan the Barbarian novels.
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Australian heavy metal music has its roots in both the Australian hard rock and pub rock tradition of the 1970s and the American and British heavy metal scenes. Since the mid-1980s, Australian heavy metal has been particularly influenced by foreign bands, particularly Swedish death metal, American thrash metal and black metal from Norway. Within Australia heavy metal has always remained part of the underground but since the mid-1990s many Australian metal acts have found widespread acceptance in overseas markets, particularly in Europe.
Remnants of War is the second album by American heavy metal band Helstar, released by Combat Records and Noise Records in August 1986, and the final by the former. It was recorded following a lineup change and a change of studio to Mad Dog Studios in California. The sound of the album was a gradual progression from the traditional heavy metal style of the band's debut album, Burning Star towards the power-thrash sound that the band forged throughout the 1980s.
Chandana Chitral Somapala, aka Chity Somapala, is a Sri Lankan hard rock and heavy metal vocalist and a music director. He is known for his work with European power metal bands Firewind, Power Quest, Avalon, Faro, Red Circuit, and Civilization One. Somapala gained popularity in his home country due to his Sinhala track "Nadee Ganga" which was released in 1998.
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