review: Ram

Ram

The Throne Within

Metal Blade Records

13 September 2019

Ram began 20 years ago. The first ten years went kind of slow and they had only two albums, but they got good reviews, while they were getting off the ground and establishing their credentials. After ten years they became a lot more efficient at solving their problems, and the albums are now coming down the pipeline in a more regular schedule: 2012, 2015, 2017 and now in 2019. With more experience, more resources and being more established in the music business, things have gotten better and the evidence of that fact is the band functioning more efficiently in making albums.

Ram has always had the same fundamentalist, orthodox and traditionalist classic-style heavy metal mission. Ram is the Swedish answer to Judas Priest, basically. They have that mentality of seeing themselves as defenders of true heavy metal of the dark side. The Swedes focus on creepy things that go bump in the night, death is always a popular topic for them, sinister characters populate the world of Ram albums. They also like skulls. A lot. They don’t really have songs that sound like summer barbecue parties, and they don’t sound like they want you to rock and all nite and party every day. However, but they do sound like they want you headbanging. Ram seems unhappy with the heavy metal bands that are more concerned with having funny songs than headbanging songs. Ram’s not like, “We’re a bunch of funny Swedish dudes! Hey, we play fun happy Sweden rock! Yay, Sweden, Sweden rocks!” They’re more like, “We are right, we play metal tonight. We are not stand-up comedians. Bang your head with us!”

The new album finds the band delivering the riffs of the 1980s sound of classic Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate and Accept, a marching-forward style of vibe, a style that goes from one big riff to another big riff, and on we go. Notice, however, that Ram does not do the happy folksy sugary melodies of Iron Maiden, instead they prefer the solid, clenched-fist punching pure heavy metal riffs in the style of Judas Priest. The previous album seemed more like a concept work and that tends to confuse some people who prefer album of rockers, rockers and more rockers. If the previous album presented problems for some people, problem solved. All these songs are stand-alone tracks.

The nerve! Ram has a lot of nerve. Have you noticed so many albums put the best songs upfront and then the rest are not as good? Towards the middle, when other albums are running out of juice, this one actually picks up, which is awesome because the first half is very cool, too. Once song number five “The Trap” hits, the album seems to get even better. What a nice surprise! On the song “Spirit Reaper” Ram breaks out with a bit of the background keyboard action for a very appealing and accessible song, which is a nice change of pace and it’s good to hear Ram do something a bit different. “You All Leave” is a clean-guitar ballad in which the band shows that the singer can carry a tune in a more melodic way, different from the rest of the album’s rocking songs. So, apparently, the vocalist can sing melodically, too, not just scream like a banshee. Not that we don’t like the banshee. We do like the banshee.

The only possible caveat is that it seems they like to flirt with satanic/evil imagery as a gimmick and they seem to glorify violence, killing and murder. There seems to be some cursing, too, so you’ll need to consider that, if these issues are problem for you. Note that this is a contradiction because sometimes they might write a song about government violence and oppression, and then they turn around and have a song about “kill under my command,” so the lyrical approach is contradictory with this band.

Alright then, do you like pure classic traditional heavy metal? If you do or if you are interested in finding a band that is dedicated to defending that cause, then this album is a great place to immerse yourself in classic heavy metal in 2019.

facebook.com/RAMheavymetal