With the band releasing 2022 their shelved second album recorded in the mid-Nineties, it’s worth to present here as well ROAD RATT‘s first album from 1992, the self-titled “Road Ratt” (also known as “Reel 2” or “RealCD 2”).
With a style mixing American and European classic riffs, the album was successful in Scandinavia with Road Ratt being nominated for a Swedish Grammy in the category Best Hard Rock Album, nominated for Best Newcomer & Best Album at Swedish Zeppelin-Awards, and performed live at MTV’s Headbangers Ball.
This is cruchy melodic hard rock with an early ’90s Scandinavian feeling and catchy Americanized melodies with some Lynch Mob, Saigon Kick, Warrant, Roxy Blue on it.
Road Ratt was formed in Gothenburg originally with the name Icewind in 1988 by Christer Ortefors (vocals/guitar). All the money earned from gigs went into a recording of their first demo. Produced by John Ballard in TUFF Studios, the tape gained some recognition locally but record companies were not yet willing to sign them to a serious contract.
The name Icewind briefly changed to Hot n’ Spicy before a British biker gang inspired the permanent change to Road Ratt. They added the extra ‘t’ in Ratt to have equal amount of letters in both words for the logo to look balanced.
With some line up changes the band participated in an international band contest called Band Explotion. Out of 800 Scandinavian contenders they reached top 4, and the local press started to take notice. Determined not to be a talent show phenomenon the band now focused on their live act and on writing new material for a second demo.
They sneaked one more tape away to Rockslaget, a local competition arranged by ABF and Goteborgs-Posten. As it was a local thing the band decided it was a good opportunity to test the new material, and agreed to participate. As 138 bands were reduced to 20 during the course of the competition, Road Ratt started to look like clear favourites.
Together with eight other bands they reached the finals and went into the studio to record two songs for the compilation album that showcased the finalists, the album was called Rockslaget 1990 and it was released by ABF in 1990.
The finals took place at Liseberg’s main stage, and the audience was estimated to be about 14.000. Being huge favorites, and with a large crowd of fans up front, they were declared winners at the end of the evening. The prize for winning was the recording of a single but the band instead took the money and cut a 6-song demo with producer Par Edwardson with ambition to shop around for a deal.
But because of the media attention offers already came pouring in from various record companies and the evening tabloids speculated in what label would finally get their signatures.
Recording sessions for debut album started at Decibel Studios in Stockholm in the fall of ’91 and continued at Sveriges Radio (Gothenburg) in the spring of ’92.
11 songs made it to the final mix that was done at Mistlur Studios by Stefan Glauman (later producing for Rammstein, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard etc.).
The album was released October ’92 and the Swedish state television SVT broadcast a 30min. TV special from the release party. Sponsored by Pizza Hut and held at the club Gamle Port a record number of 900-1000 guests attended. A Gamle Port-all time high that stands to this day.
1992 Road Ratt were nominated for a Swedish Grammy in the category Best hardrock along with Electric Boys, Candlemass and Sator, losing out to Sator.
In 1993 “Road Ratt” was nominated for Best newcomer and Best Album at Swedish Zeppelin-awards. Losing out to Clawfinger in both cases. Road Ratt However performed live at the event broadcast by MTVs Headbangers Ball.
There’s a funky hard rockin’ melody to “Ragman City”, a fun shuffle on “Resurrection”, a solid mid-tempo on “Itsypooked” (with some Saigon Kick), a pure American vibe on “C’mon & Do Me” (a bit of Extreme) with great guitar work, and a fine ballad on the acoustically filled “I Wish”.
Our favorite is the killer “Use The Lighter” with its great harmony vocals intro, hot Warrant-like riff and that sexy chorus.
An album pretty unknown for many Melodic Hard Rock fans well written & produced that really worth your attention.
Tracklist:
01. Ragman City
02. Use Тhe Lighter
03. Resurrection
04. Itsypooked
05. Mr. Preacher
06. C'mon & Do Me
07. Beggar's Day
08. Funny People
09. I Wish
10. Shake It
11. Turn Me Оn
Line-Up:
Christer Ortefors - lead vocals, guitar
Fredrik Stenberg - lead guitar
Patrik Herrstrom - drums
Ola Johansson - bass, backing vocals
Road Ratt – Road Ratt 1992
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