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DIABLA
Diabla is an aggressive five piece unit hellbent on redefining the genre of death metal. After outgrowing their previous band in 2025, guitarist Ashleigh Hernandez, vocalist Casey Cruz, and drummer Sofia DeMasi began the formation of a new project that would rise from the ashes of their former project.
Diabla’s focus began to structure around melodic death metal, drawing inspiration from The Black Dahlia Murder, Katakylsm, and Children of Bodom. The group immediately wrote “Atlas Carrying the Weight of the World” and recorded the single within the first quarter of its inception, releasing it in September of 2025.
After DeMasi’s departure from the band, Chris Dunn joined the lineup as the drummer, restructuring Diabla from an all female group, to a mix-gendered ensemble. With a new lineup and a new focus, blending aspects from every genre of metal, while bringing brutality and technicality to the stage. With every member contributing their own personal taste to the music, Diabla creates a sound that is unique while incorporating aspects of old school metal.
MemberS
Casey Cruz
Photo: Tom Mis
Casey Cruz, vocalist of Diabla, is a self-taught metal vocalist with fundamental training in classical music. With thought-provoking words and aggressive delivery, she utilizes memorable hooks and visualization in her lyrics, contributing to Diabla by implementing the art of storytelling in metal. Deriving inspiration from literature and film, Casey’s lyrics tell tales of suffering, adversity, and survival. Casey has an affinity towards melodic death metal and is heavily influenced by Arch Enemy, Crypta, Amon Amarth, and Kataklysm.
Ash Hernandez
Photo: Tom Mis
Ash Hernandez is a self-taught guitarist who loves every genre of music from death metal, metalcore, hardcore, deathcore to indie and folk. She utilizes aspects of all in her writing, with major inspirations being The Black Dahlia Murder, Crypta, and Wretched NC. She discovered heavy music at the age of seven through System of a Down and Linkin Park, and began learning how to play guitar in middle school. Ash is the lead songwriter of Diabla, pushing the envelope of music with her thoughtful riffs and artistic song structures.
Chris Dunn
Photo: Tom Mis
Chris Dunn, the drummer of Diabla, is a self-taught musician with 19 years of experience. Through sheer brute force and methodical technical precision, he provides the rhythmic foundation for the controlled chaos that is the band's music. Chris draws influence from all types of metal with his current favorite bands being PeelingFlesh, Trivium, Stray From The Path, Death, Killswitch Engage, and Spiritbox.
James Crismale
James Crismale is a guitarist of 15 years who grew up studying the likes of classic rock, classical music, and the blues. First being introduced to Black Sabbath at an early age, he has gone on to listen to and pull influence from all subgenres of metal. Delivering bone-crushing foundational rhythmic riffs, he makes up the other half of Diabla's devastating guitar duo. James derives influence from the likes of Slayer, Gojira, Fear Factory, Deftones, and System of a Down.
Halle Joergle is a self taught bassist and vocalist who started performing live with the metal band Petrichor in 2023 and hasn’t looked back since. Constantly striving to improve, she learned to play and sing simultaneously and has taken every opportunity to use this skill in performance settings. She supplements Diabla adding grooves complementary to the demonic guitar riffs. Her influences for bass include bands like Type O Negative, Chelsea Grin, and Breaking Benjamin, while she derives vocal inspiration ranging from Evanescence to Motionless in White.
Halle joergle
Photo: Adrianna Nothnagle