HMTV Canada Interviews Ravage

 www.metalblade.com

HMTV Canada: Hey guys big congratulations on becoming signed to one of the best record companies in the world and on your new Album “The End of Tomorrow,” which will be released through Metal Blade Records on August 18.

Al - Thanks. Metal Blade has always been one of my favorite labels - they've released so many great, diverse, metal albums and so many that get regular rotation in the CD player and iPod that it is just an honor and a privilege to be listed next to all the great bands on their past and present roster. Brian Slagel has been responsible for discovering some of the best metal ever heard and we are just glad to have a chance to contribute and try to reach the pantheon of metal too.

HMTV Canada: How have your live shows been going are you receiving a great turn out of fans attending?

Al - Things have gotten a lot better lately. When we started out it was very tough because we've never played a style of metal that was en vogue in the USA. We were misfits in the local scene, let alone the national one. But in the last couple of years the new wave of thrash has brought about a new interest in traditional heavy metal - so the fact that we have hung around and weathered the storm of the mid-late 90's grunge/new-metal stuff growing up as a band and then the 2000's when the scene has been dominated by more extreme metal and metalcore has gained us some respect amongst the elders of the scene - even if they weren't into our style, and it seems as though there are just a lot more kids into good metal these days - as opposed to the new-metal stuff that everyone was listening to 5-7 years ago.

HMTV Canada: When it comes to music festivals, venues or tours which comes to mind as being the most memorable, funny or crazy one?

Al - The Swordbrothers Festival in Germany in 2006. This stands out for me because it was our first trip to Europe and it was at a small German festival in the countryside and it was all very underground traditional metal bands and we didn't know if anyone would be there, and after flying in and spending the night we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel with the promoter  and he told us the show was sold out and people had driven 300 kilos or more just to see us - it was crazy. There were fans sleeping in their cars in the parking lot waiting for it to start and the whole crowd stayed for every band all day and night long. The dedication and pure stamina of the Euro metal fans just made a big impression on me. At the time we were just a little-known band on a tiny label and to have people singing along to your songs in a country you'd never visited before was just amazing - something I'll never forget.

HMTV Canada: Do you include the new songs from The End of Tomorrow in your playlist at your live performances?

Al - Yes, definitely. Some of the songs on this album we've actually been playing live for years but had never recorded properly until now. We released an extremely limited-edition EP back in 2003 that had an early version of the songs "Reign Fall" and "Terror's Head" which we rerecorded for this. The song "Damn Nation" was reworked from an old demo we made in 1999, I think! There are some brand-new stuff and some ancient stuff that was reworked to be on the album, but we're a band that tries to play everything live at some point.

HMTV Canada: Can you tell us about your upcoming release The End of Tomorrow such as the song tracks their themes and if there are any messages the band wants to convey to their listeners?

Al - The album features 11 original tracks and a cover version of the Judas Priest song "Nightcrawler" from their Painkiller album. Thematically, I think it is pretty diverse, but everything we do lyrically has both a fantasy angle, a personal element, and also a sort of pseudo-political element - because I always try to inject some element of my personal feelings toward world events into the lyrics at the time I'm writing. The big issues work their way in there, but the small ones do to. There are songs influenced by the news accounts of corruption, war, environmental devastation, nuclear proliferation, the end of the world etc., but there are also songs inspired by personal loss and tragedy, my love of comic books, and even my cat who likes to shred my house apart - so there is a little bit of everything and the kitchen sink in there, ha-ha.

HMTV Canada: What inspires or motivates Ravage to come up with their lyrical content are they life events, issues in our environment, religion or politics?

Al- Well usually when it's time to write a song, one of the band members will present a demo of a finished or almost-finished song on cd, and we will tweak it musically as a band. Then when the music is finally sorted out, I will sit down with the cd of the final demo and listen to it about a billion times to try to find out what it "sounds like" - that is, what concrete images it brings up in my mind. Then I'll brainstorm a bit and try to get a little story out of whatever characters or visions my mind has conjured up. So, the lyrical ideas really start in a fantasy world and then I take that and inject my personal feelings toward real world events into it. I'll brainstorm and just get on paper what is in my head, then I'll do a series of re-writes in which I will color the lyric with my present feelings toward a variety of issues - political, personal etc. So even though a lot of our songs have fantasy/horror themes, within that I've placed my feelings toward certain real-world events. I like to try to meld my personal feelings with my reaction toward what is going on in the world and present that through a fantasy filter. The aim being that, as a listener, you can be transported into this alternate head-space world created by the story in the lyric, and then try to make it your own and see how it relates to your experience. Good lyrics are mentally interactive in that way, I think.

HMTV Canada: Do all the band members contribute their ideas to the lyrics and music making process when laying the song tracks down to the recording?

Al - For whatever reason, the lyrics have been exclusively my realm. Musically everyone contributes, and I think for the other members of the band that is where their voice is heard. Eli and Nick are two guitarists who really speak with their solos and the cool riffs they come up with, so there's never really been a need for them to contribute any more than that. Everyone has input on stuff like the album title, but I think it gives a coherence to the sound to have the same person writing the lyrics.

HMTV Canada: Do the band members share the same influences for their music and do they like to experiment and try new ideas or things to their sound or instruments?

Al - Guitar-wise there has always been a lot of experimentation with sound over the years - that is until the guys discovered Engl amps when we played in Germany, and they really liked them. Rhythm-section wise we have had a lot of different drummers and bassists come and go and each has brought his own style and sound. With the line-up on this album there is a lot of diversity as far as influences and I think that has been a strength for us musically. Because everyone comes from a different part of the metal music spectrum we have ended up with a sound that just doesn't quite sound like any other band - but at the same time, enough of it is familiar enough that it's not off-putting to metal traditionalists.

HMTV Canada: Has there been any challenges producing The End of Tomorrow?

Al - Producing albums for us has always been a nightmare for us for various reasons - 90% not musically related. If it's not someone quitting the band at an inopportune time, it is the producer flaking out, or the engineer disappearing or a flood or a personal disaster. This and any recording we've ever made has seen it all. We're lucky to be alive after making this album. I think that is just what you have to deal with when you are an underground band making self-financed records, so maybe things will get a bit easier in the future - that is the hope, anyway.

HMTV Canada: Who helps with the mixing and mastering of all Ravages music production?

Al - We have generally recorded a lot of the stuff ourselves, but all of the mixing and mastering on the album was done by Peter Rutcho - who is really the master of getting great recordings in our local metal scene. He's great.

HMTV Canada: Will “The End Of Tomorrow” be more hardcore and heavier in sound than your previous Albums?

Al - I think it definitely has a thicker, fuller sound production-wise than anything we've ever done. Musically, we've always melded traditional heavy metal with thrash metal since our earliest days, so there won't be a big change in that sense. Lots of melody, but lots of speed and heaviness have always been our calling card. I think this is the first time we have gotten a great production value and that is the big difference between this album and previous recordings. The line-up is also the best we've had and the band is just really tight because it is the first time we've had a stable rhythm section personal-wise in the time we've been together.

HMTV Canada: Have the fans been requesting Ravages version of Judas Priest song Night Crawler on your MySpace page?

Al - Well everyone likes Judas Priest's "Nightcrawler" - the song just shreds. Last year when we were over in Germany at The Magic Circle Festival, they had a room where a metal DJ was spinning classic tunes and Priest's version of the song came on and everyone in the place was rockin’ and singing along to it at about 2 am - it was amazing. We made a video for an early mix of our version and put it on YouTube a while back, but fans will have to be satisfied with that version until the final master is released on the album. The new mix is significantly different sounding.

HMTV Canada: Ed Repka is an awesome acclaimed Artists is he the same Artist that designs Ravages merchandise MySpace page?

Al - Ed is amazing and it was great to work with him on the album cover, but we've also used some other artists. Matt Anderson is a great artist from Arizona who does a lot of stuff for us, and I've actually designed some of our shirts myself. So, whatever looks cool at the time is what we generally go with.

HMTV Canada: Obviously Ravage will be covering a lot of upcoming tour dates for the remainder of 2009 if the band had the chance to tour anywhere in the world what country would they like to play live in?

Al - Any time you play in a foreign country it is great. The fans in Germany are amazing - we'd definitely like to get back there. But we'd also like to see what the rest of Europe is like - Italy, Greece, England etc., and it has always been a dream of ours to get to Japan. We're looking forward to playing some shows in Canada on this present tour and also the Western, Southern, and Midwest USA. So, we'd like to play everywhere and anywhere.

HMTV Canada: Will the band be working on new material for another Album once they finish their major tours or will they be taking a break for a while?

Al - A lot of the material for a new record is already written. So, we'll just be adding to it and refining it and hopefully recording sometime next year. We'll see how far this album gets us and what the future holds after this tour.

HMTV Canada: Before we wrap up our interview does Ravage have any shout outs to friends and fans?

Al - We'd like to say thanks to everyone who has supported us to this point - you know who you are! Hopefully we see all of you metalheads in the USA and Canada on our tour this fall. Ravage In Peace!!! Thanks for the interview.

HMTV Canada: I want to thank, Ravage and Metal Blade Records, for this interview. Horns High You Rock. HMTV Canada.