Probably the best known of all Spanish Metal bands, if only because they have been the only group to gain any major recognition outside of their native country. During the mid eighties even Britain took note of the band thanks to exposure of a cover feature in the once influential Metal magazine 'Kerrang!' and a series of tours and Reading festival appearances. In Spain and South America, BARÓN ROJO fostered, and maintain to this day, an almost reverential following.

Prior to the formation of BARÓN ROJO (or, in English, 'Red Baron'), the De Castro brothers, guitarists Carlos and Armando, had both played with COZ, Uruguayan drummer Hermes Calabria had been with SIGLO and bassist José Luis Campuzano (a.k.a. 'Sherpa') was ex-MODULOS, releasing a self titled 1979 album, and had issued a string of singles and albums throughout the seventies credited to SHERPA.

Signing to the Chapa Discos label, BARÓN ROJO's 1981 debut album, 'Larga Vida al Rock and Roll' featuring both Sherpa and Carlos de Castro as dual lead vocalists, was produced by noted Rock DJ Vicente Mariscal Romero. With strong sales the band was soon recognised as a hugely successful act in their native country. The successor 'Volumen Brutal', recorded at IAN GILLAN's Kingsway Studios in the UK, saw GILLAN band member Colin Towns guesting on keyboards and KING CRIMSON's Mel Collins contributing saxophone to the track 'Son Como Hormigas'. The record sold over 100'000 copies in Spain and led to a deal in Britain with the Kamaflage label.

The Spaniards supported HAWKWIND on their British tour in 1982, for which 'Volumen Brutal' was re-recorded with English lyrics for British consumption. BARÓN ROJO later put in two consecutive nights at London's Marquee club where they were joined onstage by GARY MOORE's then keyboard player John Sloman, guitarist PAUL SAMSON and ex-YARDBIRDS drummer Jim McCarty. Another jam session, at the London Greyhound, included ex-UFO guitarist Michael Schenker. Striking up a creative friendship, Sherpa would collaborate with the German on his MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP 'Built To Destroy' album, co-writing the song 'Red Sky'.

Maintaining their UK connection, BARÓN ROJO and Mariscal Romero travelled back to London to cut the next album 'Metalmorfosis'. Recorded only in Spanish language this time, the first thousand pressings of this album came packaged with a free 7" single of 'Invulnerable' / 'Herencia Letal'. In their homeland the record spawned two major hit singles in 'Casi Me Mato' and 'El Malo'. BARÓN ROJO rounded out their live promotion by co-headlining the Belgian 'Heavy Sound' festival ranked alongside GARY MOORE.

Two back to back shows in Madrid in February 1984 in front of 24,000 fans would be captured on the Chris Tsangarides produced live album 'Barón al Rojo Vivo'. Unusually for a live record, BARÓN ROJO bravely included five brand new songs 'Campo de Concentración', 'El Mundo Puede Ser Diferente', 'Mensajeros De La Destrucción', 'Atacó El Hombre Blanco' and the instrumental 'Buenos Aires'. Once more they would attend the 'Heavy Sound' festival as headline act in 1984 before launching into a fully sold out tour of South America.

The self produced 'En Un Lugar De La Marcha' album, released in the Autumn of 1985, solidified BARÓN ROJO's status, achieving gold sales status in Spain and scoring well across in South America. It would be at this juncture that their own success would stifle progress. Major label EMI Records wished to sign the band but their label refused to release the band. A period of enforced inactivity was broken only by an unpopular live affair assembled by Chapa Discos in 1986 entitled 'Siempre Estáis Allí'. Record sales took a progressive downward curve for 1987's 'Tierra De Nadie', 1988's 'No Va Más' and the 1990 effort 'Obstinato'.

Ultimately this decline in popularity forced the exit of both José Luis Campuzano and Hermes Calabria and fans were subsequently dismayed to see both parties entering into litigation over the ownership of the band name. The De Castro siblings won the case and duly assembled a beefed up version of the band, inducting new blood Maxi González on vocals, Pepe Bao on bass guitar and José Antonio del Nogal (a.k.a. Ramakhan) on the drums. This unit did not last the course and the band's 1992 album, 'De Safio' which included a cover version of AC/DC's 'Girls Got Rhythm', saw the Castro's working alongside PANZER and SARATOGA bassist Niko del Hierro and Ramakhan on drums.

BARÓN ROJO's relentless touring spirit, along with worthy sales of a 1995 retrospective album 'Larga Vida al Barón', put a renewed focus on the band. The group line-up changed once again though as in 1997 a fresh rhythm section of bassist Ángel Arias and drummer José Martos made their presence felt on the 'Arma Secreta' record. Some two years later BARÓN ROJO issued the 'Cueste Lo Que Cueste' collection through Ariola Records, a set of archive tracks along with five new tracks and a re-recording of the classic 'Resistiré' with their new drummer Valeriano Rodríguez. A new studio album, '20+', was released in 2001.

The band contracted to a new label Zero Records, for the live album 'Báron En Aqualung', a double live affair recorded at the Divino Aqualung in Madrid on October 5th 2001. For their next studio outing, 2003's 'Perversiones', BARÓN ROJO used two whole discs to pay tribute to their musical heroes with an ambitious set of cover versions. Included would be MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP's 'Assault Attack', BLACK SABBATH's 'Neon Knights', RAINBOW's 'Spotlight Kid', JIMI HENDRIX's 'Spanish Castle Magic' amongst many others.

BARÓN ROJO's July 24th 2004 gig at the Pavello Olimpic de Badalona in Barcelona as support to JUDAS PRIEST saw a notable guest inclusion onstage of German guitar hero MICHAEL SCHENKER to perform a version of the MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP's 'Assault Attack'. That same year the ex-BARÓN ROJO team of vocalist / bassist José Luis Campuzano Sherpa and drummer Hermes Calabria, uniting with erstwhile SANGRE AZUL guitarist Juanjo Melero, forged a new act entitled SHERPA, debuting with the 'Guerrero En El Desierto' album.

BARÓN ROJO supported JUDAS PRIEST on their April 2005 Spanish dates. The group's 25th anniversary in 2006 was celebrated with the retrospective double CD and DVD set 'Las Aventuras Del Barón' and the recording of a brand new studio album at Oasis Studios in Madrid. Also weighing in would be an Argentinean tribute album, 'El Barón Vuela Sobre Argentina', released by Hurling Metal Records featuring names such as ALEGORY, DEVASTACION, ICARO, MALACARA, LORIHEN, MONTREAL, MAGIKA, CARNARIUM, HARPOON, NAFAK, DHAK, PROFANOS and JASON amongst others.