Wow!!! I need to add this CD to my collection.

Yes ,Architect Of Fear is phenomenal ! Great tracks from beginning to end ! Nothing more needs to be said. Get it.You won't be disappointed.

Never released Stateside as far as I know.

Nope, ARCHITECT has never had a U.S. release. For a long time it was damn near impossible to find even as an import!

Raven quickly followed up ARCHITECT OF FEAR with 1992's seven-song HEADS UP! EP, another import-only release. The liner notes from John G. claim that the four new songs here were recorded "in a manic burst of energy" at the end of the ARCHITECT OF FEAR tour. He has also described this EP (in the liner notes of the RAW TRACKS album) as "a gift to our hardcore German following that has supported us for so long."

The four studio tracks - "Hell on Earth," "World Comes Tumblin' Down," "Stay Human," and "Still Hungry" -- are easily on par with anything off of the previous album and show that the early 1990's were a fertile songwriting period for Raven. The other three songs are live renditions of "All For One," "Into the Jaws Of Death," and "Can't Run and Hide," all taped in Germany in 1991. A nice little package and a cool collector's item to boot, as this album (yet again) has never been released in the U.S.

This was another album that I was forced to order from the friendly import-CD dealer in Metal Edge magazine due to its complete and total non-existence on U.S. record store shelves. I believe I paid $29.99 for this one too, just like the last album. The price stung a little of course, but by this point I was getting used to paying through the nose for not only Raven CDs, but new albums by many of my favorite metal bands, because America was in the grip of the dreaded Grunge Revolution at the time (pa-tooey!) and none of them were getting released in the U.S. It was not only a lonely time to be an American Raven fan, but an expensive time too!!

A killer EP! Every song is great! I have this one on vinyl and CD.

A GREAT follow-up to Architect. Each song is killer. This got to rank up there as one of the best EPs ever and I'm not overexaggerating.


As for all these being released outside the U.S. , I was able to get all of mine relatively cheap through ebay.I try not to go too high on my bidding. Not enough funds,unfortunately.

A slight (but interesting) detour before we get into the next Raven album...



In 1993, John Gallagher briefly hooked up with former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Annno for a moonlighting gig with Paul's "Killers" project, and appeared on this "live" album SOUTH AMERICAN ASSAULT, released in 1994. To my knowledge this is the only material John has released as a member of another band.

The CD claims to have been recorded during a tour of "Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela in the Summer of 1993," but according to Wikipedia John G. sez the backing for the tour fell through so the entire album was actually recorded "live in New York" with a mobile recording unit, and the audience sounds were stripped in using studio magic.

I've never heard this album myself, but Ult has a few nice things to say about it on his NLTM page.

Will have to dig this one out. It's been a while since I've heard it.

Track 1 is Speed of the Reflex. No artwork at this time.

I think I did something wrong when I opened the files. Can you send me that track by itself?

It's coming in your email.

Neeeeext!



1994's GLOW followed another turbulent couple of years for Raven. The band had split from SPV/Steamhammer Records, citing the label's "delays" in getting the next album off the ground, and they also parted ways with Drakkar Management. Adding insult to injury amidst all of the business and legal wrangling, John Gallagher's house burned down in 1993, taking a lot of his instruments and musical equipment (and demos of new song ideas) with it. Despite all this, the band soldiered on, hitting the studio to record some new songs that eventually landed them a deal with the Japanese record label Zero Corporation. GLOW was released (in Japan only) in October of 1994.

GLOW turned out to be the darkest, most morose album in Raven's catalog, which is not surprising considering the hassles the band went through prior to its recording. While it does contain a couple of up tempo songs like "Spite" and "Gimme A Reason," the bulk of the album is slower, more menacing material like the excellent "Victim," "Watch You Drown," and "True Believer." The production is not as clean and clear as the last couple of releases, which heightens the angry vibe of most of the songs. As antidotes to the somewhat depressing overall feel of the album, Raven threw in a salute to the good old rock-n-roll of their past with a kickass cover of Thin Lizzy's "The Rocker" and showed their lighter side the ballads "Far and Wide" and "So Close."

GLOW may not be my favorite Raven disc (I rank it somewhere in the middle of the pack) but listening to it brings back pleasant memories for me anyway. I bought my copy of the CD from John Gallagher himself when I finally saw Raven live (with Anvil!) for the first time in January of 1995. Needless to say, it was a major rush to finally see one of my all time favorite bands live after being a fan for about a decade. John G. was a pleasure to hang out and chat with for a few moments at their merch stand. At the time of the show, I didn't even know Raven had a new album in the can, but when my brother (who was in front of me on line) said to John, "You gotta talk to my brother here, he's freakin' out, he's your biggest fan, he's got all your albums," John whipped out a copy of GLOW and said "I bet he doesn't have this one yet!" The show freakin ROCKED by the way, and remains one of my favorite concert memories.

AWESOME story!!!!!!! GREAT way to pick up the new cd!!!!

A more melodic Raven, but still Raven and still 1000x better than the Atlantic years IMO. The cover of Thin Lizzy's The Rocker was reason enough for me to jump on this album.

Great story!!!!

Raven followed up GLOW in 1995 with their second live album DESTROY ALL MONSTERS: LIVE IN JAPAN, which commemorated their first-ever Japanese tour. It was taped at "Club Citta" in Tokyo (also the site where Savatage's JAPAN LIVE '94 was recorded) and though it may not be on par with Raven's previous live classic, LIVE AT THE INFERNO, it is still a damn good disc documenting a particularly triumphant moment in the band's career. Though Raven had always had a fervent fan base in Japan, they were never able to make it over to the Land of the Rising Sun to play any shows till they toured for the GLOW album.

I knew to keep an eye out for this CD because shortly after I saw Raven in January '95 I went to the annual KISS Expo/Convention here in New Jersey and while I was waiting on line outside the convention hall, a fellow attendee noticed (and complimented me on) the Raven patch on my denim jacket. It turned out that he was in a local metal band called "Iron Rainbow" and he handed me a flyer for a show they were playing with Raven out on Long Island several weeks later. He told me that Raven were playing a couple of warm up gigs in the area before they went off to Japan to do a live album. Unfortunately I was not able to make it to that show (Long Island is a little out of my area) but I made a mental note to watch for the live CD's release. Only a few months after that (late Summer) I walked into my favorite import CD shop one day and saw this new album on the rack. I remember thinking "Wow, that was quick!....the Japanese are so efficient."

The recording is rough-and-ready (in a good way) and occasionally the band is barely in tune or on time with one another, but you can still tell they're having a HELL of a lot of fun as they burn through a selection of their "greatest hits" in front of this rabid Japanese crowd, who'd waited over a decade to see the band. The highlight for me is the set-closing extended rendition of 'Break the Chain,' which segueways into a medley of cover tunes (including "Symptom of the Universe" and "Summertime Blues," among others) in the midsection before they slam back into the finale of the song. The set list is more or less identical to the set Raven played (including the cover medley) when I first saw them in early '95, so I consider this CD a nice souvenir of that concert as well.

On a personal note, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS holds the unique distinction of being the most expensive CD I have ever purchased. I paid $42.98 (!!) for this thing as a new release back in '95. It hurt to lay out that much cash for a single CD, but I had to have it, as I had a complete Raven discography that I was honor bound to keep current!!

When I saw Raven a second time in 2000, I had the cover of my DESTROY ALL MONSTERS disc autographed by all three members of Raven, which of course means that I now want this CD buried with me when I die.

Here's a pic of my autographed DESTROY ALL MONSTERS cover:



I didn't expect to get all three of the band members' signatures on this disc. I was lucky enough to catch up with John Gallagher (he remembered me from some e-mail correspondence we'd had the previous year) and I also met Joe Hasselvander prior to the band going on stage. They both signed the cover, but I only saw Mark Gallagher briefly and he was busy talking to a girl at a table in the back of the room at the time, so I didn't want to bother him. However, when John saw that I already had him and Joe on the booklet, he said "Let me go interrupt my brother so you can get all three of us on here," and he went and got Mark's sig on it for me. Very cool of him, I must say.

Cool story about the autographs. It's always cool when band's actually care about their fans. John contacted me once about my Raven page on NLTM. I sent him one of my CD covers, which he autographed and sent back to me. Very cool.

As for this live album, I agree with your review. Only thing I would add is that John's voice is practically shot here. I had noted that in my review on NLTM and I got an email from John about it. He confirmed that he was indeed very ill before that show and almost lost his voice all together. A vocalists worst nightmare but it happens. However, by the grace of God he got through the show.

The funny thing about that for me is, I went through a similar experience when recording the Once Dead - Return with a Vengeance DVD. I flew out to California to practice with the band a few days before the show. I felt great. Practices went great! I got up the morning of the show and felt terrible. Yup, I was getting sick. I drank lemon water until my eyes turned yellow. I had to practice with the band that AM, as bassist Roger Dale Martin hadn't been able to practice with the band yet. Then it was off to do some interviews and talk some more. Ultimatum were opening the show, so I had to pull double duty that night. By the time I hit the stage with Once Dead my voice was nearly gone. It was definitely by the grace of God that I got through that show and sounded as good as I did. We finished the last encore and my voice was 100% gone! It was the first time ever I had lost my voice after a show. So, I feel John's pain on this Japanese show.

Not sure why I felt the need to share all that, but there you have it.