Al Dimalanta

Al Dimalanta (born Alfred Martin Alcantara Dimalanta) is a Filipino musician, writer, public relations practitioner, photographer, visual artist, and professor.

He is best known as the leader, co-founder and chief songwriter of the Philippine punk band Dead Ends (1985-1996) and the leader and chief songwriter of punk-hardcore band Throw [2000–2019], considered one of the most important bands in the contemporary Philippine punk scene.

Al Dimalanta's musical career has spanned several decades, with his foray into punk rock, hardcore and acoustic rock music.

Al and half-brother Jay Dimalanta formed Dead Ends in 1985 with drummer Rouen Pascual.

The band came out with four independently produced underground punk albums from 1985 to 1995 as well as a fifth special edition greatest hits album in 2003.

Dead Ends had several line-up changes but Al (on vocals and guitar) and Jay (on bass) remained as the band's core.

Dead Ends' albums, in chronological order, are Complaints (1986), Second Coming (1987), Damned Nation (1988), Mamatay sa Ingay (1995) and the greatest hits special edition album Chosen (2003) which was released in honor of Jay Dimalanta.

During those four years, Al tried putting up a band with Lourd de Veyra, who was a member of Dead Ends in the 1990s (only for the band's fourth album, Mamatay sa Ingay).

The band was tentatively named Throw, although the band was rather short-lived on account of Al's and Lourd's respective jobs at the time and never even played beyond a few rehearsal sessions.

From 1990 to 2002, Al worked as an officer and corporate communicator in Metrobank.

His stint in Metrobank started in 1990 as a PR coordinator.

He went on to become the head of the PR Section and the OIC of the Marketing Services Department.

Al Dimalanta also taught at the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) of the University of Santo Tomas from 1993 to 2008.

During this time, he taught public relations, marketing, integrated marketing communication, advertising, feature writing and English.

Dimalanta is credited to have spearheaded the public relations program in the university's AB Journalism course.

It was upon his recommendation that public relations instruction was offered to journalism majors starting in 1993 (previously, public relations was only offered to Mass Communication/Communication Arts majors).

When Dead Ends disbanded following Jay's death in 1996, Al went into a four-year musical hiatus and focused on his marketing communications work and his stint at the academe in the University of Santo Tomas.

In 2000, Al Dimalanta reformed Throw as the band's vocalist and chief songwriter, with Dennis Maniego on bass, Ojie Arcega on drums and Bimboi San Pedro on guitar.

This was to be the official start of Al's new hardcore punk band.

Similarly, the title cut Believe was hailed by the same magazine as one of the best songs of the decade (2000-2010).

Throw went on to record its first independently produced album one year later (2001), a self-titled hardcore release (THROW) that marked the official return of Dimalanta to the local punk scene.

Dimalanta left Metrobank in 2002 to put up a small PR firm with some colleagues, called Vivid Communication.

Sometime in 2006, Ojie Arcega and Bimboi San Pedro left for Singapore to work in architectural firms.

That left Al and Dennis without a drummer and guitar player.

For a time, the late Luis Guiang of Put3Ska fame played the drums for Throw while the band looked for permanent replacements.

With Al handling both the vocal and guitar chores, Throw then played as a power trio for a few gigs.

In 2007, Throw reformed with Al Dimalanta on guitar and vocals, Dennis Maniego on bass, Albert Ascona on second guitar and Spyk Maniego on drums.

This was to be the 'second generation' of Throw.

The band then came out with their second album entitled Unwavering which was released in July 2008.

Dimalanta and Throw came out with their third independently produced album entitled Believe two years later.

The album went on to be hailed as one of the best albums of 2010 by Uno Magazine and the Philippine Star.

Throw came out with an extended play (EP) album entitled Wag Kalimutan ang Ingay in November 2010 with Alan Roldan handling the second guitar chores (Roldan replaced Ascona who went on a self-imposed, although short-lived, hiatus from the local underground music scene).

The EP also went on to be hailed as one of the best releases of the year by FHM Magazine, Uno Magazine, Philippine Star, and Trash Radio Manila.

Four years after the band's last release, Al and Throw came out with their fourth album titled Stand, a 23-song opus with over an hour's worth of hardcore punk music.

The album received early positive reviews from music websites.

Throw disbanded in April 2017 but reformed in 2018.

The band is currently in hiatus following the departure of bass player Dennis Maniego.

In 2018, Al Dimalanta formed a project band called As We Defy, a thrash metal band with the same lineup of Throw (Alan, Spyk, and Dennis) and adding a new vocalist, Jason Papango, formerly of metal band Man Monster Machine.

As We Defy recorded a four-song EP called Forged in Defiance in 2018 and distributed it through digital channels.

The band is also currently in hiatus following the departure of bass player Dennis.