Saratoga

On Saturday 12 September, Moon Valencia is getting a serious dose of Spanish heavy metal when Saratoga arrive with their ambitious “En Estado Puro” tour, a show built around three distinct chapters of the band's career and designed to give long-time fans precisely the kind of deep dive they have been asking for.

After more than three decades of riffs, line-up changes, international tours and enough Spanish metal history to fill several encyclopaedias, Saratoga are approaching this particular chapter with the confidence of a band that knows exactly what its audience wants while still having plenty of new territory to explore.

The current line-up features Tete Novoa on vocals, Charlie Parra on guitar, founder and bassist Niko del Hierro, and Arnau Martí on drums, the quartet responsible for the band's current incarnation. Saratoga celebrated their 30th anniversary with a sold-out show at Madrid's La Riviera in 2022, and the band have continued to build their international following, including a 2026 performance in Mexico City before more than 20,000 people.

The clever thing about “En Estado Puro” is that Saratoga aren't simply touring a new album and throwing a few old favourites into the encore. The show has been constructed in three acts, each representing a different part of the band's story.

First comes “Las Joyas Rescatadas”, a trip into the band's archive to resurrect songs that have been absent from the stage for years and, in many cases, have been repeatedly requested by fans. For anyone who has ever stood at a Saratoga gig wondering why a particular deep cut hasn't appeared in the set for years, this is the section where things could get interesting.

Then comes the present: “En Estado Puro”, the band's new album and the beginning of another chapter. Released on 24 April 2026, the record introduces Saratoga's current creative direction while retaining the muscular, melodic heavy-metal identity that has kept the band at the forefront of the Spanish scene.

Finally comes “La Gran Tormenta”, the big one: the classics, the songs that have become part of Saratoga's DNA and the material that turned the band from an ambitious Madrid metal outfit into one of the most recognisable names in Spanish heavy metal. In other words, this is effectively a career retrospective disguised as a full-volume metal assault.

There is plenty of mileage in a band with Saratoga's history simply touring the hits, but “En Estado Puro” is more ambitious than that. The format allows the band to look backwards without getting trapped there, while the new album gives the current line-up something of its own to prove. Saratoga have been around for more than 34 years, and their history is inevitably tangled up with the development of Spanish-language heavy metal itself. The band have survived personnel changes, different eras and changing musical fashions, yet their central proposition remains remarkably straightforward: big riffs, powerful vocals, technical musicianship and songs designed to sound enormous when played at full volume.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga4qJLCwKRY&list=RDga4qJLCwKRY&start_radio=1

The arrival of Charlie Parra as an official member in Spain gives the current incarnation another significant twist, while Arnau Martí has been behind the kit since joining in 2023. At the centre of it all remains Niko del Hierro, the band's founder and long-term anchor. For a band whose history is measured in decades, Saratoga have managed to avoid turning that history into an excuse to stand still.

Moon Valencia's relatively intimate setting should make this particularly interesting. Saratoga have played enormous stages and international arenas, including that 20,000-plus Mexican crowd earlier this year, so bringing the “En Estado Puro” production into a club environment should put the audience considerably closer to the machinery. There is something satisfying about that. Heavy metal works best when you can feel it physically: the kick drum in your chest, the guitar amp pushing air across the room and a crowd screaming a chorus back at the singer while the floor starts behaving like an earthquake.

Saratoga aren't coming to Valencia simply to celebrate the past. They're bringing the past with them, putting it next to the present and then turning the amplifiers up until the whole thing starts shaking. Spanish metal has a long memory. Saratoga are about to make sure Valencia remembers it.

For tickets and more information: Sala Moon