Released: 2009
With an old-school name like Ravage and a wonderfully old-school cover by the legendary Ed Repka, The End of Tomorrow held a lot of promise. But by only halfway through the first track I was already disappointed. Halfway through the first track! Having kicked around on the Boston scene for 14 years and been championed by no less a figure than Metal Archives’ notoriously elitist Ultraboris (who helped them release a string of badly-recorded live albums, one of which was done instrumentally when their vocalist failed to show for the gig!), Ravage finally hit the jackpot with a signing to Metal Blade earlier this year. Frankly, I fail to see what the fuss is about. There’s a philosophy that suggests that in a market flooded by unremarkable, samey-sounding modern bands that anything retro must naturally be good simply because it is retro, but this is one album that proves such thinking is nothing but bullshit. There’s a reason why modern metal sounds the way it does, and that’s because if it sounded like Ravage no one would listen to it except guys in their 40s reminiscing about their first Diamond Head gig.
Despite the modern production which at least gives it some crunch, The End of Tomorrow is nothing more than a collection of second-rate, mid-paced, dated-sounding, uninteresting heavy metal. It reminds me of bands like Saxon, Raven or Anvil, but at their worst. Put simply, the band just never gets out of second gear. Al Ravage’s vocals are OK in that he can carry a tune, but the tunes don’t go anywhere and the only song that’s in any way memorable is a Judas Priest cover. Really, it isn’t hard to see why it’s taken Ravage so long to score a release on a recognised label, and if this is the best they can do it might a long, long time before they have another one.
- The Halls of Madness
- Reign Fall
- Freedom Fighter
- Damn Nation
- The Shredder
- Into the Shackles
- In Shattered Dreams
- The Nightmare's Hold: Pt 1
- The Night Crawler
- The Nightmare's Hold: Pt 2
- Grapes of Wrath
- The End of Tomorrow
Rating: 43%
mid-paced? are you on crack? you obviously didn't listen to this album. At least half the songs have fast beats. Go listen to The Sword hipster!
ReplyDeleteWell, you obviously visit this blog a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think someone only listened to the first two songs then went out to get sandwitches - how could you call this album mid-paced if you listened to it... more than half the songs have fast beats in them with blazing guitars and double-bass drumming - if anything it could use a ballad or a slow song. I just hate it when reviewers don't listen to the cd.
ReplyDeleteWell maybe the mid-paced call was unfair, but I still think it's shit.
ReplyDeleteWhat I hate is when people visit the blog, only read one bad review or something they disagree with and immediately think I'm a "hipster" without even looking at the 300+ other things I've written here. It's the same principle really.