Boulder – Ravage and Savage – Review

Boulder

Ravage and Savage (Tee Pee)
by Craig Regala

Boulder were the first band to play the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame (run by people so goddamn dull, stupid and rockphobic they refuse to put Deep Purple on the ballot) by setting up in front of the scaffolding when it was being built. So this guy (he called in to WMMS later that day and recounted this story – he said his name was Hoff and he was from Akron), drove up (driving a delivery van full of pork!) and asked them if they knew any Motörhead. They played a tune off each record in chronological order (they’ve recorded the entire Ace Of Spades LP in real-time also). You know that thing Chuck Eddy said about the Necro’s Tangled Up being for “real punks, the kids in Iron Maiden T-shirts scrubbing pizzeria floors?” That’s these guys.

In a review of Red Giant’s Ultra Magnetic record, I stated that “Boulder… exist to prove just how fucking much punk ass retard grit you can get from ’80s metal.” Boulder do with their NWOBHM(1) roots what the Quadrajets did with their Southern Rock(2) ones. They intensify the riffs, get rid of all, “radio accessible songliness,” and shoot a needle full of Viagra, speed, rabies and testosterone into its haunch. I saw ‘m recently as they filled in for an ailing Solace – they got the call in Cleveland, their home town, at 3:30 pm and were in Columbus five and a half hours later ready to fuckin’ rock, adorned in freshly-washed Motörhead, UFO (Pete Way lives in Columbus) and Black Sabbath finery. Upon my request, they busted out a bit of Riot’s “Fire Down Under,” then pulled out a Gibson Explorer painted like the Union Jack and fuckin’ went off. My wife says they remind her of Supersuckers with the punk-metal proportions reversed. Me, I think they just have more of everything, all at once. Kinda like a sideways speed metal band heisting riffs from really grunty boogie rock and frying a few dual leads stolen from Thin Lizzy. Per Song.

So how is the actual disc? Well, to paraphrase a famous writer(3), “Boulder recordings are code for their live thing.” It’s true, the music on the CD, which includes all of The Rage Of It All album as bonus tracks, is strong and you’ll get a pretty good dose of what the fuck’s what; but the huge roar, the non-ironic metal-til-death humor, the “you pick my axe, I’ll pick yours” hijinx are awfully inspirational. Like you have to ask if they’ve done a Venom cover. The cover and such has tons of references to the things they love, especially Dave Cintron’s(4) art for the cover. It’s based on a Hypnogsis Group-designed UFO cover if HR Giger had done it. Get this; when the band was outside the back of the club, one of ‘m knocked on the door three times quickly. He did this a couple times then said “I guess they don’t know the secret knock.” The knock that represents the opening of Slayer’s “Raining Blood.”
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1) NWOBHM = New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The wave Iron Maiden rode in on, as did Diamondhead, Saxon and a bunch of others Metallica drew from until they were all killed and replaced by robots from Bob Rock’s laboratory/studio.

2) Southern Rock. A mid ’70s wellspring of tunefulness and kickass fueled by the country, blues, bluegrass, hot jazz, r&b roots that got the whole rock thing going, and ignited by British hard arena rock dynamics. You all know Skynyrd, now shake hands with Molly Hachet and Blackfoot.

3) Richard Meltzer about Cecil Taylor (whose Conquistador LP I really need) in Forced Exposure magazine. I’d check which one but it’s tricep day, so I’m off.

4) Was a member of Stupendous Dimbulb whose ’95 CD, Trip Hammers, needs a reish with the 7″s (including the Boulder split) as bonus trax.