History & Biography Raging Speedhorn has non-metal music like mallcore and hardcore fused within metal. The members were in the bands Box and Soulcellar previously. Conventionally, however, the two-vocalist band returned in 2014 after being away for some six years following an initial decade of activity.
The band followed up its self-titled album on ZTT Records with a release on SPV and a license for Japan. The group had played a battle of the bands, show with ministry, toured with Earthtone9 in 1999 and Tribute To Nothing and Charger in 2000. The band was singers John Loughlin and Frank Regan, guitarists Gareth Smith and Tony Loughlin, bassist Darren Smith and drummer Gordon Morrison. The boys toured with Kittie in 2000. Another trek in Europe was with Biohazard. The band had the occasion to hit Japan with Amen. The group also appeared at the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan in 2002. We Will Be Dead Tomorrow lied as it was not the act’s final album. Daz Smith was on bass here. Someone called Grand Recordings issued a compilation of live and demo material called Live And Demos in 2004. This included several songs from the band’s Ozzfest appearance in 2001. They had opened that show. How The Great Have Fallen was issued in the spring of 2005. The band supported Dir En Grey in the UK in 2007. The group split up. The group announced its own demise at the beginning of 2008. The band that recently had its UK tour postponed to the autumn announced it would make up for the dates in October and perform shows in America for the rest of the year as well. A tour of Japan came near the end and the band supported Carnivore in Europe. Frank Regan had already left in 2005.
The band returned in 2014 and announced a show at the Damnation Festival and issued a fan-funded demo called Lost Ritual in 2016. The band had appeared at Bloodstock in 2015. The group had re-appeared to play a few shows at first. Jim Palmer and Jamie Thompson were on guitar. Palmer was from Charger with whom the band had toured. Dave Thompson was the bassist. Singer Regan sat out a 2017 tour with Skindred on doctor’s orders to rest. The band’s original line-up reunited for a 20th anniversary show in London, England in 2018. Daniel Cook was the second vocalist beginning 2019. John Laughlin had departed. Decapitated, Raging Speedhorn, Acid Reign and others took to the stage of the O2 Academy in Birmingham as part of HRH Metal: Metal Meltdown on February 16th 2019. A tour with Philip H Anselmo And The Illegals in the UK followed.
Viking Skull was founded in 2001 and featured several band members and roadies. John Loughlin, substitute bassist Dave Thompson and Jamie Thompson were in The Death Of Us later. John and Tony are brothers.
Reviews RAGING SPEEDHORN - HOW THE GREAT HAVE FALLEN - SPV
You know you are in for something big from the moment the album revs up. This is doom-ridden hardcore of massive proportions. Take Crowbar and slap it on a truck, take Black Sabbath and launch it on a missile. Hell, take doom and slap it hardcore and you will end up with a raging speedhorn. Kyuss would play this were it twice as angry and three times as fast. Song titles like A Different Shade Of Shit, Oh How The Great Have fallen, Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory and Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down mean business. Screaming rock it vocals, bassy racket hardcore and doomy rocket punk combine to let off the ruckus that is Raging Speedhorn. As teed-off as this album is the hidden track, for once, takes the cake. The social commentary aside, the clip is a riot. - Ali "The Metallian"
RAGING SPEEDHORN - BEFORE THE SEA WAS BUILT - SPV 
The new Raging Speedhorn album maintains the band’s use of a fusion sound of extremes as well as innovative and clever titles. That is not new. The band has gone and found a new singer called Bloody Kev who has a major presence on the album and changes a few things for the Brits.
As prior efforts The Sea Was Built is dominated by the bass guitar while the bloody singer’s gruff grunt growling and screams are hardly geared for commercial consumption. The speed part of the horn has been pulled back to accommodate more sludge resulting in an album that more distinctively sounds like a mix between Prong (Who Will Guard The Guards), suspiciously poppy melodies put to distortion (The last Comet From Nothingness with its hushed start), The Sex Pistols and loads of sludge a la Dystopia or Eyehategod. It is a powerful mixture and one that grows on the listener - metal or punk. Repeated listens bear fruit, although one has to wonder about the Iron Maiden melody on Sound Of Waves. - Ali “The Metallian”
Interviews
|
