Rampant are back out of nowhere with an EP and an album due around later this year.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the band from the good old New Wave of British Heavy Metal days, they hailed from Essex and played venues such as the legendary Ruskin Arms though that’s as far as it went for them.
Spring forward a decade or four and Rampant are reformed. Guitarist Jamie Carter dropped me an email to let me know about the reformation, the EP and the album.
The EP consists of a new song (Phantom Riders) and a song the band wrote back in the NWOBHM days (All the World’s a Cage). Both of them are excellent.
Phantom Riders being an atmospheric doomy and slightly proggy slice of mayhem. Check out the “bring out your dead” Witch-cackling spooky intro before it all kicks off with crunching riffs and energetic vocals. Excellent.
All the World’s a Cage boasts a biting central riff, cutting, slashing chords, measured guitar which fits the pace of the song without being unnecessarily elaborate for the sake of it. Plenty going on with the throbbing bass, pumping drums and big vocals.
If the two songs on the EP are anything to go by – the album will be top notch.
That album is to be titled A Frayed New World. Jamie tells me it’s due out around September via No Remorse Records.
Until then – do check out the EP. You can pick it up nice and heap from Rampant’s Bandcamp page – and if you prefer the streaming/download route then the digital version is available there also.