olture is the brainchild of bassist Ryan Waste (known for his work with Municipal Waste) and guitarist Nick Poulus. Both got together over a beer (or four) to form the band in Richmond VA in November 2008. The song writing leaned toward traditional Euro/US Metal and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The two friends were joined by drummer Barry Cover and vocalist Brent Hubbard (who was later replaced by Jack Bauer). Ryan Waste explains: "Having a real heavy metal band has been a lifelong goal of mine. Volture is my second attempt in attaining that achievement. Some of the other members/ex-members in Volture (drummer Barry Cover, ex-vocalist Brent Hubbard) shared the first go around with me in a band called Immortal Avenger, which fell by the wayside to say the least. Six years after its demise, Volture came together when I started talking music with my friend Nick Poulos. I shared a lot of my more obscure heavy metal and N.W.O.B.H.M. music collection with him through tape trading and he picked out a lot of the songs immediately on the guitar. I'm known as a guitarist because of Municipal Waste, but many people don't know that I was a originally a bass player long before that. Nick's guitar playing fit well with my bass playing and we began to write original tunes. I called upon Brent to sing and Barry to drum once again knowing they could nail the style and Volture was born." The band's debut mini-album ?Shocking Its Prey? was issued in early 2010. "I am still very proud of that record," says Ryan Waste. "We continue to play a lot of those songs live. Cuts like 'Volture', 'Heavy Metal Machine' and 'The Horde' will remain as staples in our setlist. I like that it was such a low budget recording and it shows in the right ways. A lot of people tell me it sounds like something out of the late 1970s and early 1980s which always puts a smile on my face. No triggers or bullshit studio trickery, just honest heavy metal." Quickly after the release of ?Shocking Its Prey? Dave Boyd of Twisted Tower Dire fame joined as a second guitarist. The ?Rulebreaker? 7" single (plus video clip) followed in 2011 (including a brilliant cover version of Gotham City's "Killer Angels" on the flipside of the vinyl). "We are big fans of bands like Heavy Load, Overdrive or Torch and I'm also into a lot of obscure Scandinavian Metal like Scratch, Sacrifice (Swe), Mindless Sinner and Sergeant. Actually, we almost covered Heavy Load instead of Gotham City for the B-side but they have too many good songs to choose just one!" Volture continued to tour the United States and Canada throughout 2010/2011. "We toured a lot with our Canadian brothers in Cauldron," explains Ryan. "We get along well and continue to tour together. It's refreshing to be around like-minded metalheads that are into the same kind of music. In the States, heavy metal isn't as popular as it once was, but we try to put it in people's faces. It's a labor of love for us playing this style and we are never going to conform." In 2012, Volture appeared live at Germany's prestigious Keep It True festival. "Honestly, it was my favourite festival I've ever been a part of," confesses Ryan Waste. "It's mostly from a HM fan perspective for me. We played the same year as the N.W.O.B.H.M. anniversary and I got to hangout with a lot of my heroes and influences. It was a pretty overwhelming experience but everyone was so grounded and kind that it was just a big party backstage. Getting to chat with Dennis Stratton, John Mortimer, Mark and Paul from Trespass, Tino and Chris from Praying Mantis were big highlights. So many amazing bands and great friends like OZ, Ostrogoth, Tytan and Witch Cross had killer sets. Hails to Oliver Weinsheimer for such an incredible festival!" Shortly after their appearance at Keep It True the band inked a deal with High Roller Records. The result is the full-length debut album entitled ?On The Edge?, containing nine highly energetic traditional heavy metal anthems ? from "Ride The Nite" all the way through to "Rock You Hard". "?On The Edge? is the total heavy metal package", comments Ryan Waste. "In comparison to the mini-album and the single the themes are a little more involved and the song writing has gotten a bit more complex. Although we never want to stray too far away from our original direction, I think it's important to grow. We will always play traditional heavy metal and that will never change! The album has been a long time coming. A lot of the songs we've had for over three years musically. I've been so busy touring with Municipal Waste that it was hard to fit studio time in with Volture and the recording got very spread out. It worked to our benefit as it gave more time for our new singer Jack to practice and prepare. The whole band contributed to writing lyrics and we felt like a strong unit again. We prevailed in the end and even brought our old singer Brent in to record some additional vocals as a passing of the torch. The songs are well seasoned so we are very confident in our first full-length album. The themes of several of the songs cover aspects that are tied into the artwork, which is another amazing painting by Andrei Bouzikov." Matthias Mader
