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Mike Trujillo’s been a fixture in the local metal scene since its glory days, and in 2025 he wants to keep those memories alive while turning up the lights on new acts blowing up stages across the state. His public access show “Zero Hour” was an underground hit for years, and today it has evolved into the popular podcast “Zero Hour Squared Metal Zone.” This weekend, Trujillo is dropping some heavy news on us about a new project, and he’s brought some friends along for the party. Beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 13, Ren’s Den (900 Fourth St. SW) will be throwing a thrash metal bash celebrating the hardest rockers in New Mexico. And they want heshers from the darkest depths of the state to join them for a screening of the teaser for Trujillo’s upcoming docuseries Pesado: Stories of Heavy Music in New Mexico. Ren’s is one of the Barelas neighborhood’s most hardcore all-ages music venues, so of course they’re throwing in live performances from Suspended, Baptized in Sin, TAJ and Goo-Nee-Nees.
“I want to put New Mexico in a light that’s much different than what people would expect,” Trujillo says. “Ever since I was a kid, heavy metal and hard rock were really big out here. People did a lot of hard work, and we’ve had some great successes. And even the ones that weren’t the big ones, to me, they’re all successes.”
Trujillo says the docuseries is about anybody and everybody in New Mexico who has had involvement in heavy music. That includes musicians, family members of musicians, fans, security guards, chefs who have cooked meals for touring bands, the list goes on and on. Heavy music is no longer a new phenomenon, it’s been around for well over half a century now, and Trujillo says another important goal of Pesado is for metalheads to “share each others’ beings” before we’re gone.
“When I say heavy music, I mean everything that falls under that umbrella — punk rock, heavy metal, thrash metal, rock and roll, hard rock — and I’m kind of going to let the audience try to figure out what’s heavy to them,” he says. “People from all walks of life are involved in heavy music, and I want to tell their stories and how they’re related to each other and how we all connect.”
As a special treat, all the way from Laguna Pueblo, the Goo-Nee-Nees will be hitting the stage Sunday night, demonstrating that the heavy music scene not only stretches across long distances, but multiple generations. Drummer Buck Concho, one of the artists appearing in the docuseries, will be joined by his daughter Autumn Concho on bass and Al Yepa on guitar. Buck Concho and Yepa played together in the band Still Rock, and you’d have to be a metal fan living under a rock not to have heard Autumn Concho’s band Suspended play at least once over the years. If you haven’t seen them, Sunday’s your chance to check them out as well.
After a teaser screening join Trujillo for a Q + A session about the work in progress. He says he’s got tons of old footage nobody has ever seen and wicked interviews in store for us, but sometimes it takes a metal army to keep a project like this running. If you’d like to help finance or even be a part of producing future episodes of Pesado, email him at zerohoursquared@hotmail.com.
Check out Trujillo’s “Zero Hour Squared Metal Zone” podcast episode where he chats up Channing Concho about the docuseries and the April 13 show here.
Sneak Peak Showing of Pesado with:
Go-Nee-Nees, Suspended, Baptized in Sin and TAJ
April 13, 6:30 p.m.
Ren’s Den
900 Fourth St. SW
$10