Vivian Black, Vocalist And Author
She was part of the band called "Mandrágora" as vocalist, and she left it because she had a lot of differences of opinions with the musicians, becoming in this way a solo artist.
Her demo CD, her album, her concerts, and her videos were only executed by guest musicians or professionals. All of Vivian's attempts to form her own band, (figuring as a solo performer, of course), failed, due to the “Latin macho” inside of each male musician. This made them think that they should not accept a woman as their leader.
In Argentina, it is preferred that metal bands are led by men, but never by a woman.
Vivian was an unprecedented case in the 90's. With her hard and firm character she had to impose herself as an artist and a leader. In this way, she opened, at last, a brand new road in metal music tradition; she did something that another woman never dared to do: become a leader, and a feminine solo performer in that genre, which was purely masculine until that moment.
Using only her talent as her defensive weapon, without doubt she was an authentic vanguardist, putting herself amongst the top women, showing the Hispanic people they could add another brand to their record book of "pioneers": that brand was "Vivian Black".
Vivian's proposal was, initially, a little difficult to accept. Merging her acting face, of course, always with the inclination to terror, mixed with music.
The performance created on stage was as much theatrical as musical. It was like watching a film of the "Hammer Films" live, to the rhythm of metal. It was something unprecedented in the Buenos Aires scene, concerning that genre.
Because of this particularity, many called her, in her beginnings, the "Alice Cooper of Argentina." Not only did her vocals almost as low as a man shock everybody at her first concerts, but also did her entry on stage, with black a cape and hood, and a lit torch. Because of that, she was "converted" into a kind of “Medieval witch”, singing heavy metal like Max Cavalera of Sepultura.
Her songs, lyrics and melodies created by her were played by prestigious and other not-so-known
musicians who worked with Karina, interested in her proposal, and with whom she generously shared the authorship of her songs..
The most remarkable of Vivian's demo songs was the one that had Marcelo Corvalán, bass player for the popular band "Carajo" and "A.N.I.M.A.L.", as musical composer. Corvalan performed in this session at the recording studio next to Luis Sanchez from the band "Lethal", and Santiago Bello, guitar player of the dissolved band "Extinción." Marcelo, AKA “Corbata” (tie), Corvalán was also the artistic producer of this demo
Later, at the "Panda" studios, under supervision of Mario Altamirano, ex-sound man for "Rata Blanca" and "A.N.I.M.A.L.", and this time with all of "Extinción" members as guest musicians, she recorded a new tape with the song "Hellrising Crown" in addition to Alfie’s previous ones – Corvalán’s "Devil or Angel" and "Love is the Devil's mask".
After a few months, Karina, with five videos in rotation on MTV, MuchMusic and other local and foreign TV channels, in addition of having her three-song demo tape on sale and being played on alternative radios, she earned much more popularity than the different underground bands with more albums produced by recording companies.
Before the turn of the millennium, having recorded six more songs, including a cover of the well-known heavy metal band Venom, “Countess Bathory", Vivian was called by one of the most important independent labels in its style, "Xennon Records”, with which she signed a contract for the editing, production, diffusion and distribution of her CD for ten years. In this way, her work would be massively known throughout the world, to be immortalized.
It is noteworthy that Karina, before editing her first album, has had a large number of people attending her concerts in the city Buenos Aires and throughout the rest of the country. The popularity achieved by this album exceeded the expectations of other musicians, even surprising the singer herself.
The album is named after Vivian Black, THE PRINCESS OF DARKNESS "AGAINST THE PARADISE" surpassing herself widely as a composer and vocal interpreter. It has ten songs in total, eight of which were recorded at the studios, one recorded live, and a bonus track, instrumental keyboard in dark style, as item number 66, as a tribute to her dark philosophy, entitled "Rex deus Morituri" ( “The king god will die”, in ancient roman language).
The lyrics vary in darkness among bands of the style of “MERCYFUL FATE”, “DANZIG” or “BLACK SABBATH ".
