Description

Black vinyl with 4 page booklet. Limited 400 copies

The history of the band Battering Ram from Belgium goes back a long way. Guitarist Eddy The Vampire Scheire started the band in 1982, together with drummer Walter The Hammer Baeyens. Walter was 18 at the time, Eddy even two years younger. In those early days they just tried out cover versions by their favourite bands: Diamonds And Rust (Judas Priest), The Number Of The Beast (Iron Maiden) and 747 (Strangers In The Night) from Saxon. Fast forward to 2009 and the band’s debut six-track album Atlantis: Remembrance Of A Lost Future, available from the band’s own wesbite. During those nearly three decades Battering Ram just released two demo tapes and one 7″ single. A baffling band history indeed, as guitarist Eddy Scheire surely agrees? Yes and no. Twenty seven years is indeed a very long period but I can give you an explanation. When Walter and myself started the group back in 1982 we just wanted to play some music and have fun. But after a few weeks another friend (Dirk Parmentier) joined us on guitar and later on Jo Luyckx on vocals. All of a sudden this bunch of young guys almost made a band. When Wim joined the band on bass, I started writing some original songs and that was big fun! We enjoyed this and started dreaming of recording albums and international tours etc. Eventually, we played some gigs and recorded two demos but at the end of the eighties after some changes in the line-up Battering Ram fell apart. This limited album features the two demos the band recorded back then, Breaking Through The Main Gate (1987) and Intruder (1989). Eddy has fond memories of laying down the tracks for the first demo at the Top Studio in Sint-Amandsberg, a small town near Ghent, in March 1987: There were two songs from the early years: ‘I Came For You’ and ‘Black Knight’. The other three were already influenced by the upcoming Speed and Trash scene. ‘Power of Evil’ in the first place and shortly after ‘Behind The Styx’ and ‘Condemned To The Gallow’. As you can notice, most of the lyrics were based on medieval history and of course hell and witchcraft.” The reaming four tracks, all stem from Battering Ram’s second demo. How would Eddy compare this material in relation to the first demo? First of all, there was a second guitar player, Bart Schaillée, who joined the band fairly shortly after the first demo. Secondly, we had a new singer, Alex Fifi, who had his roots in the Punk scene and in the third place Metal music itself kept changing. The songs were even more influenced by bands like Metallica, Slayer, Destruction, Megadeath, Anthrax et al. Although we wouldn’t dare to compare ourselves with these bands.

Track list:
1. Power Of Evil
2. Behind The Styx
3. I Came For You
4. Black Knight
5. Condemned To The Gallow
6. Killing Fields
7. One More Beer
8. Towerghost
9. The Fighters From Shaolin