### Ram Zet: Intra

#### 28/10/05 || Lord K Philipson

I love it when bands decide to try to create something out of the ordinary, that usually gets my attention and I can appreciate the effort even if it sucks in the end (as long as it doesn’t come to completely idiotic stuff like Fantomas, they deserve nothing but a “fuck you”). Things like that is far more interesting than getting another CD of a 8th grade death metal band (hello Beheaded – go fuck yourselves).

I remember hearing Ram-Zet’s debut-album, “Pure Therapy”, a few years back and being very impressed with what these guys created musically. Alot of the stuff reminded me a bit of my own way of thinking how to compose music, which naturally is the best way to do shit if you wanna make an impact on me. I also remember having a hard time figuring out where these guys were from and for a long time I thought they were Finnish (due to the fact they were at Spine- or Spikefarm, don’t really care about checking it out right now) but later I learned they were nothing but Norwegian. A truly unique band they are, no matter the origin.

I managed to dig up the following album “Escape” and was completely blown away by the insane groove and catchy hooks everywhere, just as with “Pure Therapy”. They had taken their music one step further and perfected what they did the first time around. I much later decided to e-mail the guys and see if they were up for an interview, but never got an reply. I hate not getting replies from bands that truly impresses me, just so you know. Well, after numerous listens to those 2 albums I learn that their third album, “Intra” is in the works and I get all fired up like a church in Norway. By this time I have gotten to know that our beloved forum-whore Gina Winther is Ram-Zet’s drummer’s girlfriend. This means she’ll make sure that Zet answers my damn mails about an interview or I will ban her, her pets, her imaginary friends and her momma from the forums.

Right.

Zet finally understands who’s in charge of this world and gets back to me and hands over the new album. About fucken time one could say. Seldom do I have high expectations for a band’s new album, but a few bands eventually end up bringing that feeling into me. At a first listen (I think I’m on my 20th now) I’m not as blown away as I was hoping to be, but the album is a grower. Whereas the previous discs were catchy as hell immediately, this one is a bit harder to get into. Ram-Zet still stay true to their sound, displaying some excellent female vocals, Zet’s screeches and the lovely violins along with intense riffing and weird loops and whatnot. Some of it is utterly brilliant (“The final thrill”) and some of it is not as exciting but in the long-run this is a pretty damn good album, even though it’s not up there with their 2 other efforts. So far anyways, ask me again in 2 months and my opinion might have changed.

Something that really makes Ram-Zet stand out is the adorable vocals of Sfinx (if that’s her birthname mine is Ralf Schumacher). Displaying an impressive range of styles and emotions, she’s nothing short of excellent. That combined with Zet’s high-pitched screams makes for a pretty unique vocal-war. Then that oh-so lovely violin enters the picture and adds even more eerieness( if that’s not a word – go fuck yourselves) to the already existing gloom, doom and mushroom (I don’t even know what that means). Kenneth’s drumming is flawless and not only does Zet hammer down the vocals, he also delivers the guitars with scud-missile precision. Very impressive.

There’s nothing remotely bad about this album, but I think I need to spend more time with it before I know if it’s on par with the other discs. Where I would have rated “Pure Therapy” an 8 and “Escape” an 8.5, “Intra” has to do with a fucken:

7.5 sphinxes out of 10.

Ps. Don’t forget to check out the interview with Zet here at GD.

- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Tabu Records
- Website: www.ram-zet.com
- Band
- Zet: vocals and guitars
- Sfinx: vocals
- Jon: bass
- Magnus: keys and choir
- Sareeta: violin and additional vocals
- Küth: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. The Final Thrill
- 02. Left Behind As Pieces
- 03. Enchanted
- 04. Ballet
- 05. “Peace”
- 06. And Innocence
- 07. Born
- 08. Lullaby For The Dying
- 09. Closing A Memor