Ahrue Luster

Ahrue Luster is the current lead guitarist for the Latin hard rock band Ill Niño. He is also the former guitarist for Machine Head as well as Manmade God and a Bay Area Thrash Metal act called The Horde of Torment who where originally called Pestilence but had to change their name because another Pestilence had signed to Roadrunner Records.

He joined Ill Niño during the recording of their second album, Confession. He was asked to try out by long time friend, Dave Chavarri, who he had originally met during the Thrash Metal heyday of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Luster has an ESP Signature Series guitar. The guitar was released while he was in Ill Niño but was based on a design that he came up with while he was still in Machine Head. The guitar is thinline, sunburst ESP viper that has spades as fret inlays. He chose the spade inlays because his mother, who bought him his first guitar, was a career blackjack dealer in Las Vegas.

Although he wasn’t the original lead guitarist of Ill Niño, Luster has become one of the main songwriters and musical contributors. Ill Niño is a great fit for Luster musically because of his love of not only aggressive, heavy music but many other styles of music including the cultural music of South America and Spain. Luster grew up listening to heavy metal but as he became more and more of a musician he began to explore many other styles of music.

Luster’s first professional recording experience was with Machine Head on their most controversial release, The Burning Red. The record received mixed response. It was both praised and hated by fans as well as the press. The Burning Red is Machine Head’s second best selling album in the United States.

He left Machine Head because he felt creatively unfulfilled with his role in the band and was told that, as a member of Machine Head, he was not allowed to seek fulfillment in any side projects. Luster decided that he had to remain true to his convictions as an artist so his only choice was to leave the band.

Discography

Ill Niño

• Confession (2003)
• One Nation Underground (2005)
• The Under Cover Sessions (2006)
• Enigma (2008)

Machine Head

• The Burning Red (1999)
• Supercharger (2001)