Raven were once described (on the back of an Atlantic Records compilation album called POWER CHORDS) as "Two brothers and a lunatic." That description still holds true today. These NWOBHM stalwarts, held together by the bonds of brotherhood and a love of playing loud and fast, are about to celebrate their 30th anniversary (!) as a recording act and will finally unleash their 12th studio album (the first in ten years), WALK THROUGH FIRE, in the U.S. later this month. Sounds like a perfect time to take a trip back through the Raven discography doesn't it?? But first, some background....

Raven came to life in 1975 (!) in the Newcastle home occupied by teenage brothers John and Mark Gallagher. Inspired by the Who, Status Quo and the hard-edged glam rock of the day (i.e. Slade, Sweet, David Bowie, etc.) they decided to form a band. John took up bass and vocals while his younger brother Mark picked up the guitar. For the next several years the pair went through a number of lineup changes (even experimenting with a four-man lineup that included a second guitarist) until 1979, when they hooked up with drummer Rob "Wacko" Hunter and solidified the three man "power trio" format that they still use today. By 1980 they'd made enough noise on the British pub circuit that they caught the attention of Neat Records (a small indie label that was also the home of such then-new upstarts as Venom, Tygers of Pan Tang, and Blitzkrieg, just to name a few), who offered them a deal to do a single.



The "Don't Need Your Money"/"Wiped Out" single, showcasing the band's no-frills, full-speed musical attack and the trademark, high-pitched screaming vox of John Gallagher, was released to much acclaim and led to the recording of Raven's first studio album, ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP, released in 1981.





ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP features 11 tracks of pure adrenaline-fueled "athletic rock" (ten original tunes plus a cover of Sweet's "Hellraiser/Action"), including such future classics as "Hell Patrol," the title track and the aforementioned "Don't Need Your Money." Critical reaction was mixed -- some reviews hailed Raven as The Next Big Thing, while others dismissed the album as a sloppy, over-the-top, speed for speed's sake mess. Though the tempo on this album seems almost quaint today, ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP was pretty fast by 1981 standards, earning the band accolades as "the fastest band on Earth" and the eventual title of "Godfathers of Speed Metal."

Though the songs on ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP are killer, the album's main downfall was the muddy, muffled production. Keep in mind that this was a low budget recording made for a small indie label (the "studio" used to record this album was just an upstairs room at Neat Records' offices, with some recording equipment stuck in it), in that regard the strength of the material overcomes the recording's budgetary limitations. Several of the songs from this album remained in the band's live sets for many years.

ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP sold well amongst the British 'heads and it became an import favorite amongst bangers in the U.S. as well. The buzz was on, as they say.

From here, Raven would go onward and (for a brief period) upward. ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP was the launching pad that started them on their journey and it still sounds pretty damn good today.

This album has been reissued on CD several times over the years, usually with a couple of bonus tracks attached. My CD copy is a "Castle Classics" version released in 1991.

Great review Freddy!!!! I don;t have a copy of this one, but I have heard it over the years and it is a great debut album!!!!

One of the early proto-thrash bands on the scene. Rock Until You Drop is one of my all time favorite albums by any band. Pure, raw, speed and aggression, never forsaking hook. Insane vocals! The album has the crappiest of productions, but that raw power only enhances the whole vibe of the album. This album was pretty much recorded live, which I am sure accounts for why there is so much energy on this album, compared to a lot of NWOBHM at the time. No one sounded like Raven!

My first exposure to Raven was on this compilation album...



I pulled the old "five-fingered discount" on the cassette version from Tower Records. Raven's contribution was the aforementioned single 'Don't Need You Money'. Many years later when I started seriously collecting music, I went back to this well-worn comp (which I eventually upgraded legally to the 2-cd version) and picked out artists that really stood out and started tracking down some of their albums. Raven was at the top of the list.

I was able to get Raven's re-mastered version of Rock Til You Drop with the bonus tracks. While I still didn't know much about the band at the time save for that one song, it turned out to be money well spent, as all the tracks were just as good as the single.

I only own the next 2 Raven albums, and while they're great in their own right, it's Rock Till You Drop that gets the most frequent spins from me. You always remember your first.

Great debut recorded for a budget of about $5, this band ruled. Mark Gallagher's has a killer voice and John Gallagher is long forgotten guitar hero of the NWOBHM.


I have not owned this album in years but this thread is going to inspire me to upgrad my old beat up, 20+ plus old vinyl to upgraded and rebuy albums I no longer possess. I used love this guys and I heard of them before I had heard of Metallica and Anthrax, which can only mean one thing....,I am pretty fricking old.

Spot on review. This is a great debut. I have the cd version with 3 bonus tracks.

Fun band... fun album... nice overview man.

What is really cool is I went to wikipideia to check on their discography, and I see that in reference section someone had added a link to No Life til Metal:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_(band)

Raven was and is an awesome band.I still have my LP with the poster, lyric card and the official fan club flyer which came with the backstage pass. I also picked up the Cd reissue. Wiped out and All for One are also great with All for One being my fave......

I don't think I've ever heard 1 full album worth of Raven matrial in my life, still I know this thread is going to be gooooooood!

Next up....these two releases are kinda stapled together so I'm including'em both in one post.



Raven's sophomore release, 1982's WIPED OUT, more or less picks up where ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP left off...12 songs of blazing speed and aggression, more high pitched squealing vocals, same crappy production. (Actually, the sound quality of WIPED OUT might sound slightly better than the uber-muffled ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP, but truthfully it's a close call. Both albums were recorded quickly and cheaply in the same "upstairs room" studio at Neat's offices in Newcastle so any differences between the two are neglible at best.)
If anything, WIPED OUT finds the band playing even faster and crazier than on the debut. The opening track pretty much sez it all - "Faster Than The Speed of Light!" That song opens with the sound of an explosion and John Gallagher hissing "LISTEN HERE, MISSION CONTROL... EINSTEIN WAS WROOOOOOONG!" into the mic before Mark Gallagher blasts off into one of most manic speed riffs yet. Other hard charging favorites off of this one include "Star War," (one of my fave Raven tracks), "Fire Power" and the now-classic "Live at the Inferno," which eventually became the title of Raven's first live album. In a nutshell, if ya liked ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP, you're gonna like WIPED OUT just as much, if not more. It's pure adrenaline pressed into vinyl!

The album is also notable for having one of the cheapest looking, slapped-together-at-the-last-minute album covers in all of metaldom. The entire band hates this album's cover and John Gallagher once said of it, "Well, that's what you get when you only have five minutes to come up with an album cover."



(Speaking of crappy, slapped-together album covers... this one is no great shakes either. )

Shortly after WIPED OUT's release, Raven also released the CRASH BANG WALLOP 4-track EP, which contained several tracks that were recorded during the WIPED OUT sessions but couldn't fit on the album due to space restrictions -- "Crash, Bang, Wallop," "Rock Hard," and "Run Them Down," plus the album version of "Wiped Out." The back cover claims that "Run Them Down" is "dedicated to Italian motorists." I'm sure there must be an interesting story behind that dedication. "Rock Hard" is the first (and so far, only) time Mark Gallagher has sung lead vocals on a Raven song. The title track to this EP quickly became a popular live anthem and was still in their set list the last time I saw them (in 2000). The EP was released on several different color vinyls (my copy is a sick looking puke green; Ult has other colors pictured on his NLTM web site) as well as the traditional black vinyl. I bought my copy of this EP at a used record store (still sealed) back around 1988 or so and was quite surprised to discover the vinyl was green when I opened it at home!
Most CD reissues of WIPED OUT feature the three "new" songs from the CRASH BANG WALLOP EP tacked on as bonus tracks.

By now Raven were firmly entrenched as one of the leading lights in the NWOBHM scene and had their eyes on conquering America. Their previous output had received spotty (at best) distribution in the U.S. since the albums were only available as imports, but fortunately for American fans, a new label in New Jersey called MegaForce Records would come calling in time for the next Raven release.

To be continued....

Both releases are absolutely brilliant. NWOBHM indeed, but infused with a sense of speed and urgency that few other NWOBHM bands had. Again the raw, recorded live in the studio sound quality adds to the overall charisma of the release. Sure it's nasty, but it was 1982. It wasn't about stellar production. It was about attitude; raw, stinkin' heavy metal attitude and Raven delivered it by the truckloads.

I have two vinyl copies of Crash Bang Wallop; one is purple vinyl, the other is red. I would swear that the copy I had back in the 80's was green vinyl.

I still own my original crappy vinyl version that after owning for over 20 years and my twins got ahold of it, is barely playable but I refuse to part with it.

Despite the horrid production, the less then stellar album cover I love this album, and this thread has inspired me to give this beat up vinyl a spin when I get home.

Never owned the EP, and I may have to move up my Raven collection to be replaced on CD.

I believe the version I own is the Spitfire re-issue of this album with the ep bonus tracks . Just as good as their debut too.

Two really great albums, Wiped Out is slightly better than the debut though.

Great album!!!!

I meant to stick these couple of YouTubes from the appropriate album(s) in my last entry... but I forgot (duh)! So here are a few classic clips from the WIPED OUT/CRASH BANG WALLOP era...

By the way, dunno how many of you saw last week's edition of "That Metal Show" on VH1 Classic, but Don Jamieson was wearing a Raven "Crash! Bang! Wallop!" t-shirt during the entire episode. I wanted to kick his ass and take it from him.

Excellent live clips!!! Never seen these clips before.

I also noticed that Don Jaimeson was wearing a Raven shirt, I thought right now and maybe this will spur someone somewhere to do a Raven reissue campaign.

I have wanted that E.P for like forever totaly !

thanks for those clips... great times as far as music went

I pulled out my oldie vinyl CRASH BANG WALLOP EP (don't have a turntable to play it on anymore but I refuse to get rid of my vinyl) for the first time in awhile and noticed that on the back cover, the title track is sub-titled "Men's Liberation Anthem"