Genre: Heavy Metal/Power
Country: Belgium
Label: Lost Realm Records
Year: 2023
Battering Ram’s origins from Belgium which its scene was very active and strong back in the ‘80s and thankfully Lost Realm Records seem to have the duty to deliver us the most important albums hailing from this country that since the early years of that specific era proved to be a true defender of Heavy Metal in the heart of Europe. I first learned about them almost 20 years ago when Greg released via his small but killer independent label Eat Metal Records, a 7” single entitled “Power of Evil” featuring two tracks, “Power of Evil” and B’ side “I Came for You”, which both taken from their 1987 demo, “Breaking Through the Main Gate”, breaking through an underground label (…so not so main gate actually in commercial terms) a 15 years of silence from the band…But no one gives a fuck about trends or commercial success; we are talking about pure Heavy Metal with strong doses of adrenalin, tons of riffs, thrash elements, speedy guitars and raw energy after all. Battering Ram started their course when guitarist Eddy “The Vampire” Scheire met drummer Walter “The Hammer” Baeyens at a party in Ghent their hometown in 1982. Their second guitarist Dirk “Crazy Horse” Parmentier joined the band and they started covering some tracks from their favorites groups, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Saxon. Sometime they started planning their own songs but took them pretty much time to find the proper singer and bassist, still they had the time to write the basic versions of the songs that Eddy have been working on and Walter took care of the lyrics which was heavily inspired by medieval history along with typical evil/hell and witchcraft stories. In 1987, again as a quartet Battering Ram, as Dirk had left the band, recorded 5 songs: “I Came for You” and “Black Night” that was representing their early days and 3 new ones that were in a more thrashy, speedy mood and influenced by, “Power Of Evil”, “Behind The Styx” and “Condemned To The Gallows”. A few gigs (3 on The Netherlands and some local in Belgium) and a second 4 song demo recording later, by the end of 1989 the band was on hold if not already history…The sophomore demo though was really well crafted with a new singer Alex Fifi and a new second guitarist Bart “Crusader” Scaillee. It took many years to hear some news form the guys but soon after the aforementioned 7” single there were some attempts to reunite the band and some new versions of the tracks were written (actually remakes) with as much more original members, but unfortunately we saw the smoke but never saw the fire from the Belgians’ reunion… But now lost Realm Records offers us the band’s two demo tapes: “Metal Through The Main Gate” from 1987 and “Intruder” from 1989. If you are a true defender of the steel and dig bands like Tyrant, Maniac or Crossfire, then Battering Ram’s collection is what you need for your discotheque. Available for the first time on CD, “Metal Through The Main Gate” will feature all of the band’s studio recordings, remastered audio, official band biography, song lyrics and rare photos. Feel the unstoppable force of Battering Ram and break through the metal gate!