Kev Rowland Back in 1980 I was just 17 years old, and deeply into the NWOBHM. There was no doubt in my mind that one of the best bands around were Raven, and I loved their single “Don’t Need Your Money”. When they released their album, I was unable to get it anywhere locally and in frustration actually found the number for Neat Records and rang them to complain! I was appeased when they told me I could order it directly from them as there was no HMV’s local to me, so I sent off my cheque and when ‘Rock Until You Drop’ arrived it came with badges and stickers, which promptly went on my singles boxes. I loved everything about the band, from the over-the-top bass and high-pitched vocals of John Gallagher, the attack of his brother guitarist Mark, and the pace of the songs, all driven along by Rob “Wacko” Hunter. These days many metalheads are not even aware of the importance of this band and their “athletic rock” which was the direct precursor of thrash, and not only do many bands cite them as a major influence but they were the first band to take Metallica on tour.

It is safe to say they have never achieved the success they so richly deserved, but even though they have been through a few drummers over the years, the Gallagher brothers are still fighting strong, and as they work towards their 50th Anniversary (formed in 1974) they are not slowing down or changing their approach any time soon. In 2017 drummer Joe Hasselvander, who had been in the band for 20 years, suffered a heart attack just before a series of US/European dates. The band completed the dates with a series of drummers, and when it was obvious Joe would be unable to return any time soon, they brought in one of these, Mike Heller (Fear Factory, Malignancy) as his permanent replacement. This 2020 album is their first for 5 years, and while many of their disciples have changed beyond recognition from their early days, this is still Raven doing what Raven do best, rocking hard and fast. True, there are times when there is more polish than there used to be, but Mark’s vocals are still passionate as ever, his basslines are still often insane while Mark is still hitting the riffs like he always has, daring the band to slow down, and Mike has happily settled into his new role.

This is classic Raven for the 21st century, and I for one cannot stop smiling and turning it up that little bit more. 40 years on from their classic debut , and the boys are still determined to "Rock Until You Drop" – “Don't think you can make it, Don't think you want to try, Sit back in your easy chair, And the world will pass you by, Life is what you make it, That's what people say, You've got to get it together, Make it your own way.” They are still staying true to their own words.

siLLy puPPy Newcastle upon Tyne, England was clearly the hotbed of inspiration in the 1980s by not only producing the earliest extreme metal offerings from Venom but also the phenomenal success of Dire Straits and also we can add to that resume the inspirational sounds of the early New Wave of British Heavy Metal band RAVEN! Oh yeah! This band has been cited as one of the earliest that influenced the thrash metal world that would emerge. Hard to believe that RAVEN started as far back as 1974 by the Gallagher brothers, vocalist / bassist John and guitarist Mark. Almost as if RAVEN was the inspiration for the Spinal Tap film where drummers spontaneously combusted and disappeared, so too did RAVEN have a hard time keeping a percussionist but Rob Hunter had the honor of appearing on the band’s first album.

It’s also hard to believe how incredibly complex the metal universe has become and when you go back to these humble beginnings when metal was proudly and defiantly emerging from its parent hard rock sounds of the 1970s, it’s refreshing to eschew the modern murkiness of tech death metal, avant-garde excesses and progressive metal compositions that rival any Western classical masters and just go back to when heavy metal was about adolescent fantasies and party rock! RAVEN’s 1981 debut ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP was the perfect album to usher in the early world of the NWOBHM without all the philosophical existential quandaries and intellectual headiness that would follow. This album just simply celebrated banging your fucking head and rockin’ yer ass off!

Back to the band. RAVEN existed from 1974-79 as a hard rock band so got more than its share of influences from all those bands that had their heyday in that era but with patience waited seven years until its debut album was released. The band did get a lot of attention with the 1980 release of its first single “Don’t Need Your Money” and opened for many of the big players of the day such as Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead, Whitesnake and even an early Iron Maiden. When the band finally released ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP, a heavy metal starved public was eager to embrace any band that had the gusto to take things to the extreme and therefore this debut was met with enthusiasm. RAVEN was also known for its fiery live performances and has even been referred to as athletic metal due to the bombastic nature of the band’s playing.

ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP could never be mistaken for having debuted at any other timeline than the early 1980s with simple compositions that basically take the hard rock paradigm of blues oriented riffing and simply augmented with faster tempos, more extreme guitar solos, more ambitious drumming and a somewhat goofier vocal style where John Gallagher juxtaposes macho growling vocals with sudden King Diamond-like falsettos. The tunes are all catchy but not sophisticated. The album comes off as somewhat of an AC/DC styled blues hard rock only sped up a few notches with more biting irreverence that would fuel the world of speed metal along with the darker sounds of Venom that would inspire new bands to develop the world of thrash metal.

Yeah by the standards of the 21st century RAVEN can sound a bit goofy as the band was more of an inspiration much like neighboring Venom than actually crafting anything that could be the pinnacle of achievement but sometimes just plain old good fun is enough to win the day. ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP was for all intents and purposes a really rockin’ good party metal album somewhat in the vein of the attitude of KISS but only more interesting in a musical sense. The band also paid tribute to its antecedents such as the excellent Sweet cover of “Hellraiser / Action.” In short, RAVEN perfectly caught the real zeitgeist of the early 1980s with ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP. Metal about this time was all about just getting wild and crazy without overthinking things. Sometimes less is more and in the case of RAVEN’s debut, the bold and brash performances outweigh any criticism over production values, artistic statements or avant-garde eccentricities. Basically this is just a really enjoyable good old fashioned metal classic.

Kev Rowland 1979 was Year Zero for a new musical movement in the UK, and a term was coined by Deaf Barton which perfectly summed it up, NWOBHM. I was 16 at the time, listening to Tommy Vance on a Friday night, reading Sounds music magazine, and trying to buy as many singles and albums I could of the phenomenon. One of the issues I had was I lived in a small town in the West of England, and it was incredibly hard to get hold of material. So much so that I wrote to Neat Records asking how I could get hold of their material as no-one stocked it near me! I was soon the envy of my mates as they sent me stickers and badges to try and make up for it, all of them emblazoned with the logo of one of my favourite bands, Raven. There are a few singles from that time which have gone down in history, Iron Maiden’s “Soundhouse Tapes” and Def Leppard’s “Getcha Rocks Off” are just a couple. But in the North East Neat Records were becoming THE label, with one incredible release after another. Within their first ten singles was the debut by Tygers of Pan Tang, Fist, Venom, Blitzkrieg and “Don’t Need Your Money” by Raven (who incidentally were also the first band on the label to release a second single, as well as the first album).

Raven had decided to speed everything up, something they called athletic rock, and was a huge impact on the scene which followed – that both Metallica and Anthrax were given their first touring opportunities with Raven was no surprise to anyone. Over the years the Gallagher brothers (John, bass/vocals and Mark, guitar) have kept the flag flying for their style of metal, and for much of that time drummer Joe Hasselvander has been at the back, but shortly before their 2017 US tour he suffered a heart attack, putting an end to his active music career. After a few temporary replacements, it was quickly decided that Mike Heller (Fear Factory, Malignancy) would be Raven’s new drummer. They settled in to doing what they do best, blasting uncompromising metal into the masses, and when they left the stage at Skråen in November they were presented with a digital copy of the gig they had just performed. What made this unusual is that none of the band were aware it was being recorded, so it was a case of turning up, plugging in, and blasting it out without any thought to what it might mean from a recording aspect.

The band has been in existence now for some 44 years, and although I can’t speak for the very early years, what is playing now is a beefed-up version of the same band I fell in love with back in 1980. These guys are showing no sign at all of slowing down, or going down a different path, this is a band still playing “Faster Than The Speed of Light” and meaning every single word. It is harder and faster than it was when they were 30 years younger, and this set is essential to anyone who enjoys this style of music. It is brutal NWOBHM. Turn it up, play it loud, and party as if it 1979, not some forty years later. I may be seeing this with rose tinted glasses given how much I loved this band in my youth, but when metal is a brutal, raw, and bloody excellent as this, then it demands attention.

Unitron Forming in 1975, Raven blasted onto the NWoBHM scene in 1981 with the release of their debut studio album Rock Until You Drop. These guys are pure old school heavy metal, owing much of their sound to Judas Priest while already having their own identity to make them stand out as one of the leading figures of the quickly growing 80's British metal scene.

Most of the album displays a perfect performance of classic heavy metal at it's finest, with influences of late 70's Priest and sometimes a nod to the catchy hard boogie rock of Bon Scott-era AC/DC, with opener "Hard Ride" in particular. It sounds right out of one of those classic AC/DC albums complete with gang shouts and some pretty Angus Young-esque guitar riffs. Speaking of riffs, Mark Gallagher is a master, just take a listen to the godly riff during the bridge of "Over the Top" or the epic gallop at the end of "For the Future". These two tracks are contrasted with a nice little classical guitar interlude "39/40" placed in the middle of the album.

John Gallagher and Rob "Wacko" Hunter provide a killer rhythm section that sounds very loose and free-flowing, which fits perfectly for an album that just wants you to rock till you drop. The bass has a nice thump throughout the album, while you can hear how "Wacko" probably got his nickname with an absolutely pummeling drum performance. John Gallagher's vocals are a bit like a punky Rob Halford, this punk edge can be heard especially in "Hellraiser/Action". Occasionally the band gets into some proto-thrash areas, mainly in the riff during the bridge of "Lambs to the Slaughter".

Every song on the album is killer, but if I had to pick highlights I'd choose "Hard Ride", "Hell Patrol", "Over the Top", the infectiously catchy title track, "Lambs to the Slaughter", and the epic album finisher that is "Tyrant of the Airways". The title track is a slamming rocker that immediately starts the headbanging, and "Tyrant of the Airways" is like a driving drill with a great mellow bridge as contrast.

Already on their debut Raven were at the top of their game, and Rock Until You Drop is easily one of the best records of the NWoBHM. If you're looking for some raw and pure heavy metal, check this killer album out. Hope you found this review helpful, feel free to comment!

Kingcrimsonprog Are you in the mood for some NWOBHM? Why not try Raven’s 1983 record All For One. This was the noisy Newcastle band’s third studio album and was produced by none other than Accept’s singer Udo Dirkschneider.

The sound is earthy, workingman’s Heavy Metal with rumbly bass, steady drumming and midrange vocals that would sound at home on a Thrash album. It has a very pure and honest sound, with hints of Motorhead and Saxon; it toes the line between amped-up rock n roll shuffle and proto-Thrash, often within the same song. Think of Angel Witch playing faster or Diamond Head if they didn’t listen to Progressive Rock.

Its not as heavy as fellow Geordie NWOBHM band Venom, but its definitely raw and energetic, with more emphasis on attitude and energy than excessive virtuosity or structural complexity. They’ll still bust out a solo when necessary, but there’s a certain punky attitude.

When you listen to John Gallagher’s vocals here, it would be easy to imagine this is the sort of thing that influenced the likes of Paul Baloff or Randy Rampage. There’s even a certain closeness to Anvil if you squint your ears.

Owing to Udo’s fine production job, this record is cleaner and more professional sounding than the albums and EPs which preceded it, but musically the band were still in their early excited phase, so it isn’t commercial like their major label releases. Its got charm, raw power and enthusiastic performances, but you can clearly make out every note, so it’s a real best of both worlds situation. People often call this one of the band’s best albums and its easy to see why.

If you’re interested in exploring the band, who took Metallica and Anthrax out on early tours, and the album which was produced by Accept’s singer, then I’d recommend checking out the songs “Hung, Drawn & Quartered,” “Seek & Destroy” and album closer “Athletic Rock” (titled after the band’s proposed name for the style of music they play) as the tester songs you use to see if its something you want to buy.

If you get it nowadays, you’ll usually get bonus tracks, two of which feature guest singing from Udo, including a cover of Steppenwolfe’s famous “Born To Be Wild.” It adds some extra value to the record, and gives you an extra incentive to check it out. For me, the bonus track “The Power And The Glory” is one of the best tracks on the disc.

Overall; All For One is a strong album and if you are in the mood for some early Metal then its definitely something you should consider trying out. There’s some great tunes, a good attitude and a sense of consistency that makes the whole thing flow.