Early days (1979–1983) Sweet Savage began with a line-up of Trev Fleming and Vivian Campbell on guitars, David Bates on drums and Ray Haller on bass and vocals. The band gained a support slot for
Thin Lizzy on their Renegade tour and supported acts such as
Ozzy Osbourne,
Wishbone Ash and
Motörhead. In 1981 the band signed to Park Records and released their first single "Take No Prisoners" which was limited to 1000 copies – this single included the song "Killing Time". A self-released demo known as
Demo 81 was released at this time, which contained a
BBC session of four songs. In early 1983, guitarist Campbell accepted an offer to join
Dio and subsequently left the band. Bates decided to leave the band and was replaced by Jules Watson. A trip to Germany ensued in early August where they played the Headbangers Festival and the
Wacken Festival to great acclaim. Later that month they supported
Metallica &
Tenacious D in Dublin, Marlay Park, 20 August 2008. On 1 August 2009, again in Marlay Park, Ray Haller joined Metallica on stage for "Killing Time". The current line-up of Haller, Wilson, Fleming and Watson has been cited as being "the strongest version of the band" by the industry professionals and as frontman Ray Haller explains "All this interest lately, has come out of the blue and it's phenomenal how well the band is being received by everyone. We played Germany for the first time recently and were surprised to hear the kids singing our tunes back to us, we really had no idea how popular the band are." In 2009 Sweet Savage were confirmed as the support along with
Doro for Saxon’s Battalions Of Steel World Tour II. 2009 also saw the release of their newest studio effort entitled
Warbird, on
SPV Records. The album features
Vivian Campbell making a guest appearance on a cover of Thin Lizzy's "
Whiskey in the Jar". At the band's support show with Motörhead, lead singer Ray Haller confirmed that the new record
Warbird would have been released in early 2010 and not 2009 as planned. On 7 July 2010 Sweet Savage were announced as replacement support for the first date of
Iron Maiden's Final Frontier European Tour at the O2 in Dublin on 30 July 2010.
Heaven & Hell were originally announced as support, but were forced to cancel all of their summer dates due to
Ronnie James Dio's death. At the show, Sweet Savage introduced a packed Dublin crowd to new drummer Marty McCloskey who would be taking over from Jules Watson. Watson went on to drum for Conjuring Fate. The band revealed that the record
Warbird, which had been postponed due to the current economic climatic in the music business, would be seeing a full release in late 2010. As of late 2019, it remains unreleased. On 2 October 2010, guitarist and songwriter Trev Fleming died after treatment for a recent illness, he had been missing from the band's line-up since February 2010 and was not present for support slots with
Deep Purple and
Iron Maiden or for Sweet Savage's performance at Sonisphere Festival. Ray Haller joined Metallica onstage on 7 December 2011 at The Fillmore in San Francisco, CA for Metallica's 30th Anniversary show. Ray sang "Killing Time" with Metallica and also backing vocals on their track "
Seek & Destroy". This was the second of four shows that Metallica played. On 10 July 2025, Sweet Savage announced that they had signed with German record label earMusic for the release of their album Bang which would be available on 12 September 2025. The announcement was coupled with the release of their new single, the albums title track, Bang. On 31 July 2025, the band released the second single from their forthcoming album, The Chosen One. The new album features the bands current lineup with the addition of Deep Purple's Simon McBride, himself a former member of Sweet Savage, playing guitar on the record. ==Band members==