Here at Not Just A Phase we pride ourselves on showcasing DIY music from every corner of the world and today we’re putting our spotlight on Angelo Zapata.

Hailing from Medellin, Colombia, Angelo Zapata is the Guitarist and producer for the post hardcore trio known as El Incendio Más Largo Del Mundo. 

Their most notable influences are bands like Alexisonfire, Joliette and Birds In Row. Their style however cannot be placed in a box with any simple FFO section due to their flawless execution of dynamics and their post punk and Latin influenced grooves.

Wild song changes that should feel jarring somehow mesh flawlessly throughout their debut full length Bruma. “Sed” is a perfect example of this but at any point during this album you can go from warm sung vocals with pretty melodies to heavy chugs, throat slashing screams with trem picking and blastbeats, palm muted chuggy walks, gang vocals, bongos, flutes? Why not? It sounds like they grabbed the rule book for song writing structure and took a massive bite out of it.

We sat down for a chat with Angelo to discuss his bands sound, their writing process and their plans for 2024 and beyond.

WHAT’S THE ORIGIN STORY OF THIS BAND?

“Our band started in 2014 at a chaotic time in our lives. We were full of energy when we were 20 years old and we created a special sound by putting together all our influences, with the risk of making a badly formed melting pot, we created our own identity. Then we saw that we could have a voice within the hardcore and skramz scene in Colombia, and we started to talk about the drama of living in a country full of violence, corruption and poverty like ours.”

HOW DO YOU COMPOSE YOUR SONGS?

“A succession of chords or a riff is how it all starts. Usually after that comes the vocals. We always save phrases and use them at the right moment. Then the rhythm parts are written by the bass and drums. The groove given by these two instruments is very influenced by post punk and Latin rhythms, we are interested in making people move.”

HOW WAS YOUR RECORDING PROCESS?

“The recording process of Bruma was made possible thanks to the collaboration of our label ‘Del Carajo’ where we recorded the drums and vocals. The strings were recorded at home and then re-amplified at a friend's studio called ‘Soundcheck’, there we experimented with a lot of different pedals and amps.”

While Bruma was mixed by the bands guitarist Angelo at Conectarte Studios in Medellín-Colombia, it was mastered at “Cali” in Colombia by Sebastian Perez. 

“ALL OUR MUSIC IS CROSSED BY OUR OWN INDIVIDUALITY, WE DO NOT TRY TO GIVE A GENERAL POLITICAL SOLUTION, IT IS A VERY WORN DISCOURSE THAT ALREADY HAS SO MANY VOICES THAT WE RESEPCT, BUT WE DO NOT INTEND TO COVER IT FROM THAT MORAL POSITION, BUT RATHER FROM THE COLLECTIVE FEELING GENERATED BY BEING UNDER ALL THE STORIES THAT WE HAVE LIVED IN OUR OWN FLESH IN OUR LATIN CONTEXT”.

- ANGELO ZAPATA @EL INCENDIO MAS LARGO DEL MUNDO

“El Incendio is a band that is meant to play live, it has always been our goal. Traveling outside the country is something we want to accomplish, meeting people from all over the world who vibrate with these sounds is something that fills us as artists. We want to take a turn in our sound, incorporate new influences that we have been working on and re-release music in 2025.”

This is easily one of the most interesting and unique sounding bands in the post hardcore & screamo adjacent world. El Incendio Más Largo Del Mundo are not afraid to speak their mind or experiment with their sound and take influence from anything that strikes them the right way. It’s clear that the future of this band will be exciting and exploratory and I cannot wait to hear what comes next.