Raggadeath was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rock band that enjoyed moderate success in the mid-1990s."Wha’ Happen?: Raggadeath"
''

The Grid The Grid is an English electronic dance group, consisting of David Ball (formerly of Soft Cell) and Richard Norris, with guest contributions from other musicians. They are best known for the hits "Swamp Thing", "Texas Cowboys", "Crystal Cle ...

'', March 11, 2013. The band fused heavy metal with

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

-style rhythms and vocals. The band's core members and founders were producer/dj/drummer Stephen Kendall and producer/engineer/bassist/keyboardist Walter Sobczak. Steve Major played all the guitars on the records. Dean Bentley on drums and Darren Quinn on guitar of

Monster Voodoo Machine Monster Voodoo Machine is a Canadian metal band formed in Ontario in 1991. Some critics compared the band's sound to White Zombie. History Monster Voodoo Machine was formed in Canada in 1991 by Toronto musician and vocalist Adam Sewell, i ...

were added for the live shows. The band utilized a variety of vocalists, most notably rapper

Michie Mee Michelle McCullock (born November 1, 1970), better known by her stage name Michie Mee, is a Canadian rapper and actress. Canada's first notable female MC, she is considered a national hip-hop pioneer. Early life and career McCullock was born in ...

. Rapper Koze Kozma was also an early band member, but was deported to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

after disappearing for six weeks and then turning up weeks later as a

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna may refer to: * International Society for Krishna Consciousness The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known Colloquialism, colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnav ...

. All of the band's recordings were produced by Walter Sobczak and Stephen Kendall, and engineered by Walter Sobczak. The band's biggest Canadian hit was "One Life" in 1995, achieving high rotation on MuchMusic, and being voted Favourite Song in ''

Chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

'' magazine's year-end reader's poll. "One Life" was nominated for Best Alternative Video at the 1995 MuchMusic Video Awards. The 1995 album ''Why Ask Why'', containing the singles "One Life" and "Why Ask Why", was also released by Virgin in several European markets. Due to the band members' other commitments and Kozma's disappearance the album was not supported by a concert tour, with an appearance on the

MuchMusic Video Awards The iHeartRadio MMVAs were an annual awards show broadcast on Much to honour the year's best music videos that was last held in 2018. Originally debuting in 1990 as the Canadian Music Video Awards, the awards were renamed in 1995 to the MuchMu ...

in 1995 being the band's only major live performance to support the album. Raggadeath also achieved moderate international success with its self-titled 1997 album, which featured "Dance with the Devil" and a cover of

Eddy Grant Edmond Montague Grant (born 5 March 1948) is a Guyanese-British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for his genre-blending sound; his music has blended elements of pop, British rock, soul, funk, reggae, electronic music, Afr ...

's "Electric Avenue". At this time the band undertook its first significant tour. The self-titled 1997 album was licensed by Attic Records to Edel AG in Germany, Roadrunner Records in the Netherlands, and TWA in Australia. None of the band's work was released in the USA. With their popularity faltering due to popular culture's shift from alternative rock toward

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

in the late 1990s, the band broke up following the 1997 album. Sobczak continued with record engineering/production, later becoming chief engineer at The Studio at Puck's Farm,"The Studio At Pucks Farm"
''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'', April 3, 2008. and Kendall returned to his career as a DJ later DJing at the Swan in England. Major returned to studio work with Toronto's Wellesley Sound studio, while Quinn and Mee continued to collaborate under the band name The Day After.

Discography

* ''One Life'' (Maxi-Single, 1995) * ''The Family Worship EP'' (EP, 1995) * ''Why Ask Why'' (Maxi-Single, 1995) * ''Why Ask Why'' (Album, 1995) * ''Dance With The Devil (Remixes)'' (Maxi-Single, 1997) * ''Electric Avenue'' (Maxi-Single, 1997) * ''Electric Avenue'' (Remixes) (Maxi-Single, 1997) * ''Raggadeath'' (Album, 1997)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raggadeath Canadian heavy metal musical groups Reggae metal musical groups Canadian hip hop groups Musical groups from Toronto Reggae rock groups Virgin Records artists Musical groups established in 1995 Musical groups disestablished in 1997 1995 establishments in Ontario 1997 disestablishments in Ontario Canadian reggae musical groups