Juan Ricardo, the current vocalist in the band Dark Arena was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico on November 23, 1961. Moving to Cleveland, Ohio in ’64, Juan started playing drums in 1970 and by ’71 at age 10 was playing in traditional Latin bands, where he began singing as a background vocal. By 1977, he started his first hard rock band called Inner Earth as the drummer and sometime keyboardist, but it wasn’t long before he found himself singing from the drum set again as back-up. His next band Magician found him playing drums but singing more. Finally in 1981, studying opera as a music performance major at Cleveland State University, he formed The Fifth Angel. Juan was still playing drums and keyboards mounted behind his kit, but now as the lead vocalist. Soon the band added a second drummer and Juan for the first time stepped away from the drum set to the front of the stage.
In 1982, while at a party, Juan met members of a young metal band named Stryker. Amazed at his range, he was soon asked to join the band, where he made an immediate impact on the Cleveland metal scene with his ability to do high notes in full voice instead of falsetto. Stryker recorded a 3 song demo and were included on a compliation album in 1983 called Etched in Steel with their song Streetwalker. Leaving Stryker in ’84, he formed the band Warmaster where he became the main songwriter and expanded his following, but the band was short lived and did not record any songs.