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[A blond half-orc sits on a couch, facing a video camera.]
In 1984, Flaming Fist were a power metal juggernaut. Even your dad could hum “Heart of the Gate” or “Rock and Roll Angels”, and your mum got teary over “Isobel”, even if they didn’t know the band who sang them. Even as late as 1993, the band’s star was ascendant.
So what happened to make them decide to put the fire out?
Now, I know I’m going a bit off format for this one, so everyone put your keyboards down. Flaming Fist never had a catastrophic fade out, or even a decline—each album sold as well as the last ever since their debut. So why did they break up, if they were doing fine? Are they going to ever reunite? Was any of the gossip true?
Find out here on Wreckage, where we take a look at the rise and fall of Toril’s biggest bands.
Flaming Fist started as a hobby project for frontsman Zevlor and drummer Astele Keene. At the time, Zevlor was in paramedic school following his release from the Elturgardian Military, Hellrider Division. Zevlor learned to play guitar practically in his cradle, from the sounds of it, and when he found out Keene played the drums, they started a garage band.
I’ll note here that Keene has never said a word about what she was doing before the band, although there are records of her serving in the Foreign Legion from the age of 16 to 20. Apart from that? Nothing. I have spent hours digging through interviews, trolling message boards from the time, and even going so far as to writing her office to see if I could get even a hint of what she was up to.
[an email appears on screen.
Hello,
Make something up. Have fun with it, I don’t give a fuck.
Cheers,
A.Keene.
So there you have it. I have no idea what she was actually doing before, and no one is willing to tell me, so, uh…she ran the Baldurian Thieves’ Guild, got arrested due to tax evasion, and joined the legion to work off her sentence. Prove me wrong.
Luckily for this episode, information about the other band members is much easier to source. For example, Zevlor was a pararescue, participating in the Joint Strike Force against Amn back in the 70s.
[Video clip of an interview]
“I was sure I was going to die, and I was so annoyed at this fuckin’ horse-boy acting like he was going to save me when I was gutted like a tuna on a fishmonger’s table[…]”
That was Ulder Ravengard, who at the time was a member of spec-ops in the Baldurian Military. Ravengard credits Zevlor with saving his life, and when they ran into each other at a bar, one thing led to another and the two became friends.
Ravengard, who had been on a medical release at the time, living with his older brother and reportedly “rotting with boredom,” taught himself to play keyboard, and ended up joining the band “just for something to do.” They would perform open mic nights at local bars, but it was still just a hobby for everyone involved.
It wouldn’t stay that way for long.
Warning: this part of the band’s story gets a little dark. If you’re sensitive about war and associated violent topics, skip ahead to 5:00.
Some of you may be old enough to remember the Elturgardian Tiefling Exile in the ‘70s. Dozens of people perished, and others lost everything they had. Most of the survivors made their way to Baldur’s Gate, because it was willing to fast-track the asylum claims. High Observer Thavius Kreeg and his personal army were arrested by the SCUN, charged, and are currently confined to Revel’s End, a Harper-controlled maximum security prison.
One of these refugees was a young woman named Alfira, who had been a music student in Elturel. She met Zevlor through church, and joined the band shortly after—along with Edgin Darvis, who had been a minor folk musician popular in the historical faire circuit. Darvis reportedly knew both Alfira through the music scene and Ravengard from, apparently, commissioning him to make a diorama of Xenk Yendar fighting a dragon for Darvis’ anniversary. Because apparently this guy [An image of Ulder, scowling, dressed in all black, looking serious flashes on screen] used to supplement his military pension making tabletop miniatures and dioramas. He’s won awards even. That’s not really relevant, but it is really cool and really weird.
Apparently, two folk singers were exactly what the band was missing to go from hobbyists to stars. Alfira’s sweet vocals paired well with Zevlor’s growling delivery, with Darvis providing back up vocals when required-along with whatever instrument the band happened to need at any given moment. They got big in the Gate music scene, partially due to Darvis knowing absolutely everybody and partially because the band were just that good.
Eventually, they came to the attention of Leeham Ethie, drummer for Finder’s Keeper’s, who decided to ask them to be the opening act for his band’s next show. Flaming Fist obviously said yes, and the very next day acquired a manager – a friend of Ravengard’s named Desiré Florrick. Baldur’s Gate’s music scene is super incestuous, I don’t know what to tell you.
[Video footage of Zevlor in an interview]
“It was a wild time. We never expected anything like that to happen—the band was a weekend project and none of us were thinking of quitting our day jobs. And then Leeham cropped up with this massive opportunity. So of course we took it, thinking it was just going to be a hell of a story for the kids... and then of course we realized we needed a real sound engineer, which lead us to Brennan[...]”
‘Brennan’ being notorious session musician Brennan Crowe, known for his excellent guitar work on stage and his exploits off, who studied to be a sound engineer while in prison for assault. The second time. I’ve done a whole video on Crowe, I’ll add a link in the description. It’s a wild ride, let me tell you.
But anyway, Flaming Fist was signed by Ethie’s record label Lightning Records, and released their first album that summer. Dream Eater is a moody concept album based around the rise and fall of Baldurian folk heroes Balduran and Ansur. I really like it, and the critics loved it, and still do—Hardwire named it the third best debut album just this year.
Unknown to anyone involved, Flaming Fist would eventually become one of the defining power metal acts of the era, and were refreshingly free from a lot of drama and controversy that plagued other bands. The age of the band members probably helped; Alfira was pretty much still a teenager, but the others were all in their early to late thirties when the band got big. Darvis was married [image of Edgin, Zia, and Xenk at an awards ceremony], with two kids by that point, and was in the process of adopting a third. No one had time or patience for infighting. Sources around the band say that Ravengard and Keene absolutely hated each other, but didn’t let it affect their professional relationship. Rumour has it they were also fucking, but I don’t know how true that is.
What is true is that Ravengard and Zevlor were romantically involved by their second album, which might be a contributing factor to that one being half historically inspired love songs—the band’s never said either way, but come on—you’re telling me that ballad about the fourteenth century Hellrider paladin rescuing his lady love from the hells isn’t about Zevlor? Be serious.
And they just kept it coming. None of their subsequent ten albums flopped, they continuously sold out shows, and they remained mostly scandal free for the bulk of their career—although, as we’ll see later, that doesn’t mean they were without controversy.
They were ostensibly power metal, and many of their songs are based on historical or fantastical events and stories—but they have a few political and social songs too, and the band aren’t shy about their pro-social, extremely progressive views, and certainly aren’t afraid to criticize various governments or billionaires. Three out of five members were in various militaries and it shows. Alfira’s experiences as a refugee also had a clear influence on some of the band’s oeuvre— Weeping Dawn being the most obvious example, although Mockingbird is also along those lines. As drummer Astele Keene said in an interview once, “If we aren’t pissing somebody off, we’re not doing it right.”
And boy, did they upset a lot of people. None of the band members have regretted their military service—even though Zevlor’s service was mandatory, he seems to have fond memories of his horse, and Ravengard just shrugs when the matter is brought up. But for every angry think piece or Twitter thread, there were dozens of supportive fans—either for the message, or just the music.
But the beginning of the end was near. In 1988, just before the band was set to tour, Alfira came down with a serious case of laryngitis. Instead of cancelling, the band decided to temporarily replace her with one Francesca Crowe, who at the time was a Ph.d student at Balduran University. That’s right—this guy’s [image of a giant, heavily scarred man] daughter looks like this [image of a beautiful, tall, elegant woman]. It boggles the mind. Of course, if even half the rumours of Brennan Crowe’s exploits are true, it’s a little shocking he’s only got the one.
Apparently also at some point Ravengard found out that Crowe the younger’s young son was his, from a university fling? You can’t make this up. I can only assume he didn’t know anything about Crowe senior, or he would have probably not gone there.
The replacement of Alfira with Crowe caused some controversy—Crowe has a good voice, but she admitted herself she’s not as strong a singer as Alfira, and the usual sexist commentary was rife even before anyone heard her sing a note.
[Video clip of Francesca getting interviewed]
“I saw it as doing a favour for some friends—it wasn’t going to be permanent. I had no desire to be a professional singer, so it would be easy for Alfira to slot back in when she was better. Some of the commentary about it was extremely impolite […] I didn’t expect the backlash, though I suppose that was foolish of me.”
The band was more blunt. In an interview with Hardwire, Keene called the critics ‘useless vultures,’ stating that “What were we supposed to do? Cancel the tour? Force Alfira to sing anyway? Fucking choke. Frankie’s not trying to replace anybody, she didn’t get the job for sucking dick. Gods preserve any women who put up with your useless carcasses.”
It’s worth noting at least three music critics apologized after this, although that may be because the band outright refused to do interviews with their companies. Others doubled down, though most of them aren’t really respected in the field to begin with so it doesn’t really matter. I’ve seen video footage of some of that tour, and to be honest I think Crowe would be considered a great singer, if she wasn’t getting compared with, y’know, Alfira.
As it happens, while the band was touring, Alfira started writing songs of her own—more folksy, new age, introspective music that didn’t fit as well with the Flaming Fist’s sound or vibe. After her throat healed, she ended up recording a solo album that reached number five on the indie charts.
[Video clip of Alfira]
“I was beginning to realize I was a bit tired of being a rock star. I loved the band, and I loved the fans...but the rest was just exhausting.”
Alfira did record two other albums with the band, although they didn’t tour for them—Darvis, Zevlor, and Ravengard wanted to spend more time with their families, since they all had teenage children at that point. Zevlor and Ravengard ended up marrying Francesca Crowe also, no one knows when, and adopted a daughter.
Keene was becoming a well-respected producer behind the scenes—during the band’s periodic breaks, she would produce songs for acts like Finder’s Keeper’s, Thormy Weather, and Wulbrenna Ector.
And in 1994, the band announced that they were breaking up, and their next album would be their last. Rumours went wild about potential drug addiction, or in-fighting; but no one who knew the band would corroborate any of them, and there was no delay on the album’s release. That one they did tour for, and ended up playing double the amount of shows than planned, to accommodate the amount of people that wanted tickets.
That final album, Spelljammer, is considered their best album by many critics, and certainly by their fans. Crowe and Alfira even have a heartbreaking duet together in Selune’s Tears, written about a cleric of Selune’s doomed love affair with Selune’s daughter, and apparently is based on a true story from the 1400s. The band got a little experimental, a little weird, and it worked really well. So what happened?
[interview with the band]
“Sometimes you have to admit to yourself that something you love has an end-date [..] we decided it was better to quit before we burnt out, and we started hating it and each other.”
So where are they now, twenty years on?
Keene continues to be one of music’s hottest producers. If you’ve heard a hit in the last decade? It was almost certainly produced by her, and was likely written by Ravengard. Alfira’s settled into a quieter life as a singer-songwriter for the indie crowd, though she crops up on the metal charts now and then. She plays a lot at the bar her girlfriend owns, started a music school for disadvantaged children, and mostly seems to be in a really good place.
Zevlor apparently quit music altogether and joined the Coast Guard of all things—I can just imagine how surreal that must be, getting rescued by a damned metal legend. Also he did a song about water safety last year, which is great. Definitely go listen to it, I promise it’s worth it.
Darvis does some session work here and there, but primarily seems to be a music teacher these days at Alfira’s music school. Francesca Crowe was just elected MP for the Rivington area…so it appears everyone is doing well for themselves.
Occasionally the band reunites for festivals, and rumour has it Keene, Zevlor, and Ravengard will randomly show up at open mic nights around the city with neither rhyme nor reason, just to see if they can get away with it. Which I think is pretty cool.
Burn on.