Band : Ram-Zet
Album title : Neutralized
Label : Ascendance Records
Distributor : Bertus
Release date : 12/10/2009
Release : CD

A small mistake by my editor-in-chief (because normally all Death, Black and/or Gothic would land up in the to-do box of collegue Ivan) which I have enjoyed very much, this Ram-Zet! It has to be said right-away that the Norwegian act draws from even more genres in the making of their overall sound, which is conveniently dubbed “Extreme/ Avant Garde Metal” by the label, a type-casting which is rather good, as far as generalisations go!

Started in 1998 as a one-man project by singer/ guitarist Zet (real name Flemming Rammseth; check Ride The Sky, Vidsyn, ImproVision) Ram-Zet soon grew to a full-fletched band with the addition of bassist Solem, fiddle player Aud, drummer Küth (aka “Kent” of Mustang; teamed up with The Kovenant on a session basis for live work during 2003) and former Artch singer Eric Hawk…a line-up which recorded the Pure Therapy album, released through Spinefarm Records in October 2000, and played its debut gig in February 2001 with the addition of keyboardist Magnus Östvang. Sophomore album Escape surfaced in April 2002, with Aud replaced by violinists Ingvild Anette “Sareeta” Strönen (check also Äsmegin, In Lingua Mortua, Voluspaa) and Miriam Elisabeth Enväg (also known as “SfinX”, had alsready done guest vocals on the debut album and joined Ram-Zet in early 2001; introduced Sareeta to the band; would later do guest vocals with For My Pain). Solem left (due to personal issues) in 2004, and was duely replaced by Jon “Daniel”. Meanwhile, Pure Therapy was Grammy nominated, and a heavy touring schedule as support to Theatre Of tragedy, Entwine, Borknagar, and Finntroll would ensue. In 2005 the band signed to Tabu Recordings, with third album Intra (co-produced by the renowned Daniel Bergstrom) as first result, released soon after.

Misfortune then struck the band again, as both Daniel and Östvang were forced to leave, again due to personal issues. Lars, a bad-ass bassist which the band members knew, was asked to do an audition…leading to his joining in early 2006. The keyboarder did linger with the band on a session basis, but didn’t want to actually be a member of the band anymore. A solution to thàt situation came when Zet stumbled onto this cute redhead that came into his studio to record some of her own stuff. He immediately recognized her talent on the keyboards, and feeling she would be a great vocal backing to SfinX, he invited her to try out for the band. Karoline “Ka” Amb became an official Ram-Zet-ian in early 2008!

News about a new album in the works, has been circulated since March 2007, when SfinX made the announcement on the band’s forum (the news was confirmed later that same month in the news section of the band’s website ram-zet.com). Rumours then surfaced that the new album was to appear in late 2007, but the reecordings were put on hold when Ram-Zet  went on tour as guest keyboardist/ guitarist with Ride The Sky. Recordings on this new album eventually began in March 2008 and were finalized in early 2009, the songs needing careful arrangement.

It has to be said, what you get is a truly great album full of nice (Progressive) complexities in which the musicians have nevertheless managed to put an overall melodic feel! Changing intencities and paces, both musically and vocally, keep the tension strung from start to finish. Calmer and less complex moments alternate with more brutal and intensively complex ones, and sees the band go through neo-classical moments as well as Extreme brutalities (during which everyone in the band is given a chance to shine)…without loosing sight of their melodic touches and a certain Gothic touch! Vocals vary from Zet going from Blackened screams to rather clean and adapting to SfinX’s, which are clean but very strong overall (woith occasional near-Operatic resemblances), and occasionally backed by Ka’s harmonisations. Overall, the album is a thing to be experienced rather than to be talked about (I’m loosing myself each time I’m listening to the album anyway), so perhaps you’d better stroll on over to myspace.com/ramzetofficial, where the band has posted a couple of the album’s 8 tracks alongside older stuff. To me, Neutralized is one of the highlights of the year, a beauty which occasionally moved me to tears…and that’s why the album is catapulted into my year-lists!

98/100

Tony.