Tonight, Ramming Speed is kicking off their North American Spring trek with Revocation and Cannabis Corpse (sponsored by our buddies Metal Sucks and Metal Injection). Before hitting the road, though, drummer Jonah was kind enough to recap the end of Ramming Speed’s Winter tour and what they’ve been up to in Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou’s Godcity studio.
My intention was to complete the last journal entry for our Winter jaunt a couple weeks after getting home, but clearly that never happened. I always appreciated a good nudge and Zach from Metal Insider was recently kind enough to jostle my cobwebbed hands into action for some sort of Springtime report.
The Ramming Speed December tour wrapped up with an acid-headed Christmas in Orlando, a certified banger in Atlanta (with punishing sets by Mangled & 1070 Scum, and an appearance by Andre 3000!), a maximum bro fest in Richmond (Humungus!) and a packed out Philly basement. Upon landing home in Boston we piled into the practice room for the rest of winter, writing and tightening new material.
Come the thaw of March, after three years of wood shedding, touring, and scheming, we entered Kurt Ballou’s famed Godcity studio. Clearly the dude doesn’t need my praises, but I will say that it’s going to be very hard for him to avoid us for the tenure of our band. I’ve never felt like Ramming Speed records quite captured the energy of our better live shows, but recording at GC affirmed to me that not only am I in a band with some of my favorite musicians, but that in the right hands we can absolutely make a product that rivals the biggest names in the game. All it required was playing the same part 500 times in a row while a voice in my headphones told me to play HARDER, surrounded by microphones worth more than I’ve made… well… probably ever. We recorded drums sans click track, triggers, re-sampling or any of that, so what you’ll eventually hear on the record is me busting my fucking ass behind the kit. It all sounds very “real”; i.e., the tempos change as I get excited or fall into grooves, and you’ll be able to hear the actual humans playing these songs… not so much the case for a lot of modern metal records.
Kurt’s attentive ears, Sneezer Butler’s comforting nuzzles, and the best songs we’ve ever written have led to a recording that I am impossibly proud of. The gear in that place is obviously top of the line, but with my homeboy Violent K behind the console dropping nuggets of wisdom such as “do it again, but less retarded” – It’s hard not to get into the mind set for masterwork. Speaking of dudes that know what they’re doing, Dave Witte (Municipal Waste etc) dropped in early in the recording to check out my drum set up, and towards the end we we’re lucky to welcome Nate Newton from Converge/Doomriders into the live room for some quick guest vocals.
Following tracking, we took a break for a couple weeks while Converge toured before meeting up yesterday to finish mixing. Today the record is as done as it can be (mastering will come later) and tonight we pack up the van for the highly-concentrated 10 day shred fiesta with Revocation and Cannabis Corpse. These will be out first ever Canadian dates along with sure-to-be drunken messes in New York, Richmond, etc. Revocation have been our Boston buds since we first formed the band, and the tour will be our second with death metal’s preeminent pot heads CC. I think all related parties (no pun intended) are looking forward to a week and a half of hard chilling.
If it sounds like shit has been pretty non-stop, then I guess I’m getting the point across. Our band is currently without label, so we’ll be “shopping” the record around to all the big and heavies (comment with your favorite metal labels below!) and booking has begun for an INSANE, yet to be announced Summer trek.
As always, see you on the road, and thanks to Metal Insider for offering me space to ramble and plenty of time to do it.
