Miedo Escénico

Miedo Escenico is the first solo studio album by the Chilean singer and ex-member of the Chilean rock band La Ley, Beto Cuevas. The album was released in Latin America on 23 September 2008, and in the United States on 30 September 2008 by Warner Brothers. This is Beto Cuevas' first solo album, post-La Ley. La Ley was a successful, Grammy-winning Chilean/Latin American band that Cuevas fronted from 1988 until 2005. To promote the album, Cuevas, along with his band consisting of musicians Ben Edwards, Lawrence Kats (Mighty Mighty Bosstones), Steve Tushar (Fear Factory) and Brendan Buckley (Shakira), initially toured several venues throughout the United States, followed by a small promotional tour in Argentina and Chile. The song "Vuelvo" was the first single to be launched from the record. The album was produced by Steve Tushar and Aureo Baqueiro and Beto Cuevas. Beto was also involved in several other aspects of the production, including song-writing, designing of the album artwork and directing the music video for the song Vuelvo. (wiki) ------------------------------------------------------------------ by Jason Birchmeier Following two decades of international stardom as the lead singer of mainstream Latin rock band La Ley, Beto Cuevas forges ahead with a cutting-edge electro-rock style on Miedo Escénico, his solo album debut. Released three years after the breakup of La Ley, Miedo Escénico is a bold and deliberate effort by Cuevas to break new ground stylistically and refashion himself as cutting edge rather than middle of the road. Though La Ley was always a mainstream rock band through and through, the band did have an alternative streak and a tendency to go for edgy productions, especially on later albums such as Vértigo (1998), Uno (2000), and Libertad (2003). Vértigo in particular was La Ley's most daring effort to add industrial flourishes to their otherwise mainstream rock style, and while the effort didn't work out so well, triggering a backlash among fans at the time, the band struck a better balance between electronica and rock on Uno and Libertad, where the industrial flourishes were toned down and limited to background ambience. However, now that he's free of the band and the expectations that came along with being one of the biggest Latin rock bands in the world, Cuevas indulges his creative side on Miedo Escénico, on which he collaborated at length with not one but two producers: Steve Tushar, who was once a member of the trailblazing industrial metal band Fear Factory, and Aureo Baqueiro, one of the most reliable hitmakers in Latin pop and also one of the most fashionable circa 2008. While Tushar supplies the cutting-edge electro-rock musical touch and Baqueiro the hitmaking craftsmanship, Cuevas follows through with a batch of thoughtfully written songs that showcase his strengths as a vocalist and lyricist. Highlights include the impeccably produced singles "Vuelvo" and "Háblame," which mark the album's two extremes. "Vuelvo" is a pulsing electro-rocker with an explosive chorus, razor-sharp riffs, and an energetic tempo. In contrast, "Háblame" is a passionate ballad that begins plainly with gentle acoustic guitar and a hushed opening verse before unfolding skyward into a singalong chorus backed by a thick wall of production.