Stratuz closes a successful 2023 with a bang, as the band emerged as the biggest winner at the III Edition of the Metal Hecho en Venezuela Awards, taking home four awards in the categories of “Best Extreme Band,” “Best Album” for Osculum Pacis, “Best Extreme Singer” for Franklin Berroterán, and “Best Guitarist” for Gerónimo Egea. These awards recognize the best in Venezuelan rock-metal in 19 specialized categories. The award ceremony took place at Chapis Club in El Rosal and was attended by musicians, producers, sound engineers, and journalists from different regions of the country.
“We want to thank the Metal Hecho en Venezuela Awards organization for these awards that were presented to us on November 18th, and which we were deserving of through the public’s vote. To our fans, our special gratitude and love, we feel more committed to each and every one of you every day, and we will continue working to dignify Extreme Metal in Venezuela,” expressed the band after receiving the four awards at Chapis Club in El Rosal, where the III Edition of the Metal Hecho en Venezuela Awards took place.
Undoubtedly, 2023 has been the year of Stratuz, setting precedents and breaking paradigms. They came with the momentum of their album “Osculum Pacis” being selected among the best albums of 2022 in over 20 countries. From there, they became the first extreme metal band to perform at the Centro Cultural de Arte Moderno with a historic concert on the 17th anniversary of Cresta Metalica Producciones, combining a rock band with a string ensemble and a choir. Against all odds, they were nominated for the Pepsi Awards, later capitalizing on that nomination with exceptional communication work and ended up winning in the categories of “Best Rock Artist” and “Best Rock Album.”
This Caracas-based band, with nearly 40 years of experience and pioneers of extreme metal in the country, managed to defeat other mainstream bands with greater media and advertising exposure at the Pepsi Music Awards 2023. This demonstrates a very positive change in the perception of the content of record productions, both by the voting members of the Pepsi Music Academy and the general public. This victory generated so many comments that, despite being an exclusive Venezuelan award, it was covered by media outlets in Germany, Brazil, the United States, Spain, Italy, and Mexico.
In late October, they closed the Wacken Metal Battle Venezuela as a guest band, supporting the groups competing to represent the country at Germany’s Wacken Open Air, the world’s most important metal festival. But in addition to offering quality shows and carrying out continuous, strategic, and coherent promotional and communication work, alongside Cresta Metalica Producciones, the laurels that the band now holds are also due to the high quality of their latest album, Osculum Pacis, which continued to resonate in 2023.
Several magazines, websites, and radio programs specialized in extreme rock from four continents and over 20 countries placed the album among the best releases. These countries include Germany, Spain, the United States, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela. This remarkable critical success led to a signing with the Wormholedeath label for physical distribution of the CD throughout Europe and America, as well as a Japanese edition.
Journalists and critics of the caliber of Juan Destroyer from Mariskalrock.com (Spain), Emanuele Gentile from musicalnews.com (Italy), Alain Lavanne from KaosGuards.com (France), the writer known as “G3” from Antichrist Magazine (USA), Manuel Lozada from Rock at Best Music (Spain), Giandomenico Sestito from Metallized (Italy), Fernando Ferreira from World of Metal (Portugal), Rock Hero from Lifesteps (Greece), and Hazem Mahani from Rock Era Magazine (Egypt) praised the work of the Venezuelan quartet.
Osculum Pacis reached the top position on the Jacquin Ravens Top 50 Metal of 2022 on the US radio station 99W NRR (digital streaming radio 99wnrr), and by the end of 2023, the radio station reported that the album once again made it into the Top 50 for the second consecutive year. It also continues to be played on the French radio station La Grosse Radio, being one of the most requested albums.
To learn more about Stratuz, visit:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stratuzofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stratuzofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stratuz_official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stratuzofficial
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StratuzOfficial
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4V6ieXcKGpk7AyHxvgSFs1
Prensa Cresta Metalica
