Spell Breaker have carved out their place as a traditional heavy metal band shaped by friendship, fantasy and the determination to build something of their own in a city better known for heavier extremes. This interview offers a glimpse into how the group formed, what fuels their creativity and the world they are shaping together without revealing too much up front.

Interview

TheNwothm: To start us off, how would you introduce Spell Breaker to someone hearing your name for the first time, and who are the members behind the music?

Homero: Spell Breaker I would jokingly say that it’s a marriage between Helloween and Nevermore or a marriage of Iron Maiden and Control Denied, haha but in all honesty it’s just a true heavy metal band, heavily influenced by Traditional Metal and NWOBHM bands, 80’s and early 90’s Power/ Speed Metal, with some other influences sprinkled in as well (progressive, melodic death, and some metalcore believe it or not), but at it’s real roots and core it’s Traditional Metal and Power/ Speed Metal band. The band consist of Myself (Homero) guitar/ voice, My brother Samuel (Sam) lead guitars, Tom drums and Eddie bass/ voice.

Sam: I’d like to think of us as just Metal, here in El Paso that usually refers to Metalcore/death/black but as much as I am also a fan of that stuff. I grew up mostly listening to thrash, and nwobhm the death and prog came later. And we all lean towards different sub-genres of metal so its bringing that all together just makes Metal. 

TheNwothm: What first brought the four of you together, and at what point did the idea of forming a band feel like something you all wanted to commit to?

Homero: Our Former singer Danny and my dismissal from an old band American Sellout haha

Sam: Well at the time what brought us together was after American Sellout kicked Homero. Him and I started writing a lot of the songs that are Spell Breaker songs now, we didn’t have a name but we were jamming, eventually Danny (singer of American Sellout) wanted us to join AS and bring Homero back, the other members quit, and once that happened we started trying to find new people which Danny found Tom, Nika and other people that didn’t stay.

We voted for some different names to distance ourselves from the American Sellout stuff and voted on Spell Breaker eventually the other people trickled out and Eddie came in and sadly Nika had passed away, cancer, thats kind of how the story goes I guess. To summarize even though we didn’t all start together the members of Spell Breaker who remain are those who became friends, and care about the project.

TheNwothm: Spell Breaker is a striking name. What conversations or moments led you to settle on it, and what does it represent for you now?

Sam: Skyrim.

Homero: Yea, Sam came up with the name, it’s from the game Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, it’s the best shield in the game. So the name comes from a fantasy video game it’s been one of our favorite games of all time. Name’s just awesome and fantasy sounding. We love Tolkien, video games, anime/ manga, action/ adventure and sci-fi fiction and all sorts of stuff like that, and something that might be little unique about it is that Sam and I are Christian and grew up Christian, so maybe deep down there might be little bit of, I rather be breaking spells and destroying curses and saving people rather than casting spells, at least personally.

TheNwothm: If someone visited El Paso for the first time, what would you want them to experience to understand the environment that shaped Spell Breaker?

Homero: That’s a tough question for me, personally I don’t think much about an El Paso experience, cause I’m a bit of a hermit haha. I rarely go out! Haha.  Although I think going to a show is what I would take people to experience there’s great talent here both metal/ rock and non metal/ rock related. I don’t know maybe because Sam and I are not originally from here. We come from Monterrey N.L. Mexico, so maybe that has something to do with it.

TheNwothm: How do people in your community respond to heavy metal, and has that shaped the way you present yourselves or connect with listeners?

Homero: From what I gather the times we’ve played live people have responded positive and they end up surprised with the sound, in a good way, ultimately asking for our streaming and social pages or asking if we have any cd’s or merch, I think that translates as a positive response haha, but it’s weird in my opinion, a lot of people here have a hard time with NOT associating the term metal with hardcore or with extreme metal when they hear the word metal. 

I think, it’s impossible for that not to have a little bit of influence on how we do things, the song Tales of War and the song Berserker for example have some breakdowns and there’s some growls and fry screams in the mix on most if not all our choruses and pre choruses. The hardcore and extreme genres are such a huge part of the culture here in El Paso so of course a little bit might leak into what we do every now and then.

TheNwothm: When you look at the local music scene around you, what stands out most? Are there particular venues, people or moments that have helped shape your path so far?

Homero: To be honest I think it’s unique being a traditional heavy metal band in El Paso and I think that makes us stick out a little more. I think in El Paso when people think metal they mostly think hardcore or extreme metal. Most of the scene here is very punk/ hardcore inspired there’s a lot of inde/shoegaze/ goth or like very hardcore and metalcore/ deathcore based and metal here is mostly extreme metal, you know, death, black, grind and there’s few thrash and groove metal bands and couple of doom/sludge/stoner style bands. There is a lot of talent here, like, extremely talented musicians here. Just, I think Traditional metal and Power metal is definitely way more niche. 

As Far as venues go, two personal favorites are Lowbrow Palace and the recently closed down Rockhouse those two are easy favorites not only because of all the great bands I’ve seen there but also the way they let locals open up for a lot these awesome touring acts they bring, never thought in my life I’d get to play with and open for bands like Exmortus or Vision of Atlantis or Unto Others or Bit Brigade to name a few, so that’s awesome.

However there are so many awesome venues and bars/ clubs to play here, off the top of my head, a place called Bye Bye Dear has been having a lot of excellent shows, recently they had D.R.I. As well as places like Mona Bar and Rosewood bar, and another place called 101 that also does awesome shows I think Eye Hate God played there. Here’s one I love playing as well, we have a friend, an excellent sound engineer and producer that hosts these awesome “rehearsal nights” in a bar called Monarch here. Where bands can have a more intimate show, kind of like an open mic but with full professional sound and  production those are a ton of fun.

TheNwothm: Your first release was the single “Heathens Rise” in 2025. What pushed that track to the front of the queue, and what did releasing it teach you about how you wanted to present the band?

Homero: Heathen’s Rise was the first new song we made as a band together (The original iteration, Danny, Tom Sam and I). Sam and I had other songs we had written together and individually before the band formed but “heathen’s” was the first we did as a group. We wanted to have our first song to be everyone’s song and also be pretty accessible in terms of listening, it’s not too over the top. It’s just about vikings winning battles and drinking mead, so it’s just kind of good old heavy metal fun.

TheNwothm: Last year you also put out the EP “Úlfhéðnar”. What drew you towards the themes or ideas behind that release, and how did the writing or recording process unfold for you as a group?

Homero: Writing process wise Sam and I tend to write a lot of the music and lyrics and we had done so for the EP before the formation of the band, now in future music we are excited to add Eddie into the mix for writing lyrics, melodies and harmonies. But for Úlfhéðnar Sam and I had most of it written for a while and we started teaching it to the guys. 

Recording wise we recorded everything ourselves, very d.i.y. our Focusrite interfaces all at Sam’s place or mine. The drums were recorded at my house where we rehearse and practice. And we worked with Jeff Black of Spell and Glyph to mix, master, and re amp, just emailing back and forth. He also helped us with the sound of the drums. I loved working with him not only does he have a great ear and work ethic but he is an excellent person I hope we can work with him again on our new music.

As far as themes and ideas go. I think, for me Spell Breaker’s Ep and at least for now our themes and the ideas are just to escape reality a little bit, keep it fantasy and mystical, and just write fantasy/ fiction to take people hopefully to a better place for a couple minutes, right now the world and here in the USA specially being in the southern border, tensions are high, politics are explosive, everything is so extremely serious and negative and divisive, and I need an escape.

I need little bit of fiction to get away from it all. Not to say that in the future we won’t have anything to say but even then I would want it be mixed in some sort of fictional or fantasy way, and with hopeful or positive messages. So, I think right now I just want to visit other worlds and sing about that, and help people get a little happier and maybe escape their real life troubles even for just a few minutes. 

TheNwothm: What is your favourite track from the EP and why?

Homero: My personal favorite is Wolf’s Blood, it’s the first song my brother Sam and I wrote together, and for me it was super special because, Sam is well versed in music he went to school for it, has a degree, he knows Jazz, classical, and can do so many things on the guitar and bass that I could never even imagine. But me I didn’t know very much. Ok, like I knew very surface level stuff music theory wise just enough to understand basic pop/ rock structure, my school was Kiss, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Poison, and the Misfits, and like Hillsong and the U2 style so very pop stuff. I thought, honestly, that I was too dumb to play with him, he was a real musician in my eyes.

I was in previous bands and in church bands playing bass but feeling like I’ll never be good enough to play the type of music I love. Anyway, Sam really pushed me and writing “wolf’s” with him I felt like nothing was impossible anymore. He continues to push me, I won’t lie sometimes I feel as if I’m Ace Frehley trying to play in Blind Guardian or something next to him, but he keeps pushing me, and that’s extremely motivating to me. That’s why Wolf’s Blood is my favorite and the most meaningful. 

Sam: Wolf’s is the first song we really worked on Homero and I. The lockdowns were still going on during covid so when we were working on lyrics there was a part about men not living in a cage and that meant something to me at the time also. All the werewolf stuff is cool too. That song was a combination of me pushing Homero musically and him helping me not over complicate thing and keep a focus making something listenable not just full of music theory.

TheNwothm: The artwork is pretty damn epic! What is the story behind it and who created it?

SB: Homero: The artwork comes from artist @mysteriousfour_ on instagram, I’ve been following them for such a long time, I love the style it’s gritty and old school looking. It looks and feels heavy metal. And we chose that artwork because Wolf’s Blood the song originally was named Úlfhéðnar but as the lyrics came along it was less about berserker viking warriors in wolf or bear skin (which is the translation of the name) and more about The Companions (a werewolf clan of warriors in Skyrim) and about more traditional werewolf stuff that we changed the name of the song, But I loved the original tittle so much I wanted to use it and when I saw mysteriousfour_ post this for sale on his page I thought that is so epic and perfect.