Ah well...the shoe is on the other foot now, eh? See how it feels to find someone badmouthing you on the internet?
It's not even about that, though. I never maintained an 'air of civility.' I have not spoken to you personally in years. You know this.
Maybe if I was a reasonable person? You sent a song you didn't write to critics and radio stations. How is that reasonable? You sent me a royalty agreement 8 months into the albums being sold. How is that reasonable? I spoke with Nick for ten minutes and that was the basis of the communication which resulted in you using the song. At what point is me wanting people to know I wrote the whole thing unreasonable?
I didn't even care about the money. At first I was very happy that my song was being heard...but does it matter, when no one knows its your song? After the fifth or sixth time you hear YOUR song on the radio followed by the DJ sucking off the ego of a band who not only is making no effort to give due credit, but also are being heralded as the unsung heroes of modern local metal scene because of it...can get irritating. I'm sure if the situations were reversed any of you would feel the same way I do.
I recently wrote about the Last Rider/ Spectral Rider coincidence recently in my LiveJournal, actually. What I mentioned of it was brief, but essentially amounted to exactly what this original post says: It is a coincidence, albeit an annoying one.
I don't want any bleed. I do what I do, you all do what you do. We have experienced countless times that it is better that way. Let us not forget that the person in Ravage who has been the most consistently civil to me also knowingly had sex with a girl I was dating; that is the way of seeing just what great terms I'm on with the lot of you, when the guy I'm on the best terms with is the one who porked my girlfriend.
If you want to talk about my feelings about your band's history with me as if it is news to you, that's fine--there is nothing in this thread that hadn't already been divulged to you through various third parties. We don't get along, and I think anybody who harasses a dude he's only talked to a total of three times in three years is plenty unconvential enough for me to claim you as a little left of center (though 'psychotic' is a bit harsh; I was probably angry about some thing or another when I wrote it, anyhow. I think 'eccentric' is a much more accurate adjective when it comes to describing a disposition such as your own). One week you're patting me on the back and I'm with you and John at a show and then the next week your putting your band stickers on my family's mailbox to impress your friends. You've hardly got grounds to question my maturity level when my track record is much more clear of such things then your own.
You know I have not had an interest in your band for a long time, Al. Not that you've stopped sending me your mailing list...but to the band's credit, the song has been pulled from your live set as I understand it, so as far as that end of it goes, it's over and done. I'm not angry about royalties or money, or even the woefully inaccurate co-writing credit (which again, is no secret I was unhappy about it).
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I think that you've missed the mark that this post originally intended.
My Original Post said:
Part of me is paranoid enough to believe the two things are related. But mostly I'm sure it is coincidence. But coincidence or not, it pisses me off, especially after what's happened already in the past. Is that wrong of me?
The point of the post was my asking if my finding this an annoying coincidence was right or wrong. Granted I was unnecessarily harsh, and for that I apologize...to a degree.
You people have been calling me a lunatic for years. If I came to your forum and called you all immature for this sort of talk, months and months after the fact notwithstanding--which happened plenty, albeit years ago--the response would be markedly different, and you know it. So you can come in here and act all offended that I labelled you. In fact I encourage it--maybe now you feel some miniscule degree of the ridicule I was subject to from you and yours.
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As for Nick, I fault him for some things. In the end, the only people who were there on both the day the song was written, and the day that 'agreement' was made that you could PLAY it (NOT record it...and there was no "co-written by" bull**** either; I expressly told him that I wouldn't mind at all on the condition it was considered a cover song). So unfortunately the nature of the beast is that only I or Nick can be at fault for this situation directly, at its root (and I certainly see no way my several attempts over the years at setting things right--that were promptly met with exploitations or betrayals of trust--could be responsible for you consciously packaging and selling my work).
Speaking about the song, I have argued it a thousand times with Jenna in EXTREME detail, almost practically CHORD BY CHORD. Nick did not contribute more than a single fill riff; if you look at our playing styles it follows suit, actually. The fill is the only part of the song that has harmony chords, a mainstay of Nick's songwriting as long as I've known him. The rest of it is in normal power chords and simple melody pieces--things that you and yours have openly mocked about my playing style in the past.
It is my deduction from Jenna's ridiculous reactions to my various 'outrageous' claims regarding Terror's Head, that the general concensus is that I barely wrote any of it. Jenna's arguments often included things along the lines of, "You're lucky you got credit at all," and "just accept that it's not your song."
But it IS my song. I wrote it, all of it.
When you say Nick had no interest in those songs, I also find that hard to believe. There were many times when I heard those songs being played/recorded/tabbed when I was at the Zenga house. I also have a cloned version of Nick's tabledit folder on a CD around here somewhere, as part of some ridiculous thing I was helping Chris do, and found versions of almost all of our old songs--of course, altered slightly to accomodate his then-newfound power metal influences. There were also countless CDs of Jay's video recordings of us...Chris brought Nick's or his own burnt CDs on car rides and I would hear Mp3s of songs that I was told were the worst songs ever written, songs I wrote and played with Nick, where he altered many parts to be more 'power metalish'. And long before he ever joined Ravage he was already trying to rewrite the song in question, 'Terror's Head,' as something called "Robot Fantasy." I even once heard a file of Nick recording himself, trying to duplicate the three part guitar harmony intro I wrote for Lou's band's song, Knights of Fire. A recording of him playing obscure parts that I wrote.
To say he didn't want to play the songs is a lie, even if it was the excuse he gave. It was textbook Nick, far as I saw--he just didn't want to have to deal with me being angry about it. Jenna has even told me a scarce story here or there of Nick playing songs I wrote, and being openly upset that he couldn't use them because he didn't write them (that bendy F-sharp song Paul called 'Lurkkker' comes to mind).
Nick is the reason the song says "Co-wrote" and not "Originally By," as far as I see it. At the time I wrote this, I was probably just coming off of an argument with Jenna about Terror's Head, and was probably just really angry about it. The way Jenna, you know, totally disregarded every past discovery she's ever made about me during those arguments had a way of doing that.
You'd think. After getting to know me she found out that almost every precept or 'fact' she knew about me was either distorted or inaccurate...yet for some reason this one claim absolutely must be nothing but Rob lies.
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For those forum goers who might have read this, I just want to make my case clear. It may seem as though I have shamelessly attacked a seemingly nice group of people. Let it be known that these are not necessarily innocent guys who I am fiercely and adamantly opposing on my own suspicions. The incidents have piled up over the years and I learned a long time ago that the best way to deal with Ravage is to not deal with them at all, as far as Rob Walker/SaiyanPrideXIX is concerned. These are guys who once stole a video tape of me playing a small local open mic night out of my best friend's 14-yr.-old brother's bedroom, and promptly had a celebrated gathering to watch and mock my every movement on the tape, which was then quoted back to me through various internet goings-on for the better part of half a year. Yes, they stole a video tape of me and sat around watching it making fun of me. These are people who sent me their album and some stickers even though I do not get along with them at all. I've tried to get off of their mailing list for two years and yet here I sit still receiving word. I once offered as a gesture of peace between us to design them a modernized website, which they promptly insulted and claimed "any idiot with Photoshop could do that." They then promptly went and liberated my best friend's copy of photoshop, scribbled a bunch of colors and clicked a bunch of filters, then threw the result down over the graphics I had made, just to *******rize my gesture. I've had to wipe two journals of mine on account of these people; countless website guestbooks fell wrath to their crazy ex-drummer (who they will say is not their responsibility but yet suffice to say a band member's actions will always reflect on the band). Hell I even once saw a picture of the very person who wrote these angry replies--He calls himself Al Ravage--sitting at a computer laughing in utter hysterics, almost falling off the chair. It took me a moment to realize, but the screen in the picture had my livejournal on it (the one that they've repeatedly claimed that they didn't read, ever).
I mean, bottom line, there are two sides to this conflict. On one side, people sticker mailboxes, insult people they barely know's musical integrity, help people's girlfriends cheat on them, steal videos of people from kids for their personal amusement, and deny credit where credit is due. The other side has apologized numerous times for the numerous incidents and made tons of efforts at making plausible peace between the two parties; benevolently surrendered cover permission to mortal enemies over a highly coveted song with no copyright (a decision based on trust); donated web graphics, went to and supported their shows for a time, etc. Every outburst I have ever had on this subject has followed either a colossal string of harassments or a colossal screwjob laid in my path directly because of these people's actions (i.e. the Terror's Head thing); not once in all these years have I acted unprovoked, I can promise you that much.
You can side with whoever you want. The sheer volume of my side of the story shows that I have a wide perspective. They'd have you all believe I was a stark raving lunatic whose claims have no basis in reality whatsoever...but do you all really think I just made up all of this? I mean...does it even matter, anymore?
We will never get along and unless some people step up and start acting like men about the lies they've told the truth about Terror's Head is never going to be let up to the surface of things. I've faced that fact and it's long past. I'll tell whoever will listen the truth about Terror's Head--I'm sorry that it is so unfathomable that Rob Walker wrote 'the song that could bring real metal back,' but those are the facts and I'm sticking to them.
As for being called a lunatic--insulting, isn't it? Maybe now you know why I was always so agitated the thousands of times you all did it--and perhaps, still do--to me.
Bottom line: it's old and it's over, and I probably wrote it in a moment of anger--as I have written almost every word I've ever typed about you and yours. Like I said, the guy I consider the nicest of your band is the guy knowingly who banged my whore girlfriend without a second thought; that's really saying something that he's the guy who's been
nicest to me, don't you think?
Either way this is all old news. I don't really care if Ravage has an issue with what I wrote a year or more ago about Terror's Head. . Terror's Head is mine and you will never play it again; the point is moot. I maintain the same point of view I always have: you guys have enough great songs of your own that there is no need to ride the success of Terror's Head.
If you want to get all bent out of shape about the fact that I wrote a rude remark about you in a post from a year ago, probably five seconds after something phenomenally annoying happened, then fine. But take it up with me personally. Leave my friends here at ESF out of it. This forum is a good community and I have kept it unknown to the likes of you for five years now, and for good reason.
We've dragged enough outside people into this old rivalry. You don't play the song anymore, so...as far as I'm concerned, the issue is past, unless we're talking about who wrote the song--then I will be sure to correct the 'co-writing' allegation. You can get mad or you can swoop in here and call me immature. Honestly it doesn't affect me either way.
Like I said before...there was nothing in this post that wasn't already widely known to be my feelings. We have proven time and again that our best interests are to avoid each other. So it would probably be to our mutual benefit to continue such things. I obviously wrote these things in the heat of the moment (though granted, for me that is nine tenths of the time). If you want to take them personally that's fine.
I'd prefer we put it behind us--it was, after all, a long time ago when this was written. Chances are I already clashed with Jenna over it at the time and it passed. As far as I'm concerned it's all water under the bridge. Let's be adults and move on, for once.
