Juan Ricardo, the current vocalist in the band Dark Arena was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico on November 23, 1961. Moving to Cleveland, Ohio in '64, Juan started playing drums in 1970 and by '71 at age 10 was playing in traditional Latin bands, where he began singing as a background vocal. By 1977, he started his first hard rock band called Inner Earth as the drummer and sometime keyboardist, but it wasn't long before he found himself singing from the drum set again as back-up. His next band Magician found him playing drums but singing more. Finally in 1981, studying opera as a music performance major at Cleveland State University, he formed The Fifth Angel. Juan was still playing drums and keyboards mounted behind his kit, but now as the lead vocalist. Soon the band added a second drummer and Juan for the first time stepped away from the drum set to the front of the stage.
In 1982, while at a party, Juan met members of a young metal band named Stryker. Amazed at his range, he was soon asked to join the band, where he made an immediate impact on the Cleveland metal scene with his ability to do high notes in full voice instead of falsetto. Stryker recorded a 3 song demo and were included on a compliation album in 1983 called Etched in Steel with their song Streetwalker. Leaving Stryker in '84, he formed the band Warmaster where he became the main songwriter and expanded his following, but the band was short lived and did not record any songs.
Then in 1985, Juan formed Attaxe, that recorded several demos, including one called Out of the Storm that topped many college playlists. In 1988, Attaxe's song Pedal to the Metal was included in the compliation Heavy Artillery and the band shot a video to promote it. Lastly in 1989, they recorded the demo Are You Ready?
In 1990, Juan broke up Attaxe to join Torment, a band that had two demos and whose song Epilogue was also included on the 1988 compliation
Heavy Artillery. The band was an instant success and quickly recorded a demo called Relapse of Aggression, that made it on to Europe's metal charts. In 1992, they were signed by Germany's Massacre records, who changed their name to Ritual and brought them to Europe to record a full length cd called The Trials of Torment. Topping at number 1 on the European charts, 'Trials' also included a number 1 hit in Germany and Belguim called She Rides the Sky. But Ritual never got the cd released in their home of America and broke up in 1994 having just recorded the one cd.
In 1995, Juan joined Chronic Rage, a thrash/hardcore band that was formed by a former Ritual member. Even though Juan was only in the band for a year, they did record a demo simply called Chronic Rage. But by 1996, Juan was looking to get back to more melodic vocals and began seaching for a new project.
He found it in a new band called Arena. Together for only a short two years, this band layed the ground work for what was to become Dark Arena. Formed around the idea of very technical music with expressive vocals, Arena and Juan were a great fit and recorded a six song demo. But sadly, the name was already taken, and the band came at a time when there was a lot other opportunities, so the members split to pursue other avenues of music. Between 1998 and 2004, Juan spent the majority of that time doing studio work, recording vocals for other peoples demos and some commercial work. Then 2005, he was approached to reform Arena, but with a heavier, darker sound. The name was changed to Dark Arena and the band at first recorded a three song demo. The recording sessions went so well that the band expanded the demo to a full length, Juan's first since 1992. Energized by the recording, he began remixing and mastering all of his Attaxe and Ritual recordings and completed a Prog/metal recording with Vincent Von Veith. In the spring of 2006, Juan released all four cds. Dark Arena-Alien Factor, Attaxe-20 Years the Hard Way, (and because the names Ritual and Torment were both being used by other bands) Ritual of Torment, and Vincent Von Veith-Running Away.
Now in 2010, Juan has just completed Dark Arena's new cd Flowing Black. In addition, he's also ventured into producing other bands music, as in the soon to be released Thanatopsis- The Chaotic Order and Chronic Rage-Self Induced. Currently Juan, along with doing shows in support of Flowing Black, is back in the studio finishing a new Vincent Veith cd called Heart of Winter and is already begun work on the next Dark Arena cd to be called Non-Human Contact. In addition, Juan is always looking to expand his work in music and begun a new Industrial/techno project to be called Bi-polar Bastards.