If you’ve been following all my posts about songwriting, you hear me talk a lot about a history that is probably a mystery to most of you. “POT album”? “Stevie Saline”? “Xenicide” sessions? “Boombox Era?” I’d like to try to fix that. That is, without writing an entire book. Or, at least, without making you read an entire book just to get to ‘when the hell did you do that?’…
Well, it’s like this, in a nutshell. Or 20.
1988 - 1990: The ORIGINAL Rampage (aka “The POT Years”)
- End of 1988 - Paul and I hook up to join All Purpose
- February 1989 - All Purpose breaks up, Paul and I jam occasionally and record. The basic idea for “The Spectre” is from some time around here.
- April 1989 - Ben hangs out with Paul and I while we jam one time, we start making noise. Ben gives me the idea that will eventually become “Six Bells at Midnight”
- June or July 1989 - Rampage records the POT album.
- August 1989 - While visiting Steve in Asheville NC we write/record the embryonic version of “Ticket to Hell”.
1991-1995: The Early Warning years
- January 1991 - I help form Early Warning
- February 1992 - EW’s first gig. Meet/hang out with Disjecta Membra and watch them record “Live at WREK”. (This is a BIG point in my musical career.)
- April 1992 - EW records “Demo I”
- August 1992-September 1993 (Yes, thirteen months) - EW records “The Yellow Tape”. (Somewhere in here is where I start crafting ideas for what will become Bellum Infinitum - the album as a concept, and the song “Storm Over Avalon”. Also, Frank writes “Nemesis” in June/July 1993 while he’s at home in Puerto Rico for the summer. “Doomsayer” written in August 1992 and “Wanderlust” written in early 1993.)
- September 1993 - EW records first half of “The Hero’s Dream”
- April 1994 - EW records second half of “The Hero’s Dream”. This is when I start coming up with the base parts of what would become “Rainbow Skies”.
- January 1995 - I quit Early Warning. Steve visits me and we record “The Xenicide Sessions” (“The Wigglesnake Blues”, codification of “Ticket to Hell”, writing of “Ticket to Hell ‘95” which would become “Gates of the Abyss”).
1995-1996: The SKIPTOE years and the Beginning of the ‘New’ Rampage
- February - July 1995 - Try to form a band with Toby. It doesn’t work out
- August 1995 - join Skiptoe as bassist. Replace old bassist’s tracks on their third demo, to be released in September ‘95.
- September 1995-April 1996 - my gigging stint with Skiptoe. Record one practice, one two-song demo, and several live boots. Slaughterhouse also exists in our practice room during this time, when some early Rampage songs are written (DeadRot, Kill Ya Tonite).
- April 2, 1996 - my last gig with Skiptoe which is recorded as “Live at WREK”. When I visit their practice room (in their family’s music store) to get my gear, I see the now-infamous Powder Blue Warlock and trade Danny a bass cabinet to get it.
1996-1998: Rampage - the reformation, aka “The Boombox Years”
- June 11, 1996 - to celebrate my graduation from College, I take a day trip to visit Paul in Savannah and take my guitar. We get drunk and record the first of many tapes - this one titled Rampage ‘96: Blast from the Passed. It marks the first official new Rampage recording, and is the first time “The Wigglensake Blues”, “DeadRot”, and “Kill Ya Tonite” are recorded.
- September 3-4, 1996 - The Last Hurrah boombox tape set recorded. Marks first official recordings of “The Last Hurrah” (later retitled “The Wakening”, from Bellum Infinitum), “Doom Metal”, “Doomsayer”, “Wanderlust”, and “Cocksucker”.
- December 28, 1996 - Satan Claus In Tha House and the first EP version of Bellum Infinitum recorded. New songs include “Bloody Leg”, “Up from the Depths/Rainbow Skies”, “Sisters of Death”, “The Final Day/Into the Great Beyond”, and the first time “Storm over Avalon” was recorded. We also did a short jam that would later flesh out into “The Vow”.
- May 1997 - Satanic Symphonies/Bellum Infinitum * session which featured almost all old songs and some new ones: “Born in Hell”, “Rampage”, “Six Bells at Midnight”, “Heaven’s Gate”, “Death Machine” (which was the ONLY time this song was ever recorded, and will ever be recorded; trust me, it sucks), and “The Wakening/Soulsword”. This is the last time Paul and I recorded together.
* Note - a tape version of Satanic Symphonies/Bellum Infinitum that was circulated in 1997 was actually a compilation of the best takes of songs from both the May 97 and December 96 sessions. The CDR version of Satanic Symphonies is the same as the tape version that was circulated.
1998 - 2001 - Rampage, now solo
- March-May 1998 - recording session for Misogyny, Thy Name is Woman. Work was done on “Bloody Leg” and “Six Bells at Midnight” with the thought of including them as ‘teaser’ bonus tracks for This End Up on the CDR version of Misogyny. However, only “Bloody Leg” was finished in time. It was remixed when added to This End Up.
- May - October 1998 - This End Up recording sessions. Songs written during this time are “Satanic Symphony”, “Satanic Death”, “The Gates of the Abyss”, and “The Spectre”.
- November 1998 - record cover of Immortal’s “Unsilent Storms…” that was included on the Doom Metal single.
- December 1998 - record other songs for Doom Metal single.
- June 1999 - recording session for Cummin’ Atcha Live
- July 1999 - Record Darkthrone cover for Destr0y Productions’ Darkthrone Tribute album.
- July-November 1999 - recording sessions for Bellum Infinitum. “Nemesis” was rewritten during this time.
- December 2000 - recording session for Hellhammer tribute
- March 2001 - recording session for New World Blasphemy split. “Ritual Curse” and “Black Flames” are written during this time
- August-September 2001 - demo sessions for Monolith album. “Whitechapel” and “Cursed with Existence” are written during this time.
- October-November 2001 - final album recording sessions for Monolith.
2002-2003 - Distractions and interruptions
- January-April 2002 - Recording sessions for Death Beast demo (“Apocalypse Metal”, “Blood of Dionysus”, “Thunder of Armageddon”, “Death Beast”, and an early version of “Agent of the Reaper”). I think I did the Beherit tribute song in here somewhere too.
- August 15, 2002 - son born. This ate up a LOT of free time…
- January 2003 - recording sessions for Venom tribute split.
- June-July 2003 - recording sessions that demoed the rest of the songs from Death Beast’s first album.
- December 2003 - record music for Countess cover for tribute album.
2004 - Present - Rampage, the rediscovery:
- January 2004 - I ask Aerik to join the band. Writing begins.
- March-April 2004 - recording sessions for Displeasures of the Flesh EP. The title track was written in March.
- October-November 2004 - recording sessions for Crimson Frost EP. The title track was written in October.
- December 2004 - recording session for the Ticket to Hell websingle.
- June 2004-June 2005 - recording sessions for Death Beast The Wakening album are interspersed in between the aforementioned Rampage sessions.
- September-October 2005 - recording sessions for Misogyny II EP.
(This is one of the most valuable posts to me. I don’t know why, but I constantly feel the need to tie all of my activities together through time, to see how they match up to what was going on in other areas of my life. This could use some updating, but fortunately (and sadly) it won’t take that long to do from here.
In cleaning up my house recently I came across some printed out word documents that I remember having written back around the early 90s that detailed all of my recordings in a similar way to the above, but with much more information - who used what equipment, what kind of tapes we recorded on to, all kinds of stuff. Apparently this is a kind of compulsion I’ve always had.)