Birthed from the remains of Puya, the nu-metal breakout sensation from Pueto Rico that overtook the Ozzfest scene out of no where for a brief year or two and then faded into obscurity outside of their die hard fanbase, Yeva combines heavy metal riffs and latin rhthyms to create a very unique sound. Unlike his predecessor though, founder bassist Harold Hopkins has strayed from the simpler formulations that categorize nu-metal and has completely made a fusion of latin jazz as a base with a healthy dose of metal thrown in.

I discovered Yeva recently after doing a random search for Puya related material, as I am an unasbashed fan of the band, despite their general distaste in the metal community. I had already heard Ankla, which is another spin off of Puya from guitarist Ramón Ortíz, and is also a far heavier act bordering on death metal (while also maintaining it’s latin beat). Yeva is definitely a different beast from both Puya and Ankla with it’s emphasis clearly on traditional latin jazz, but what perked my interest about this act in comparison to the other two was its perfect insertion of metal into songs to really bring the group outside of the sphere of both metal and jazz. This isn’t an edgy band, but it’s one that you can headbang to while performing a sexy salsa with your significant other. Try imagining if 70’s era Santana decided to make a record with Sepultura, that is essentially the sound that Yeva brings to life.

http://www.myspace.com/yevapr

http://yevapr.com/