Back in 2007, two high school kids in Bogotá started a band because they liked Motörhead, Misfits, and Slayer and couldn’t pick just one. That band was Epilepsia DC. Nearly two decades later, vocalist and guitarist Jerson Guevara is the only founding member still standing, and the thing that keeps it going isn’t nostalgia or habit. “This band allows me to stay in contact with a wound that belongs to me and that I carry somewhere deep inside,” he says. “I think that alone is a good enough reason for the band to exist. Everything else has been a gift and a path shared with my bandmates throughout the years.”
Their latest release, “Rock Al Parque Sinfónico 2025 (Live),” is the kind of thing that sounds absurd until you hear it — Epilepsia DC, a band rooted in hardcore, noise, and experimental heaviness, performing with a full camerata at Teatro México in Bogotá on June 20, 2025, as part of Rock Al Parque’s academic program.
Three tracks: “El Grito” arranged by Laura Zúñiga, “Telemetría” by Miguel Bonilla, and “Loco” by Mariana Plata.
A string section — violins, violas, cellos, double bass — plus flute, clarinet, bassoon, and horn, conducted by Luis Felipe Calero, with general production by Andrés Felipe Niño. The whole thing was edited by Oscar Beleño and Guevara. It shouldn’t work, but it does, because Epilepsia have spent their entire existence proving that their sound doesn’t need permission to go wherever it wants.
The current crew — Guevara on vocals and guitar, Beleño on bass, Rodrigo Dajer on guitar, John Moreno on drums, and Esteban Ibarra on synths — has been locked in for roughly seven to ten years. But the DNA goes back to a Bogotá underground that was carved into strict zones. Hardcore kids stayed with hardcore kids. Metal heads stuck to metal bills. Punk was punk. Scenes drew hard lines and rarely crossed them unless something as massive as Rock Al Parque forced them into the same space.
Epilepsia never had that luxury of belonging to one side. Guevara was more of a metal kid growing up, while the original drummer and bassist came from punk and hardcore. The band’s sound was always both things happening simultaneously, feeding off each other. Nobody could place them, so they ended up playing everywhere.
“If there was a show with only thrash metal bands, Epilepsia could open the night and warm up the crowd. If it was a punk rock show, Epilepsia could play somewhere in the middle or close the night to keep the energy high. But if it was a hardcore show… does Epilepsia mosh? Fuck yeah.”
That’s how they ended up sharing stages with bands from every corner of the underground. Their 2011 debut “Metrópoli” came out on Blasting Records, a label that dealt mostly in death metal and grindcore — which tells you something about how they were perceived early on, even though the record itself was a collision of thrash, punk, and hardcore rather than anything purely extreme.
Guevara calls it the band’s “mutating character,” and he’s deliberately kept that alive through every lineup shift and creative pivot. Today they work with Bogotá label Muchacho Berraco and production house Casalaire, both plugged into a more experimental wavelength. “That doesn’t mean our music or tastes aren’t still heavy. In fact, that’s exactly what brings us together.”
The Colombian underground has loosened up since those early days of rigid scene boundaries. Things feel more diverse now, more willing to let bands move between spaces without demanding allegiance. That suits Epilepsia perfectly. “We don’t really belong to a single scene, but we have deep respect and gratitude for all of them for letting us share their stages, even if only for a moment.”
Guevara keeps the band’s philosophy simple: “I don’t think Epilepsia has any obligation other than an unbreakable commitment to noise and exploration — which at the same time is an attempt to understand yourself in community.” And then, the line that probably sums up Bogotá’s DIY underground better than any manifesto could:
“We have nothing. And we make everything out of it.”
The “Rock Al Parque Sinfónico 2025” live EP is out now on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms, with the full concert video available on YouTube.
Epilepsia DC also played Rock Al Parque in 2023 in their standard format — both performances are worth tracking down to hear the range between straight up raw and the orchestral.
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