Rock / Kim Soo Han

“It’s just simply amazing! Now, I don’t need to carry many guitars for our show. I can manage the whole show with only one guitar! It’s accurate and stable.”

Kim Soo Han

“I really enjoy using Tronical tune. It makes me comfortable on stage and studio. If you are playing guitar, you need to use Tronical tune for many reasons. I hope everyone can experience.”

In 1980, with influence from the snazzy sports car “Lamborghini Diablo” the band Diablo found its name and style. Diablo was then formed in September of 1993 as a 4 member trash metal band. The original members of the band included vocalist Jung-won Park, guitarist Soohan Damien Kim, bassist Hyung-joon Kim and drummer Myung-kyo Dee Choo.
Although the band had formed, the start was rough and slow. Due to schedule clashes of the members, personal issues and band gig issues Diablo had yet to set foot in the music scene. After a long and painful downfall, a new light started to shed on Diablo in 1996. With the new changes to the band style, the members and a new outlook on life, Diablo was reborn and was on the road to a new chapter in making history. In 1997 Diablo had to opportunity to join in on the recordings and makings of the thrash/death metal joint album “Jung dang bang wee” (accidental death from defense) with various artists. Also this year, bassist Hyung-joong Kim was taken in as a permanent member of the band making a sturdy backbone for Diablo.
Even with this new found kickstart to success, Diablo was still only a part of the underground scene until 1999. In 1999 Diablo had the great pleasure to take part in the “San wool Lim tributealbum” (soldier of tribute). In this album Diablo got the chance to show their style by remaking the famous song “my heart is a wasteland”. This new remake version instantly hit charts and became a top selling hit amongst mainstream rock lovers.
As Diablo was slowly on the rise, a new chapter of insane success came around again in 2000. This was the year that Diablo got to show the world what they really are. Diablo held their first concert in March of 2000. Not far along in July of 2000 Diablo released their first full album “Desirous Infection’. The release of this album was a landmark point in the life of Diablo. After 7 years of struggle and small success, Diablo finally had something to stand for and to showcase to the world. With the release came rave reviews, noise marketing, and the best, a fan base was being born. Diablo had the honor to work on 5 English tracks with the famous Japanese label “Howling Bull”. With the English lyrics of these 5 songs, this album got the chance to be release in the US, Japan and South Korea, making the album ‘Desirous Infection” one of the band’s first worldwide hit albums.
May 2001, this was a year a new chapter started to open yet again for Diablo. Diablo was granted the chance to open for Pantera in their Korean concert tour. In August of the same year, Diablo opened the doors to the second Diablo concert, stood headliner for the 5thBudweiser Rock Concert and was given the opportunity to join in the making of the compilation album “Hardcore 2001”. With success coming in from each door left and right, and new chapters opening and closing this uprising of success just kept rolling in for Diablo. In October of 2002, Diablo got to concrete yet another landmark milestone along the band’s timeline. Diablo performed for the honorable Seo Taiji band comeback concert, and also got to perform at the ETPFEST alongside famous artists such as Tommy lee band, Skrape, YG Family and Pia.
After the success of the first album “Desirous Infection” Diablo got another chance to make yet another killer hit “worldwide” album titled “Undefined”. The second album “Undefined” got the honor to we master recorded and mixed at Los Angeles Based “Cherokee Studios” with the world renowned Master artist “Rod Dee”. Rob Dee has done many mastering of albums for famous artist in the past such as, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra. This album was one of the last albums that Rob got to work on and released, making this an even more special album to Diablo and to the tribute of Rob Dee.
The album “Undefined” became the landmark milestone for the 11th anniversary of the band Diablo. With the change of bassist to Jaepil ‘Fly’ Yoon, and the addition of Seo taiji band based guitarist “Changrok ‘Rock’ Choi, Diablo set up a new system of twin guitars making for a deeper stronger guitar sound to the band. This album was special in that the Main title song “Dust” had the opportunity to have famous Korean rock band “YB Band’s” frontman Doo hyun Yoon be featured in the song. Not only this, but the song itself was a new take in the fusion of hip hop beats and heavy metal sounds to make a new blend of psychedelic insane rock tunes that could blend and engage in different genres of music. The song “Dust” and the album “Undefined” became one of Diablos most prized albums yet to come.
In 2012 with the chance to open for Judas Priest in their Korean Concert, Diablo released their Mini EP album “Dumb” in December. Gracefully closing the curtains to a past chapter and opening a new door to a new one. With backing out of bassist Jaepil Yoon, Diablo was in crisis, but not for long, The Seo Taiji band based bassist Joonghyung Kang was soon entered into the scene and instantly became a sturdy backbone to the band. Thankfully due to the superb skills and experience of Joon the band had none, almost little down time in the making of the album. The album “Dumb” is a special album in that all music, lyrics, album artwork, and design was done and created by the members of the band. Also, this album was made with the help of worldly known Sony Music, making this a worldwide international sensation.
“Abandoned”, “Your Name”, “Dumb”, “Harlem Desire (remake)” are the 4 tracks within this new album “Dumb.” All tracks have different stories behind them and all have the blood, sweat, and time of each member of Diablo within them. After 2 years without any new albums, “Dumb” was born and a new saga began. Although there were issues with mastering, and some other minor personal band issues, the band stuck together and worked through all the storms and brought out a killer masterpiece.
With Drummer Dee Choo leading the squad the members of Diablo worked hard together to form a tight bond a “family” that stood strong together to come out where the band is standing now. Frontman Jang Hak “Crane”, with his artistic background, Damien with his insane flying fingers on the guitar, Rock and Joon with their incredible showman-ship, past experiences in Korea’s legendary rock bands, and energetic-skilled fingering and musical talents, Diablo is a full throttle threat and legendary leader in the world of Heavy Metal. It’s characters like this that meshed so well together to make a crazy good album like “Dumb”. This album has breached out of the barriers of heavy metal trying new fusions of different genres and tastes in music, making a new blend in taste within this album.
Currently Diablo is signed with Coral Bridge Entertainment, and is working on making tours around the world. Diablo strives on a daily basis to make awesome music for the people, and work hard to righteously stand as the legend of Heavy metal in South Korea. With the ever changing issues in music and with the increase of cyber music downloading, Diablo works hard to stick to the roots and originality of all things music. Diablo has recently done showcase concerts for the current Mini album “Dumb”, and are also the current sponsor/ headliner for RODFEST 2013 in South Korea. Diablo as gone through many hoops in life, and currently is still on the run; the world can expect much more to come from Diablo as their saga keeps on rising till the end of time. Diablo is too strong to surrender to any source of pain and dismay-! ROCK WILL NEVER DIE-!