Ramage Inc. - Humanity Has Failed

Ramage Inc. – Humanity Has Failed
Release Date: 27th October 2023
Label: Layered Reality Productions
Bandcamp
Genre: Epic Progressive Metal
FFO: Devin Townsend, Gojira, Mastodon, Vast.
Review By: Mark Young

Edinburgh’s Ramage Inc return with their 4^th full length offering, Humanity Has Failed, which goes some way to establish the tone and topic. Diving deeper into the accompanying PR, it is unsurprisingly a concept album, which has to be said can turn people off. The core 4-piece are aided and abetted throughout the 15 tracks by various guests including Lisa Mari Lathwell (Ramona’s), Tom de Wit (TDW, Dreamwalkers Inc), Sin (Nassau), Sebastian Carrasco Robertson (Extort), Tommy Concrete (Exdestrier) and Donna Easton (Vasara). Unfortunately, some tracks soar and some do not.

One thing that is certain is that with an album of this length, you have to really hit the ground running. Engage, excite but don’t hit me with two songs (Fallen and Humanity Has Failed) that felt almost identical and run 6 and 7 plus minutes each. That’s not to say they are bad songs or played badly. Far from it, it’s just that they were too similar. The backing on both added a further dimension to the sound and this continues right through. I’m not setting out to write an unnecessarily negative review because there is a lot to love here. The eastern riff patterns on Dune Future are excellent, and they carry the song so well and show that they have the talent to write good stuff. Live Each Day has that slow, grinding feel which serves the purpose of having that ‘slow’ song at track 3 or 4. Where they do shine is those moments such as Heat Waves, short instrumental pieces that allow their music to act as a reset switch.

There is a high level of musical ability on display, have already mentioned the use of eastern patterns in the riff building which echoes Led Zeppelin and on Overexpansion there is a wonderful acoustic opening with strings that swell before the heavy comes in. This is great, but again it’s another 6 minute plus track. The backing singers on this are excellent, providing that oomph that it needed. One thing that is certain is that they can pummel when required, it’s just that it gets lost a little when a more ruthless hand is required. Just because it’s a concept album doesn’t mean you have to cram it full of everything you can think of. Some of the songs could have been dramatically reduced and still hit home. When All The Lights Go Out is a great song, as they bring together all of the threads, and here it works. Call of the Wild is another stormer that melds that technical edge with imposing chords before dropping into a subtle, stripped back acoustic part that builds and blasts back into that technical side.

For me, personally, it’s too long. I’ve established that. Moving that to one side, there are some belters on here, even the ones that I consider a bit clunky are still well played and contain great ideas. This is the thing; a shorter album and we are having a different conversation. But it is what it is, and fans of progressive and technical metal will find a home here with this.