Released: 2024, Indie
Rating: 4/5
Reviewer: JP
Prato is a titan among Hard Rock journalists. With almost 40 books to his name, he ranks up there with Popoff, McIver and other prolific and dedicated rock/Metal authors. What I like about Prato is he tackles bands that are not the ‘low-hanging’ fruit. With a bit of research practically anyone can write a book about Guns n’ Roses, Led Zeppelin or Metallica but Prato digs a little deeper and had brought us first books about bands like King’s X, Primus or the non-make -up era of Kiss. Now he has another first, a book about Ratt called WORLD INFESTATION.
This is not technically the first book about Ratt as Prato points out in his introduction that Blotzer and Pearcy have each written their autobiographies but this is the first neutral, professional, biography. Frankly, I’m surprised that it took this long first someone to write about the multi-platinum act. As a side-bar feel free to read my reviews of the Blotzer and Pearcy books here on this site.
One of my common complaints about Rock and Metal books is that the authors presents a book as definitive but focus is almost exclusively on the golden era. Prato cleverly and deftly avoids this mistake by clearly stating in his brief introduction that is his focus is on 1984-1991. It’s that easy. He doesn’t claim this is the most comprehensive look at the band ever. If you really want to know who the 11th touring bassist for Ratt Mark II was at County Fair show in Kalamazoo, MI back in 2016, this is not the place. That book has yet to be written, if ever, and it will probably be written by the world’s biggest Ratt fan. Realistically, most readers probably want the stories of classic line-up of the golden era.
WORLD INFESTATION is a standard print-on-demand paperback; a couple hundred pages long, with almost 100 black and white photos, all of his sources listed in the back and a clever book cover that pays homage to DANCING UNDERCOVER. It’s pretty bare bones book but very affordable.
Prato takes us on a journey across the albums, production, recording, release and tours while providing lots of insight, trivia and a decent amount of opinion. His opinions were tempered and fair and not out-of-line with what many Ratt fans I’ve talked to casually over the years, would feel. Prato had interviewed a good chunk of the Ratt gang over the years and many quotes are drawn first hand from those interviews. Elsewhere we get deeper dives into old 80’s issues of Circus and Hit Parader for more pearls of wisdom from the band themselves.
After the golden era there is some talk about gear and the bands specialized/customized guitars including the now iconic ‘King V’. Prato also plumbs the depths of his deep archives interview to get some opinions from various rockers about the calibre of Ratt, who are, generally regarded favourably, even to this day. We conclude with a brief but comprehensive overview of 1992-2024 and a broad overview of things in camp Ratt. Seems slightly odd to me that since Leaving Ratt, vocalist Pearcy has at least eight solo albums out, (more than Ratt ever managed!) and the rest of the band have been largely dormant when it comes to creating new music. I learned a lot from Prato. For 30 + years had no idea that DETONATOR had an alternate cover art for the vinyl! I had bought the cassette when it came out and thought that was it. The book is loaded with interesting trivia for the fans.
Ratt was always one of the (slightly) ‘heavier’ bands of the Sunset Strip scene. Thinking back in the golden (first five albums) era the band never really recorded a big hit ballad unlike Dokken, Motley Crüe, Great White and so forth. Prato cleverly acknowledges this fact and dug up a supporting quote from Robbin Crosby from Hit Parader magazine back in 1984 where he says, “We want the headbangers to get into what we are doing-we are not out there to write cute melodies…” (p. 29) In my opinion Ratt always seemed to hit that weird no-man’s land between the heaviness of ‘serious’ Metal bands like W.A.S.P., Malice, Lizzy Borden etc. and the fun, party-time, melodies of Poison, Warrant and so forth. Ratt certainly did their own thing and I appreciated that Prato recognized this and acknowledged it.
2024 is the 40th anniversary of the band’s debut and WORLD INFESTATION is fitting tribute and accompaniment to the Ratt re-issue boxsets (CD and vinyl) that have come out recently. Long live Ratt and Roll!