Claudio Alberto Castro, also known as Claudio O'Connor (born April 28, 1963 in

Llavallol Llavallol is a district of Lomas de Zamora Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation. The settlement was named in honour of Felipe Llavallol who governed Buenos Aires between the e ...

, Buenos Aires Province) is a thrash metal, groove metal and hard rock vocalist from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Nowadays he's lead singer of his own band O'Connor and

Malón ''Malón'' (from the Mapudungun ''maleu,'' to inflict damage to the enemy) is the name given to plunder raids carried out by Mapuche warriors, who rode horses into Spanish, Chilean and Argentine territories from the 17th to the 19th centuries, a ...

. He was also formerly the lead singer of

Hermética Hermética was an Argentine thrash metal band from San Martín, Buenos Aires. It was formed by bassist Ricardo Iorio in 1987 after his previous band, V8, disbanded. Hermética was signed to the independent record label Radio Trípoli Discos ...

Biography

Mark I

Claudio O'Connor started in the music in 1984. He was recommended by Walter Almada, ''Horse Power'' bassist. When O'Connor joins the band as vocalist, it's renamed to Mark I. The band performed over 30 shows until its dissolution in 1987. They recorded two demos, one with two tracks ("Una Farsa Más" and "Traidor") and other with 4 ("El traidor", "(Esto es) Mark", "Tierra marginal" y "Las tablas de la ley").

Hermética

Shortly after, Fabián Spataro (former drummer of Mark I) joined the new musical project of

Ricardo Iorio Ricardo Iorio (born 25 June 1962) is an Argentine heavy metal singer and bassist who participated in various of the most important metal bands of the nation. He was one of the founders of V8 (1979–1987) and later founded the successful band ...

. Spataro insists to Iorio to try Claudio O'Connor as singer. They decided not to continue using the name of V8 band, and Iorio founded along with Antonio Romano, Spataro and O'Connor,

. Shortly after, Spataro left the band for personal reasons and was replaced by Tony Scotto. In 1989 they release debut album, ''

'', through the newly formed label Radio Tripoli. After, they records the EP ''

Intérpretes ''Intérpretes'' is an EP released in 1990 by heavy metal band Hermética. It is an album of covers, including songs from artists like Motörhead, V8 and Manal, among others. Production ''Intérpretes'' is the second work produced by Hermética, ...

'' in 1990. Scotto is replaced by Claudio Strunz, and released the albums ''

Ácido Argentino ''Ácido Argentino'' is the second studio album by Argentine thrash metal band Hermética, released in 1991 by Trípoli Discos. Details This is the first album featuring drummer Claudio Strunz. Same as the previous release, ''Intérpretes'', ''Á ...

'' in 1991 and '' Víctimas del Vaciamiento'' in 1994. Claudio O'Connor remained in the band throughout its existence (1988–1994), as lead singer. While Iorio was a singer and bassist, Antonio Romano was guitarist, and Claudio Strunz, Tony Scotto and Fabián Spataro were drummers.

Malón

Hermética is dissolved due to internal conflicts. As result, three of the four members (O'Connor, Romano and Strunz) meet to form with Karlos Cuadrado, the

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

band,

. In contrast, Iorio formed Almafuerte. During his career, Malón recorded two studio albums: ''Espíritu Combativo'' (1995) and ''Justicia o Resistencia'' (1996), besides ''Resistencia Viva'', a live album. In the early 1998, Claudio O'Connor decides to form a parallel project, creating O'Connor, along with Hernán García.

O'Connor

Within a few months, for several reasons, Claudio decides to quit Malón and devote himself to his new band, which experiments with heavy rock from the 70s. In turn, the other remaining Malón members formed parallel bands. O'Connor and García, with different line up's, recorded the albums ''Hay Un Lugar'' (1999), ''Yerba Mala Nunca Muere'' (2000), ''Dolorización'' (2002), ''El Tiempo Es Tan Pequeño'' (2004), ''Estamos Pariendo'' (2006), ''Naturaleza Muerta'' (2008), ''Río Extraño'' (2010) and ''Un Poco De Respeto'' (2012).

Malon's return

In 2011, Claudio and Romano announced the return of the original line up of Malón, with their first show scheduled for December 18 of the same year, at the ''Arena Malvinas Argentinas'' of Buenos Aires, which was recorded and released on a DVD called ''El Regreso Más Esperado'' (''"The Most Expected Return"'') in 2012. In addition, it's announced the recording of a new studio album, which will be released this year.

Discography

References

External links

www.o-connor.com.ar
Official Site of O'Connor band
www.maloncombativo.com
Official Site of Malón band {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Claudio Argentine heavy metal singers 20th-century Argentine male singers People from Lomas de Zamora Partido 1963 births Living people 21st-century Argentine male singers