User:Deemark/Cautiva (band)

Cautiva is a thrash metal project arranged by Jose Travieso, a Spanish composer, pianist and guitarist. Although the project was originated in El Puerto de Santa Maria (Cadiz), later (since July of 2007) it has been moved to Granada city, where the most of pieces have been written and recorded. Cautiva is distinguished by a very aggressive and energetic thrash metal, taking elements from the death metal style. As far as progressive metal technics, Cautiva has complex and technic compositions where guitars, bass, drums and vocals are transformed into a powerful sonorous piece of machinery. Cautiva supposes a composer's total transformation, as much as this usually writes for piano and classical instruments, defining his regular style as a mix of minimalist music, avant-garde and experimentation, neoclassical music and jazz.

Cautiva is part of the new Spanish Thrash Metal movement emerged along the 2000's decade, sharing popularity with other distinguished bands as Angelus Apatrida, Legen Beltza or Killem. Cautiva represents the most technical, aggressive and progressive side, being one of the pioneer projects in the world where an only person does in the studio all the work of a whole metal band as much as engineering, progamming and mixing.

As it's usual in Jose Travieso's production, all the recordings of Cautiva are released for free download under Creative Commons license.

History
Cautiva's very beginning can be found in Desvirgator, a heavy metal band initiated by Jose Travieso (guitar) with David Iglesias (guitar) and Sergio Rubal (vocals) in Autumn of 2005. The germination of this project didn't go a long way, as much as -before completing the line-up- Desvirgator was broken by creative differences at the end of the same year.

2006 arrived, and Jose Travieso began a new metal project, taking up his new musical ideas from where he left them in Desvirgator. The new project was called Cautiva, and soon, Jose Travieso composed the first piece, Fire, Walk With Me!, defining the main path to follow in the future: progressive and technical thrash metal, with constant changes of measure and rhythm, complex riffs, and a generally dense composition. At the end of the same year, Jose Travieso finished the first demo. This recording presented the song Fire, Walk With Me!, as much as a first version of Love / Hate, showing a next to the experimentation and avant-garde posture. This demo was recorded with a basic equip, with Jose Travieso facing all the instruments, but receiving help from Sergio Rubal, an old member of Desvirgator, in the main vocals of the piece Fire, Walk With Me!. The recording appeared in CD format in January of 2007, but only at a private level and without distributions.

During the first half of 2007, the Cautiva project was interrupted for professional reasons and the subsequent transfer of Jose Travieso to Granada, but in August of the same year, the composer started the recordings of an EP, which would contain revised versions of the songs appeared in the demo of the previous year as well as two cover songs, one of Megadeth (Take No Prisoners) and other one of Coroner (Shadow Of A Lost Dream). The EP was again recorded entirely by Jose Travieso and again helped by Sergio Rubal in the vocals of the song Fire, Walk With Me!. This work was released in January of 2008 under the independent label Abracadaver.

There was much activity inside the project during 2008. Although Jose Travieso was setting out in the beginning to transform Cautiva into a band with different musicians, as the year progressed, he decided to limit the project to his own direct intervention. This is an avant-garde vision trying to make the best possible use of technologies in an own home studio, not depending in all the creation of an external studio recording or other external elements or people. This particular "way-of-doing" adopted by Jose Travieso is motivated by the limitations that his profession imposes him at the time to make an ambitious band, being only able to dedicate a partial time to the music.

Just as the EP Fire, Walk With Me! was finished, Jose Travieso began to record a new album, by means of which the composer would earn his reputation respect his new methods and avant-garde vision. As much as the previous recordings were made like a try-out, in this occasion, Jose Travieso put all his efforts to work. The compositions were more and more technic, but more accessible too, leaving out the experimental ideas portrayed in Love / Hate (Dream Of A Blackened Nightmare). The sonorous basis continued being thrash metal, but the sound became rougher, turning more aggressive and closer to death metal. Contrarily to the previous compositions, the vocals left the melody, mixing screams and stridency with the typical guttural sound of the death metal style. After 16 months of hard work, the album Human was released in June of 2009. This LP presents 10 pieces, including an introduction in the Jose Travieso's post-minimalist conventional concept, After All These Years..., a cover song of Testament, Into The Pit, and a revision of the only composition which was written during the Desvirgator period, Two Worlds.

With the release of Human and because of the exhaustion and dedication that Cautiva required, Jose Travieso announced in June of 2009 the undefined abandonment of the project with the objective to return to his work for piano and classical instruments. In July 2009, Travesio firmed a contract with the leading digitar distributor Catapult to release his more important recordings in online stores likes iTunes, Rhapsody or eMusic, including the Human album. His music continues to be free.

Influences
The Cautiva project has fed from many influences, but among all these we can emphasize:


 * The classical, progressive and technical thrash metal from the period 1985-1990, specially bands as Megadeth y Coroner, but too Exodus, Slayer, Testament or Forbidden.
 * The technical and progressive death metal, specially that connected with the bands Death (fundamentally) and Necrophagist (mainly in the guitar solos composition, doing Cautiva a tribute to such band in the piece My Own Hell (Human, 2009)).
 * The screaming vocal style, remembering bands as Venom, Today Is The Day or The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Members

 * Jose Travieso - Guitars, bass, virtual drums, keyboard and vocals.

Guests

 * Sergio Rubal - Main vocals in the songs Fire, Walk With Me! (Fire, Walk With Me!, 2008) and Two Worlds (Human'', 2009).
 * Jose Luis Cabeza - Last guitar solo in the song Fire, Walk With Me! (''Fire, Walk With Me!, 2008).

Demos

 * Cautiva (January of 2007, demo)

Studio recordings

 * Fire, Walk With Me! (January 25, 2008 - EP)
 * Human (June 6, 2009 - LP)

Other recordings

 * Promo September 2008 (September of 2008, demo-promo for the album Human)