Huddled collectively at a Denny’s in East L.A., the place they’re grabbing breakfast forward of a music video shoot, the members of Ladrones are buzzing. And it’s not over the Unique Grand Slam.
As they mirror on a whirlwind few months, the Guadalajara, Mexico-based band — who merge metallic, hip-hop and Regional Mexican music right into a hybrid they name Movement Pesado — hold coming again to 1 pivotal second: Welcome to Rockville in Daytona Seashore, Florida.
There, vocalists Zxmyr and Cirujano Resendez, guitarist José Macario, bassist Chamuco and drummer Diego Zornoza performed their first-ever U.S. competition. Anxious forward of their Sunday afternoon set, with the added weight of being the one band at Rockville performing solely in Spanish, Ladrones had been shocked to be greeted by a supportive crowd waving Latin American flags. The sight settled their nerves. They checked out one another, relaxed and able to let unfastened.
“I felt like I used to be taking part in for the primary time as a result of we haven’t had that many individuals watching us,” says Zornoza. “Seeing individuals who had no thought what we had been saying and had been [still] vibing to the songs was one of many coolest experiences ever. It’s a day I’ll always remember.”
That Rockville set was one flash level in a bigger breakout yr for Ladrones. In assist of their 2025 album, Mexican Pesado, the band opened for Bloodywood on a North American tour, earned trade consideration past Mexico — SiriusXM character Jose Mangin is a part of their administration workforce — and signed with Rise Information, which can launch their third album, Arriba La L, in August.
Earlier than the yr is over, they’ll open for Polyphia and carry out at Deftones’ annual Dia De Los Deftones competition in San Diego. For Ladrones, the momentum factors to one thing better than a number of large alternatives: a proudly Mexican imaginative and prescient of heavy music discovering an viewers far past house.
Ladrones fashioned in 2021 as a part of producer Alan Ledesma’s Alzada Information, a label primarily recognized for Regional Mexican and hip-hop. At first, producer-songwriter Macario and rapper Zxmyr had been merely collaborating on a rap track. However when Macario added guitars, drums and bass, the monitor took on a heavier form.
After early single “Díganme” discovered success, the pair enlisted two extra Alzada labelmates — Resendez, a rapper, and Zornoza, a drummer and Zxmyr’s brother — to show the experiment into a brand new band.
Drawing from performing backgrounds that vary from mariachi, salsa and merengue to hardcore, metalcore and pop — together with a shared admiration for Mexican pop-rock giants Maná — Ladrones constructed their distinctive Movement Pesado sound. The time period captures the band’s mixture of technical precision, forward-thinking manufacturing and commanding vocals with out pinning it to a single style.
“We don’t wish to name it metal-something as a result of it’s a fusion of all the pieces we make,” Macario says. “It’s a sense greater than a style.” Nonetheless, the important ingredient in Ladrones’ sound is Regional Mexican music.
“It’s fairly the duty to do it, however now we have to for the sake of the tradition of who we’re as Mexicans,” Zxmyr says. “We weren’t making an attempt to do something that was making an attempt to appease the general public [in Mexico] essentially, and bringing it to the U.S. feels genuine. We’re going to be who we’re, and we’re pleased that it’s resonating with folks.”
In 2024, Ladrones launched their debut album, Movement Pesado, which was rapidly adopted by Mexican Pesado. They level to the latter because the second they advanced from a bunch of people right into a singular drive. Arriba La L pushes that chemistry even additional.
In comparison with Ladrones’ earlier work, the brand new 15-song assortment expands their vary, infusing parts of math rock and reggaeton with out making the mix really feel compelled. “The brand new file feels extra pure,” Macario says. “We’re safer in our capability to mix completely different genres.”
The fiery first single “Ay Ay Ay,” which addresses mortality, options blazing guitars and aggressive drums alongside pressing vocals from Zxmyr and Resendez. “Traición,” which Zornoza factors to as his favourite monitor, is heavier and edgier, shifting seamlessly between kinds. His bandmates level to the radio-ready “Pa Llegar a Fin de Mes” as their favourite. With its mixture of hip-hop, tenacious but rhythmic onerous rock and lyrics about pushing ahead, the track is a bellwether for the expansive sonic areas Ladrones are exploring.
“It brings a message of bettering your self on the finish of the day, and I believe that’s what sort of resonates essentially the most with folks,” Zxmyr says. “It’s like an actual genuine piece of labor and one thing anybody can relate to.”
With Arriba La L on the best way and their viewers rising past Mexico, Ladrones know that is solely the start.
“We’re going to maintain working onerous, and we’re prepared for the folks throughout to listen to the brand new sound, and it’s all coming on the proper time,” says Macario. “The world is prepared for what now we have to supply, and 2027 goes to [see us] hold climbing.”
