Red Horse Beer’s Pambansang Muziklaban lit up the stage in Sta. Rosa, Laguna last Saturday with shattering sets and rambling riffs in search for the next best Filipino band. Showcasing local rock acts, the strong beer brand hit hard and heavy by bringing back the country’s top rock competition after a four-year hiatus.
The scene at the grounds of Paseo de Sta. Rosa was a culmination of a year-long competition that started in 2024 with preliminaries to determine who gets to represent the different regions for this nationwide battle of the bands. The 12 bands that took the stage competed in two different categories – LAKAS, which bannered hardcore rock bands, and AKLAS which featured bands that play alternative rock.
After hammering hardcore hits, Daks Not Dead from Batangas came out on top of the LAKAS category, while Interstate from Cebu bested the AKLAS field. Both bands took home P500,000 cash prize from Red Horse Beer.
With Daks Not Dead members Rudolf Aboloc on guitars, Ben Avelino on bass, and Ian Carreon on drums, vocalist Mat Piamonte shares that their band still has a long way to go but is thankful to their supporters as well as the competition’s organizers.
According to the press release from the organizers, the thousands of rakistas that showed up to see the Red Horse Beer Pambansang Muziklaban Grand Finals also saw rocking performances from top local bands including Wilabaliw, Chicosci, Greyhoundz, Razorback, and Dilaw. Previous Pambansang Muziklaban champions also took the stage as 2018 AKLAS Grand Champion Happy Three Friends played a striking set while 2004 Grand Champion Mayonnaise closed out the night giving the crowd a performance to remember.*
