Swedish heavy metal veterans RAM will return with their new full-length, Against, on October 9 via Metal Blade Records. The band has also unleashed the album’s lead single and video, “Ghost Emperor.”
Nearly seven years have passed since RAM released The Throne Within. While that record explored spiritual and metaphysical themes, Against takes the band into more immediate territory, focusing on being pushed beyond reasonable limits and the moment when compliance gives way to resistance.
That fire of defiance ultimately provides both the album’s title and its central message.
For Against, RAM reunited with longtime collaborator Johan Reiven, who previously worked with the band on 2009’s Lightbringer. Following the sale of the band’s Black Path Studios, recording took place at Studio Recordia in Varberg, Sweden.
The sessions saw RAM embrace a classic recording philosophy inspired by early Dio, MSG and Sweet, aiming for an organic and deliberately unpolished heavy metal sound.
“At first, I wasn’t really comfortable not being in my own domain,” vocalist Oscar Carlquist admits. “But Johan is a far better sound tech than me and he did a wonderful job.”
The band also experimented with its guitar recording setup, running solos through separate wet and dry amplifiers while utilizing Recordia’s massive recording room and room microphones to capture a richer, more natural sound.
For RAM, however, Against is about more than production choices. The record reinforces the uncompromising attitude that has defined the band throughout its career and its determination to play heavy metal without chasing trends or increasingly specific genre classifications.
“We do not give a fuck about all these new strange subgenres popping up,” Carlquist states. “We try to play heavy metal in its purest form. We try to hang on to the center of that energy, and we are completely uninterested in 99% of the metal scene.”
Leading the charge is “Ghost Emperor,” a straightforward blast of traditional heavy metal that serves as the opening statement on Against.
“This is the opener of the album, a straightforward classic heavy metal song and pure RAM,” Carlquist explains. “Lyrically, it deals with how our power structures exist to conceal the true rulers, the ones we will never see or know, pulling the strings behind the curtain and controlling us all.”
Against Track Listing
- Obsession
- Ghost Emperor
- One Vs. All
- Abattoir
- Out of Control
- Leaving
- Against
- Night Blade
- Rising Again
- 1984
- The Final Hour
Against will be available digitally, on CD and across multiple vinyl variants, including 180g black, Clear Lilac Marbled, Purple Melt, Crystal Clear Blackdust and Silver Black Splatter editions.
RAM will celebrate the album’s arrival with a release show in Gothenburg on October 9, followed by shows across Spain in December. Additional festival appearances are scheduled into 2027.
Against arrives October 9 via Metal Blade Records
RAM:
Oscar Carlquist – Vocals
Morgan Pettersson – Drums
Harry Granroth – Guitar
Martin Jonsson – Guitar
Tobias Petterson – Bass