Albums of Purgatory interview Bane's Rocky 'Necrolover' Ruiz

Albums of Purgatory: Firstly, whats the band up to?

Necrolover: The band is up to no good! Just kidding! We have plenty of shows coming up, a tour with Pessimist this Oct which is still in the works, but most of all just promoting our Cd "Vehemence: The Cathartic Remnants of Chaos, Virtue and Time".

AoP: How would you describe the sound of Bane?

Necrolover: Our sound I think is best described through our philosophy "Harmony and Chaos" two powerfull elements that can't exist with out the other. The music is fast, hard, brutal, technical, and powerfull! We try to constantly break the bounderies and have no concept of limitation. We don't want to stay stagnant repeating the same rehash riffs or any of typical deathmetal genre that everyone is used to hearing. We want to bring to Deathmetal and the underground scene something new to the table thats what BANE is about!

AoP: How did Bane start in 94?

Necrolover: BANE started as a four piece with our first bass player Sal on vocals, he wanted to concentrate on bass so he called me to try out! Then Robert quit the band to go to college thats when we got Reggie to join in. We then felt that Sal was no longer excited about BANE so we let him go. We then got Anton to join but he too later did'nt seem too excited about BANE and lacking his share of creativity. So now were shopping around for a new bass player and pulling the shows as a four piece it gets rough sometimes!

AoP: How did you come to join the band on vocals in 96?

Necrolover: It really seemed that Sal was tired of doing the vocals, he bangs at my door at 2:00 am. I come out of coma thinking "what the fuck is going on?" He says "Hey we need a vocalist or are you still retired?(in a mocking fashion)" I said "Lets see what you guys got!" and I was very impressed with the sound, the music, the energy that this band had I immediatly said "OK!" the rest is history!

AoP: You have opened for bands like Morbid Angel and Deeds of Flesh.  Which bands have you enjoyed working with the most?

Necrolover: Well they were all very cool people, but I think the ones I enjoyed the most were Morbid Angel my
guitarist David got along good with Trey, Immolation they were all really cool guys, and Cryptopsy
we got the chance to play twice with them, they were all very cool not to mention I got to sing
"Slit your guts" along with Mike.

 AoP: Can you remember your first gig (what was it like)?

Necrolover: Well the first gig I played wasn't with BANE its was this thrasband I don't care to talk about,
but the first BANE show was this Hall with our friends from a thrashband called Siinsay. Tony the
guitarist/backing vocals would call us to play these shows with different kinds of bands and both our
bands would play and all hell would brake loose. It was a good show except that their was like two fights
while we played haha!

AoP: Which venues do you enjoy playing at the most?

Necrolover: The Whiskey was my favorite place to play. I think it was the venue where we had the best sound
and thats normally what we look for is a venue with a good sound! I really don't care how popular the
place is as long as the sound is quality!

AoP: What are your favourite Bane tracks?

Necrolover: My favorite tracks damn thats tough! It would be "Departed", "Putresant Oblation" and
"Infestation." But if you like this album you should listen to our new material it destroys everything
we've done in the past. The album is gonna be absolute fucking brutality! The new song "Sore, Torn, and
Tainted Flesh" is by far the one that takes the crown!

AoP: What are your favourite all time songs?

Necrolover: I'd have to say them by albums like "None So Vile"-Cryptopsy, "Pierced From Within"-Suffocation,
"Tomb of the Mutilated"-Cannible Corpse, "The Covenant"-Morbid Angel and "Temple of Knowledge"-Kataklysm. I think that these 3 albums are just the albums that stand out for me in the deathmetal scene, they were the ones that made it evident that people can continue to push the envelope to the far ends of their capabilities.

AoP: What was the first record you bought?

Necrolover: The record I bought was Quiet Riots "Metal Asylum" hahaha! I think its called the one with the guy in a red straight jacket with the metal mask! I was a kid and yes I bought it on purpose!

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

Necrolover: Lord Worm joining Cryptopsy again!

AoP: What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?

Necrolover: Well thats tough! I think that a lot of metal bands these days are trying to sound like well established bands as oppose to breaking limitations and pushing the envelope. Then we have the new metal bands that are
popular with the high school kids and they all sound like each other. Now I'm not bashing these bands
I love and support Metal but I really haven't heard any new bands that are impressing me these days, so
I mostly listen to some older deathmetal bands and industrial cause not a lot of bands are making my head
explode like the first time I heard Cryptopsy's "None So Vile" all I can say was "Fucking BAD ASS!!!"

AoP: Do you have any funny stories you can share with us about the band?

Necrolover: The funniest thing thats ever happened to BANE was when we played The Shack in Anaheim for Rise Release party Art (drummer) was expecting a phone call from some girls and it rang in the middle of our set while we where on stage and he answered it saying "Hey let me call you back I'm a lil busy! I'm on stage fool!" everyone started laughing.

AoP: and finally, what do you see in the future for Bane?

Necrolover: We will be playing a lot of shows The Shit Fest aug 30th, the Tryst aug 31st, The Zone sept 15th(formally Bubbas Lounge), the Neon Cafe sept 20th, a southern California tour with Purgatoria and a tour from here to Kansas with Pessimist. Were also working on new songs for our next album, updating our website, and we also still have copies of our first release "Vehemence: The Cathartic Remnants of Chaos, Virtue, and Time".  If anyone wants copies of BANE's release "Vehemence: The Cathartic Remnants of Chaos, Virtue, and Time" you can order them online at: http://welcome.to/bane.com For booking or distrobution info contact me at: necrolover187@hotmail.com