Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Raven
Label: SPV Records
Release: 2015
Runtime: 61:02
Rating: 4/5
Raven are metal legends today. Out of the whole crop of bands the N.W.O.B.H.M. produced in the early eighties, Raven cooked up an especially energetic, wild-eyed version of metal, one that very early on was already rubbing shoulders with the elements that inspired the next generation of bands, the ones who crowned thrash metal. If Atlantic Records’ label politics hadn’t wrecked their plans in the eighties, Raven would surely be a much better-known band today. In 1983, for instance, Raven toured the US with Metallica opening for them, and a year later the story repeated itself, only this time Anthrax were the support act. The influence of Raven’s music on the early forms of speed and thrash metal is simply undeniable.
The band, who softened their image under label pressure at a time when everyone else was chasing ever more heaviness and speed, did snap back to their trademark sound soon enough, survived the nineties with three solid albums, and then, after the release of »One For All« (2000), walked straight into real tragedy as they entered the new millennium: during the recording, a studio wall collapsed on guitarist Mark Gallagher and buried him. Mark badly injured both legs and was forced into long rehab and recovery. In 2004 the band returned to the stage, and Mark played a whole bunch of gigs from a wheelchair. The new album dragged on and »Walk Through Fire« finally came out in 2009. An album worth all that long wait. It put the band back on the world’s biggest festivals, and Raven have been a regular fixture on stages all over the globe ever since. The year before last brought an excellent documentary DVD titled »Rock Until You Drop – A Long Day’s Journey« and finally, this year? A new studio album. At long last.
For all their venerability, it’s a comical, if not downright tragically sad realization that the band had to raise the money for the new album through a Kickstarter campaign. Luckily it was a huge success, and Raven’s bank account swelled by a whole $27,000. As a thank-you to the backers, Raven recorded a covers album called “Party Killers” (featuring covers of bands like Thin Lizzy, Queen, Budgie, Nazareth and Deep Purple, among others), which the backers received for free.
»Walk Through Fire« is considered excellent, outstanding even, but the new »ExtermiNation« tops it. A tough mission, and Raven pulled it off efficiently and with unbelievable success! »ExtermiNation« is an incredibly pissed-off album. Packed to the gills in the production department, wound up to the max. The band has also thrown transitions into plenty of inspired guitar phrases that are »post-thrashed«, which, given the band’s past deeds, is hardly a surprise anymore. What fast-fingered »dirtbags« like Exciter (and Anvil too) were when they burst onto the scene in Canada, Raven were in Europe. A huge inspiration to the bands among the early crop of thrash metal.
»Extermination« is an album that’s bursting at the seams with the urge to prove something and with wild, untamed energy. John Gallagher sings incredibly. With undiminished power and intensity. John hasn’t lost a speck of vocal strength over the years. His »screams« and »shrieks«, aimed at the very highest registers, remain flawless and still tear up your ear canals!
All this extraordinary rage and possessed attitude that Raven develop (on the new album too) is held together throughout by the pioneering spirit of the early eighties and the influence of seventies rock ‘n’ roll. But the album carries a modern production while building up outstanding aggression, so »ExtermiNation« is by no means planting flowers, and there’s no fear you’ll be listening to a sonically »outdated« product by old farts who came »to hurry things along a bit in the studio«. Raven dish out kicks and slaps all over the album and don’t stop for a second. The album boasts excellent (extremely lively) production, where all the basic building blocks are optimally contrasted. The bass lines masterfully use the available space between the guitar phrases and rattle and rip their way across the album, the guitar phrases are delivered with tremendous potency, drive and freshness. They’re packed with plenty of decorative ornaments, and the outstanding solos are played with a lot of passion and fire. The drums unleash a tremendous showcase of numerous bombastic fills full of colorful ideas, keeping the album’s flow incredibly dynamic. As mentioned, John Gallagher’s charismatic vocals, after years of defiance on the scene, keep that remarkably youthful swagger and bloodthirsty, untamed wildness of a huge performing power that doesn’t know a speck of rust!
There are fifteen songs (bonus track included). Honestly, too many, since you quickly start mixing them up. Four or five fewer would have done it! Albums like this don’t need more than 40 minutes of playing time, but »ExtermiNation« serves up more than an hour of music, which makes it a tough bone to gnaw on (as far as memorizing goes). Raven obviously felt they had to cram as much new music onto it as possible, since there are clearly plenty of new ideas, or dusted-off (»dormant«, old) ones, left over!
So if you want a seriously painful kick in the head, this album is the right address for you. The band doesn’t show a speck of fatigue or burnout. Watch out. They’ve been defying the odds since 1974! »ExtermiNation« is an album that keeps up an incredible drive and with which the band credibly ties itself to the run of albums from 1981 to 1983! It’s genuinely interesting how its style, much like its predecessor »Walk Through Fire«, feels closely linked to the first half of the eighties, so it should have come out as the cult classic »All For One«(1983). Well, fate decreed that we’d wait a good 30 years for an album like this. So the new Raven deliver a tremendously tempting classic heavy metal album, dressed in a modern, ultra-ruffled and packed-to-the-gills sound that leaves no survivors!
Line-up
John Gallagher – vocals, bass guitar
Mark Gallagher – guitar, backing vocals
Joe Hasselvander – drums, backing vocals
Production
Raven
Track list
01. Destroy All Monsters
02. Tomorrow
03. It’s Not What You Got
04. Fight
05. Battle March/Tank Treads (The Blood Runs Red)
06. Feeding The Monster
07. Fire Burns Within
08. Scream
09. One More Day
10. Thunder Down Under
11. No Surrender
12. Golden Dawn
13. Silver Bullet
14. River Of No Return
15. Malice In Geordieland (bonus track)
