British heavy metal icons Raven return with their fifteenth studio album ‘All Hell’s Breaking Loose’. One of the original speed/thrash metal bands formed in 1974, Raven cut their teeth playing pubs and clubs in the 70’s and even gave Metallica and Anthrax their first touring opportunities. Formed by brothers Mark and John Gallagher, they are joined once again by drummer Mike Heller in creating this ten track offering recorded at Heaven and Heller Studios in Los Angeles.
Raven waste no time letting you know what this album is about from the get go. Opening track ‘Medieval’ teases with a dark atmospheric build up before Gallagher’s heavy guitar twinned with Heller’s double kick engulf the listener into the full metal experience. Tinges of Judas Priest, Anthrax and Iron Maiden can be heard throughout the album and are evident from the start. Contrarily, you could say you hear Raven in each of the aforementioned bands as they’ve been releasing music coming up close to fifty years and shouldn’t be overlooked in the development of the British metal scene in its peak years.
Follow on track ‘Surf The Tsunami’ shows off Heller’s technical chops where as ‘Turn Of The Screw’ showcases how tightly the band play together throughout the album. Although their live shows are known as particularly special, this recording as part of their newly signed deal with Silver Lining Music should please metal fans listening at home too. The blistering guitar solo on ‘Surf The Tsunami’ sits well in the mix as does the fuzz drenched bass’ interlude. The albums production is fantastic overall.
‘The Far Side’ is a strong contender for top song on the album with it’s chugging chorus and falsetto vocals courtesy of bassist and singer John Gallagher where as the first single on the record ‘Go For The Gold’ represents in the words of Gallagher “full on Raven lunacy”.
“‘Go For The Gold’” is our first single as it really represents the new album mission statement. 100% full on Raven lunacy”! If you’ve got an initial great riff, you just build from it,” explains John, “you try not to milk it to death. You want a good structure. You want a good verse with hooks, a good pre-chorus with hooks, a great chorus, and then you want little left turns here and there to spice it up. Otherwise it can sound boring. And if you have too many left turns then it turns into jazz fusion, so it’s a funny line you gotta dance on to have structure but also the chaos part as well.”
The chaos Gallagher fondly mentioned sees it’s way into aptly named ‘Desperate Measures’ with it’s jazz fusion/metal introduction before pushing and pulling the audience into an explosion of different riffs, vocal harmonies and another impressive guitar solo. You can never be short of guitar solos on an album of this kind. What is powerful on this album however is how Raven have managed to create ten tracks which can stand on their own; a feat that is not often accomplished these days.
“We’re very hard on ourselves,” adds John, “it had to be ‘all killer, no filler’. Absolutely every single part of every song had to make sense, had to mean something, and had to be there for a purpose”.
‘Edge Of A Nightmare’ continues to add to the illusion that this band is more than a well rehearsed three piece, instead giving the depth of a full five piece band. Gallagher’s vocals shine through and compliment his siblings riffs and lead sections of which there are multiple, where as ‘Invasion’ sounds as home on this record as it would in a sweaty 80’s rock bar.
Raven have continued their reign of impressive heavy metal adding onto their expansive catalogue. Listen in metal fans, this one is worth it.
Track Listing: 1. Medieval 2. Surf The Tsunami 3. Turn Of The Screw 4. All Hell’s Breaking Loose 5. The Far Side 6. Desperate Measures 7. Victory’s Call 8. Edge Of A Nightmare 9. Invasion 10. Go For The Gold Record label: Silver Lining Music Release date: 30th June 2023 Buy “All Hell’s Breaking Loose” now
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