Steve Abeyta, drummer for the local band Anesthesia, strolls into the recording studio wearing boxer shorts, a stained white T-shirt, and Vans in the middle of winter. Even though Abeyta isn’t wearing the prototypical rock attire, he walks into the studio ready to record his second heavy metal album.

While many people hate the stereotypical heavy metal shouting, black attire and long greasy hair, Albuquerque is becoming a heavy metal demographic at a fast pace, and Anesthesia is far from this stereotype with amazing vocals, riffs and drums. OK, more than half of the band sports long hair, but their talent rises above the rest.

Local owner of the Wall of Sound recording studio John Wall said that heavy metal is one of his largest genres of music that he records in his studio. He said Anesthesia is booked through February recording, and the album should be released sometime in the summer.

Anesthesia typically plays live gigs at the Launchpad and has opened for nationally known heavy metal bands such as Soulfly, Mudvayne, Static-X, and Damageplan. They have played the main stage at the Family Values tour, which is an annual hip-hop and rock music tour that travels around the country. They have also performed at Ozzfest

Anesthesia was formed in 1997 by lead singer and guitarist Jake Pacheco, drummer, Steve Abeyta, guitarist, Nate Tramontina, and bass player, Aaron Bustamante.

Heavy metal can be described as a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats and overall loudness.

Wall said over the years there has been a trend as far as how many metal bands are coming into his studio (since he opened in 2000).

“I probably record 60 percent metal in the studio,” Wall said. “I’ve done everything from bluegrass to folk to country and rock, but metal seems to be almost every other band that comes into the studio.”

He said Albuquerque has a large market for heavy metal music.

“For whatever reason, Albuquerque just took on the metal scene and it seems to be one of the bigger scenes around, which is cool with me. I dig it,” Wall said.

Wall said the recording process for heavy metal is a different approach.

“For one thing, when it comes to mixing, you can only mix for so long because you have to listen to it loud because that’s how it’s going to be listened to,” Wall said. “I always find myself taking a little bit more time in the mixing aspect. As far as tracking, you really want to pay attention to the drums. Drums are huge when it comes to metal. We spent the first full night in the studio just getting drums down. It’s worth it in the end.”

Besides Pacheco being the lead singer and guitarist, he’s been a fan of heavy metal all of his life and respects other local metal bands such as Requiem Mass and Caustic Lye.

“Anyone that I’ve talked to who’s older has said that metal had kind of always been a main genre here in town,” Pacheco said.  “I don’t know why, I just think that it’s just what the town likes. I just think it’s a metal town. It seems that every metal show I go to, it’s close to sold out or sold out.”

Former lead singer Danny Winn of Danny Winn and the Earthlings — a local ska band — said Anesthesia opens for a lot of national acts.

“Anesthesia is the top of the chain of the metal scene in Albuquerque. Any major metal band that comes touring through Albuquerque, Anesthesia is always opening for them,” Winn said.

Brandon Burnett, co-owner and producer for Royalty Life Records in Albuquerque, said even though his company deals primarily with hip-hop artists, he still sees a growing market for heavy metal music.

“There is a lot of heavy metal tours that come to Albuquerque compared to hip-hop tours,” Burnett said. “The scene for hip-hop tours isn’t nearly as big as the heavy metal tours scene.”

Burnett said that when his company markets his artists outside the greater Albuquerque area, he sees a large population of metal fans, and also said that hip-hop and heavy metal are the two largest genres in the Albuquerque music scene.

Burnett said metal has been in the Albuquerque scene for the last 20 years mainly because of a large Native American population.

“When we go to different high schools in Albuquerque and outside the area to market our artists, we notice that there is a large Native American fan base for heavy metal,” he said. “We talk to students and try to figure out what they like for business purposes and it usually turns out there is a huge fan base for heavy metal music.”

Solomon Santillanes is the bass player for a heavy metal band called Perverted Virtue, and he said there are a lot of Native American Heavy metal fans because many heavy metal bands are willing to tour through small rural areas that other genres usually avoid.

“Heavy metal bands have traveled to Gallup, Farmington, and the four corners area because they know there is a huge fan base,” Santillanes said. “Even nationally known heavy metal bands are very popular in these areas because the bands know there is a huge fan base.”

Santillanes said that a lot of heavy metal music relates well to the cultural aspect of Native Americans. He said in a lot of metal music they sing about a lot of indigenous music.

“The progression within sub-genre of metal music and different listeners are able to interpret the music in their own ways,” he said. “There is a style for everyone and that’s why I think there is a huge fan base for metal.”

He said there is popularity of a sub genre of metal music called deathcore, which is huge in high schools outside of the Albuquerque area.  Deathcore is a combination of metalcore and death metal.

Burnett said a lot of the small cities have a large enough heavy metal fan base that traveling to Albuquerque becomes a regular trip to see concerts. He said Albuquerque is huge because of traveling fans from around New Mexico.

“What I have noticed about Native American metal fans is that they are very loyal,” Burnett said. “From Gallup and all around, whenever there is a concert, many people from outside of Albuquerque show up.”

While many other genres of music are trying to break into the music scene in Albuquerque, heavy metal still reigns, and it has for a long time now.

“Heavy metal will be around for a long time in Albuquerque,” Burnett said. “People of all ages enjoy the genre.”