Ravage – Al (vox), Nick (guitar) and Howie (bass)
For over a decade, Massachusetts power metallers RAVAGE have been tolling away, working their way through numerous line-up changes and forks in the road. However, their fortune seems to be turning for the better, with a Metal Blade record deal and a new album, The End Of Tomorrow, recently released. I recently got a chance to interview the band to talk about the new album, the unique cover art, and much more.
Could you each say your name and what instrument you play?
Al Ravage: I’m Al, the singer.
Nick Izzo: Nick, the guitarist.
Howie Snow: Howie, the bassist.
How would you describe Ravage’s sound to somebody who has never heard of the band before?
Al: I would say we’re more or less traditional heavy metal, with influences from Bay Area thrash and power metal. Some of the members of the band have influences from death and black metal, but it’s more or less traditional heavy metal with thrash influences.
The band has a new album out, The End Of Tomorrow. How did the recording process go this time around compared with last time?
Nick: The same (laughs).
Al: Just as long and just as difficult, if not more so. We had the usual line-up problems, where we basically lost our rhythm section before we started recording this album. So we had a new rhythm section with a new drummer and by the end of the album, we had a bassist come and go. We had all kinds of issues recording as usual. So the recording process was very difficult and it was a self-financed recording again, but I think the big difference with this album from anything we’ve ever done is that in the end, the results were good and we’re happy with the way it sounds, as opposed to wanting to chuck the thing and throw it away.
Tell me about the songwriting process for the band. Is it a collaborative effort or do individuals come with ideas?
Al: For most of the songs on this CD, and for most of the writing that we’ve done in the past, it’s usually been one guitarist or band member will bring an almost-finished demo to the rest of the band and we’ll kind of work on it and polish it up and then add the vocals and the lyrics. However, on this album, we did have some different stuff because in addition to some new songs and old songs that we put on there that we had been kicking around on demos for a while, we also had a couple of songs, “The Nightmare’s Hold” and “In Shattered Dreams,” which came from a side project band that Eli (Firicano, guitarist) had formed with Howie and George before they had joined the band. They had written a couple of songs and we thought they were pretty good, so we actually decided to use some of those songs. Those songs were all collaborative songs, where everybody pitched their own ideas. That was a different thing for us and we may be doing more of that in the future, but in the past, it’s been mostly somebody brings an almost finished demo to the song and we fine-tune it and add lyrics to it.
So Al, do you do most of the lyrical content on the album?
Al: Yeah, I do all the lyrics and I usually come up with the song titles because stuff like that, if it’s left to everybody to come up, usually turns into arguments or something bland. If you asked everybody in the band what the album title should be, they would say self-titled or a black logo on a black cover (laughs). So, as far as all the lyrical ideas and lyrics, that’s usually me, and most of the song titles too. I did the album title (The End Of Tomorrow) because it was the most epic song on the album. Originally, the album was actually going to be called Damn Nation, but so many bands had been coming out with albums with damn or nation in the three years it took us to get this one out. We thought we do something different, so now it’s The End Of Tomorrow.
What inspires you from a lyrical perspective?
Al: I think, mostly, the way the music sounds. What I first work off of is listening to the demo that whoever the band has come up with and trying to get an idea, then translating that into my feelings towards whatever I am thinking at the time, whether that is political, views on the world, or personal events. I take a mish-mash of the non-fiction, personal stuff and views on things and fixing that in with fantasy elements, because that what I think metal has traditionally dealt with; sort of a dark fantasy subject manner, either sci-fi or horror. So it’s taking that kind of stuff and mashing it into whatever I am feeling at the time and trying to melt that into what the music is saying and trying to find a voice for the music.
The End Of Tomorrow features a cover of Judas Priest’s “Night Crawler.” What made this song the perfect one to cover?
Al: I think it was just that we have so much difficulty finding a cover song; we have endless arguments over what we should cover. We didn’t want to do “Breaking The Law;” we didn’t want to do a song that had been done to death. We did want to do something that was a little bit different. “Night Crawler” was a song that we had covered years ago at live shows, so I think we just sort of fell into it. We wanted to record a couple of those cover songs in the recording process. We ended up recording about 17 tracks throughout the couple of years we were working on this and since we recorded that, we decided to stick it on the album. I don’t think there was a lot of thought that went into it as far as any particular reason why we picked that song. Most of the band members like the Judas Priest album Painkiller and think that its one of the best metal albums. So I think that it was kind of an obvious choice to do something from that album, but as far as the song goes, there wasn’t a lot of thought put into it; it was kind of random.
The cover art is quite unique, even by power metal standards. Can you explain a bit about the meaning and creation of the artwork?
Al: We actually had a different cover art worked out when the album was going to be called Damn Nation, which we used for a poster last year. That was sort of a more political album cover. It had Uncle Sam and he was skeletal, but we decided to go with a different art when we changed the album cover. We contacted Ed Repka, who is best known for his Megadeth and Death album covers, and I gave him a basic idea to run with, that being a mechanical spider attacking a city. With all his album covers, Ed has this world he works in, so everything he does is set in the same world, but this is our corner of the world, where crazy mechanical spiders are attacking a city. We’re really happy what he did with it. As far as the general idea behind it, it’s all about Ravage and the fan club taking over the world. If you look closely at the back of the spiders, they bare the SWWR logo, which is the Society For World Wide Ravage logo, which is the logo for the fan club. So it’s kind of people who know us taking over the world or some force taking over and it’s kind of a goofy idea, but I think at the same time, it has this sort of old-school, Godzilla, 50s horror-movie vibe, but with a modern edge to it.
Is there any one particular track from The End Of Tomorrow that sticks with you?
Howie: A couple that stands out to me are “The Nightmare’s Hold” and “The Shredder” partially because they are the more thrashy ones.
Nick: “Shredder,” I really like playing live and when “Damn Nation” is done correctly, it’s also really fun live.
Al: I like a lot of the songs. It’s really hard for me to choose one of them, because I like parts of them and I like doing different songs live and listening to different songs from the CD. I would say that “Damn Nation” is probably my favorite song to listen to from the album and I also like different parts, like certain solos on the album. It’s hard for me to choose a favorite, but I would probably say “Damn Nation.”
I want to go back for a second. Nick, you said that “Damn Nation,” when played
correctly, is a good song. Can you explain that?
Nick: (laughs) It’s a very fast, rhythmic song and right when we first started playing the song, it was played a little sloppy. Now we have a new rhythm machine and so far, it’s been played at its best for the longest time, so it’s been really good each time we pull it off.
Ravage has gone through numerous line-up changes. Explain the challenges of finding the perfect line-up.
Al: Especially in the early period of the band, it was very difficult to find people because at the time, when we started out, we were coming out during the grunge trend and then into nu-metal and hardcore. So there weren’t a lot of people that listened to this music, let alone played it. So it’s definitely gotten easier to find people over the years. I think because the core of the band being the two guitarists and the vocals, we were able to stick together for such a long time. It just became a matter of finding a rhythm section that worked. So at least we had half the band for a while (laughs). When we finally did find key players for the rhythm section, I think that sort of brought it together for us. In the past couple of years, especially coming out of the grunge and nu-metal thing, musicians have become more attuned to the whole virtuosity thing again, like they were in the 80s. In the 90s, there were a lot of people that were playing in their garages and didn’t really give a crap how they sounded. Now that a lot of people are into death metal, you can find a lot better drummers who can play faster. Now that there are people who are into power metal, you can find a lead guitarist or bassist. The talent pool has expanded and it has helped us to find people more easily than we have in the past. We’ve been able to keep it together and hopefully, we’ll finally have a completely solid line-up for the next album; that has always been the hope.
I want to talk about the band signing with Metal Blade Records. What did the label have that others did not?
Al: An offer on the table (laughs). What happened was we signed with them out of the blue. We were prepared to release the album ourselves. The album was fully recorded and we were looking at a few underground labels. We had released an album in 2005 with a German underground label. I was looking at mostly underground European labels and seeing what they had to offer, but as you probably know, a lot of labels are closing or cutting back. We were basically going to just find somebody who would press the CD and not do a whole lot of promotion for it. So we were ready to put it out ourselves. We were actually contacting magazines and talking about advertising and all this other stuff to try to properly release it ourselves. Metal Blade made an offer out of the blue and we signed with them. We were really fortunate to be one of the bands who have gotten to deal with them lately, because labels are really cutting back, and especially with this kind of metal, nobody is getting signed.
What touring plans lie in the future for Ravage?
Al: We should be heading up the East Coast and up into Canada and then after that, we’re going to continue on and we’re actually going all around the United States; just trying to get a feel if there is any demand for traditional metal out there. Whatever traditional or thrash metal bands you can find in a given area and just trying to resurrect some of this music. That kind of wraps up in early November and then we’ll see how the album is doing and if we have any interest going overseas in Europe. That’s really the goal for the band; trying to get over there and play some big shows or some festivals over in Europe or Japan or wherever we can play. Right now, we’re trying to promote the album as much as possible and go out and play for anybody who is interested.
If you could tour with one band, past or present, who would it be and why?
Nick: At least for me, I would have to say Testament, past or present. I think they still got something going on and they seem to be doing the same thing we’re doing; bringing this style of metal back up and back into everybody’s face. I think it would really be fun to be on tour with them.
Howie: I have no idea who I would like to go on tour with. There are so many great bands to go on tours with that have been around for a while and those that are starting up.
Al: I would probably want to open for Metallica or Iron Maiden or Judas Priest because they will bring the biggest metal crowd. As far as just getting to see another show every night, I would probably want to see King Diamond or Lizzy Borden because they put on those cool stage shows. Pretty much what Howie said; I would be interested in touring with any band. It would be cool to tour with anybody, but it would be a bonus to have a band we like that we can watch every night.
Where do you see Ravage five years down the line?
Nick: Five years from now, I would like to have two more discs out and to have at least been to Europe longer than four days. That’s it; just doing the same exact thing again. If the band can support itself and we live on the road, I would like to at least live part of it in Europe. That would be the best thing.
Al: Probably see myself in another band (laughs). As far as the goals I have for the band, whether it be five years or ten years, I want to see us get at least three good albums out, play a full tour of the US, which we are trying to do right now, so that’s kind of dropping that off the goals list, if we can survive this tour. Also, try to do a full tour of Europe and try to play in Japan. Those have been the goals from the beginning. We get those accomplished somehow within the next five, ten, fifty years; I would have done everything I wanted to in music. If it goes beyond that, then that’s great, but we want to do the basics and not get too much music out there. I don’t want to be a band that has fifty albums, with a lot of them being crap. I rather be one of those bands that only puts out five albums, but they are all good. I would like to put out a few albums, do a couple big tours, and that’s pretty much it.
By Dan Marsicano
(No Ratings Yet)
