Rampage Bio

Patrick Mulock : Lead Vocals (Eidolon)
Rick Reid : Lead Guitars, Keyboard (Eclipse Eternal)
Tyson Emanuel : Lead Guitars, Backing Vocals (Ritmo Flamenco, Beheaded)
Chris Lewis : Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Stan Miczek: Bass (Sass Jordan, Helix, Honeymoon Suite)

Rampage – The Arrival

After a decade of incubation and ascendance - including a full-length CD in ’97 called Fear Inside My Head - Canada’s Rampage find their stars aligning for what is sure to be their bellwether release: The Arrival, a lengthy EP spanning six tracks of blackened traditional metal that mines a terrain incredibly skipped over by today’s army of bands and their chosen flavours here in ’03.

Indeed few are in Rampage’s hallowed realm, perhaps deeply and tragically European bands like Evergrey, Lefay, Nocturnal Rites and Tad Morose being the only modern comparatives. But Rampage’s weapons distinguish the act from all comers, as does the band’s encyclopedic knowledge of metal’s past, a past that selectively and specifically finds itself relived within the monstrous heft of the band’s well-crafted, dark-riffed anthems.

First distinguishing element one notices is the vocal prowess of Patrick Mulock, a genius at vocal melodies and the execution thereof, a skill that has landed him the frontman job for Eidolon, a posting he will carry out in tandem with his Rampage duties. Patrick borrows ever so slightly from Rob Halford, but more so from the timeless, medieval strains of Candlemass, Memento Mori, King Diamond, Fates Warning’s John Arch… even Trouble (although ask Pat, and he’ll cite Freddie Mercury and Geoff Tate as influences as well!). And when you hear Halford, it is the introspective, uneasy, obscure Priest tracks that Mulock’s voices and choices evoke. This phenomenon can also be heard on Eidolon’s Coma Nation, Mulock giving the Drover brothers’ band a dimension that steers it classic, to a place where rainbows rise, beyond the realms of death.

And in a fortunate display of synergy, Rampage is blessed with what is an immense, smothering, almost geological rhythm section, drummer Chris Lewis and bassist Stan Miczeck (Kim Mitchell, Sass Jordan, Honeymoon Suite) laying down a foundation that is almost frightening in its cavernous volume. Once more, the effect is to take the band outside of time, much like the early Dio records (interestingly those of the Tracy G. years as well), Lewis sounding like a doom-choked, black smoke Vinny Appice circa Mob Rules. Yet ask him about his influences, and Chris quickly cites Mr. Big’s Pat Torpey and Journey’s Steve Smith… another indication of the band’s multi-faceted composition.

In the axe department, Rampage is surrounded, fortified to the left and right, by Tyson Emanuel and Rick Reid, two guitarists that both contrast each other and carve individual legacies. “Well, I know for a fact that the solos Rick did were pretty much written in advance,” explains percussion firestorm Chris Lewis. “Rick is very structured that way; he goes into the studio knowing what he's doing. Tyson on the other hand, flies off the cuff; he might play a solo one take and then the second take is totally different.

Rick listens to a lot of different types of music, but his background - his interest - is classical music, and I think that sometimes comes out in his playing. He tends to be almost gothic in a way (laughs). Tyson, on the other hand, is obviously very influenced by Yngwie Malmsteen and the guy from Symphony X, Michael Romeo. He actualy lived in Malta for a while where he was in a death metal band. So yeah, Tyson is very speed-oriented and he just approaches the guitar aggressively; that's one way of putting it.”

But all of this results in an enigmatic sound, nothing like the band’s influences, or, as I’ve said with respect to individual touchstones, a sound that reverently and intelligently mines the behemoth-occupied creases of the classics you love, Rampage creating a form of “power” metal that graphically imposes the nature of the term, in contrast to the speedy, happy Hobbit metal coming out of the Europeans clinging fearfully and somewhat pathetically to the term.

“I guess it depends on whom you’re asking,” laughs Lewis, when asked to articulate the inarticulable. “We've been compared to pretty much everybody – some hear Pantera, some hear old Priest, Maiden. Pat gets a lot of Ozzy comparisons, which I don't see, but who knows, right? Some of the songs to me, for lack of a better word, are groove metal. It's hard, because all six songs are different, yet there's an underlying sound that is Rampage. It's hard to explain and we've had this discussion many times: how will we identify ourselves? And each guy can't really do it; it turns out to be subjective. But there is this groove, this aggression, this underlying theme and I guess a lot of melody and harmonies too, which, to me, keeps it a little bit commercial.”

Looking at the songs, “Reagans Dream” opens with what are almost death metal chords before descending into a vintage Metallica grind. The track finds Mulock ascending and soaring over a mid-mosh groove with a tale revisiting horror classic The Exorcist. Next up is “Bloodline,” the subject of the band’s most recent video, a tale of vampire lineage with a lethal Jack The Ripper twin-lead intro. The track is thick, bassy, guttural and all-powerful: old school metal of a heinous, heavy nature.

Mid-disc, a new course is set with “Dirty Work,” which Chris describes as having “a little bit of a King's X/Alice in Chains sound; vocally Alice in Chains and rhythmically, King's X,” Pat adding somewhat cryptically that “it’s about developing schizophrenia and arguing with yourself about taking your own life, basically saying ‘Do it yourself! Don't ask your other personality to do it!’”

“In The Name Of….” is perhaps the band’s most dramatic and cinematic composition to date, beginning with a voodoo percussion maelstrom, subsequently settling into a pounding riff somewhat reminiscent of “Dissident Aggressor”. “Lyrically, you'll have to ask Pat about that one because it's out there,” laughs Chris. “Musically, it's out there too. As you can tell, it starts very percussive, very Sepultura-ish. I think there were eight different percussion instruments used there; eight tracks of different types of drums and percussion, the drum kit itself, congas, timbales, something called an afuche, agogo bells, tambourine obviously. That was driven by me. I just wanted something very different as a beginning, something outside of the realm of hard rock/heavy-metal, if nothing more, to differentiate ourselves and grab the listener's ear, so they say, 'What the heck is this!?' That song goes everywhere (laughs). It's pretty much in-your-face after the intro, right away. It's very, very aggressive and there's some good speed and tempo changes to it. I think out of all the songs, that's the most aggressive, and it has a very strange, abrupt ending too.” Lyrically, Pat says that the song is based on the predictions of Nostradamus, involving Nixon, Martin Luther King, Henry V and Satan.

“The Drowning Man” is another Sabatherian standing stone with some passionate, sorrowful twin leads and lots of spaces for Mulock’s melodramatic, tragic vocal melodies, appropriate, given that the lyric, according to Pat, “is about a man losing all confidence in himself, developing insecurities and becoming paranoid after a relationship break-up.” Chris underscores the above musical characterization. “Musically that one came out to be very open - the verses are very open – with a lot of vocals in it, a lot of harmonies. I think it's probably our most commercial-sounding song.”

Closing the EP – more like a short album at 35 minutes – is “Heaven” which will instantly remind one of the mellow material on Judas Priest’s Rocka Rolla or Sad Wings Of Destiny, and, most pertinently, “Beyond The Realms Of Death” from Stained Class. But riffs thunk and chunk and crash into the solitude, the track building to a close with note-dense ferocity, save for a tasteful solo that is restrained and sadly tuneful.

As a final note, Rampage is indeed completing six additional tracks – “Snap,” “Gemini,” “Sea Of Lies,” “Motives Unknown,” “Don't Scream” and “Delusions” – to add to the six you have in your hand, to comprise what will be a triumphant full-length collection of thick-as-a-brick classical cathedrals, sure to become one of the majestic metal releases of the year. And the delivery of the band’s gleaming craft will not disappoint. “I think we're a very visual band on stage,” warns Lewis. “When we play, it's not like we get up there in jeans and stand there and just go through the songs. Usually, it's quite a good stage show and there's always smoke or fire or whatever we have at the time; there's always special effects. We like to be very visual with it, including any outfits we wear. Image is important.”

The band is now looking for either a distribution deal or a standard label arrangement. Contact band@rampageworld.com, visit their site at www.rampageworld.com, phone 905-785-1557, or mail them at PO Box 41202, 4141 Dixie Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L4W 1V5, for more on doing business with the band.

Once the full-length comes to fruition, the Rampage will be in full, unstoppable force.

by Martin Popoff

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