May as well throw this compilation into the mix before we move on to the next studio album....



While Raven went off to major-label land hoping to become big time rock stars, their former label back in England patched together this quickie 2-LP compilation album, THE DEVIL'S CARRION, also released in 1985. There's really nothing essential or impressive about this collection. If you already own the first three albums, you own just about every track on this compilation (with the exception of the hard-to-find "Ballad of Marshall Stack," which was the main selling point for me when I bought this). The cover art is generic (it doesn't even have the proper Raven logo on it!), and there are no band photos or liner notes. The gatefold opens up to reveal a large close up photo of the scarecrow from the front cover, with a raven perched on it. Wooooo, scary. I doubt the band had any input whatsoever on this collection and probably didn't even know it existed till it turned up on store racks. Can you say "cheap record label cash-grab," boys and girls? I sure can.

In other words... THE DEVIL'S CARRION is pretty much unnecessary except to the diehard, "gotta have everything" Raven fans, i.e. me and Ult.

Devil's Carrion was a quick, cheap cash grab. A compilation released to cash in on Raven's growing popularity. Terrible, cheap packaging, but hey, it's Raven, so I had to have it.

Fell a little bit behind on this one.

Wiped Out - another fantastic album ! I have the version with Crash Bang Wallop added on . Faves are To The Limit/To The Top,Fire Power and Star War

All For One - 3 in a row for them! My favorite of the original 3. The title track and Run Silent Run Deep stand out but there is really no weak ones on it.

Live At The Inferno - no interest in it.

Stay Hard - Not a bad album but not up to par of the ones before. I really like the title track and On And On (which received some radio play in my area)

The Devil's Carrion - never even heard of it before reading about on this website

This thread made me buy All For One, and I freaking love it! It's raw and heavy, yet catchy too. It doesn't get much better than this.

Shall we move on, then?



THE PACK IS BACK... (*Shudder*) Where do I begin??

"Atlantic Records never looked at us for what we were. They looked at us for what we could be. They wanted us to be KISS meets Bon Jovi. Not a good thing." -- John Gallagher on the band's experience with THE PACK IS BACK

It was 1986, one of the weirdest years in metal history. The metal and hard rock scene was exploding on all sides but the audience was becoming fragmented like never before. Lines were being drawn in the sand between "real metal" and "false" or "poser" metal. Major label rosters were suddenly full of generic, big haired soundalikes from L.A. while thrash and speed bands, led by Raven's former tourmates Metallica, started making waves of their own. Into the midst of this confusing soup came Raven, who were still trying to decide which direction they should take. STAY HARD had been toned down by label suits trying to make them fit into "commercial" radio playlists, with little success. For the follow up Atlantic decided it was "shot for the top" time and put the band in the studio with KISS/Hendrix producer Eddie Kramer, who burdened Raven with a high-tech, overly polished sound that was totally wrong for them and pretty much neutered whatever bite the band had left. (Kramer would do the same to Japan's Loudness a year later on their HURRICANE EYES album.) The combination of a record label hungry to make the next pop-metal hit and a young band's naive, "let's be good soldiers and do what they tell us" attitude resulted in THE PACK IS BACK, a horrible miscalculation released in the Spring of 1986.

I was still a fairly new Raven fan at the time this disc was released but even I thought something sounded horribly wrong when I first heard a few tracks from this album. Where was the aggression? Where were the rough and ready tough guy anthems? Why was the band dressed like The Ghey Astronaut Choir on the album cover??

The songs were a mixed bag to say the least. Somebody at Atlantic must've gotten word that Maiden and Priest had started experimenting with guitar synths on their new records and said "Hey, we've got a British band on our label, let's get those new guys to try it too!" Kramer over-produced these songs to the point of sterility. The title track was a decent enough anthem, but overly simplistic and totally beneath this band. I won't even discuss the cover of the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'," except to say that whoever came up with that idea should've been boiled in oil. Worst of all, there was a prominent HORN SECTION (let me repeat that -- a FRIGGIN HORN SECTION!!!) in several songs, like the godawful "Hyperactive" and "Don't Let It Die." (Perhaps this album is where my "Saxophones do not belong in metal!" mantra began. Haha.) The few bright lights on the album come late in the running time. "Rock Dogs," though slick as hell and filled with effects, has one of the meanest riffs on the album and "Nightmare Ride" is a cool speed burner that could've been a classic if it weren't so damned glossy. (the demo of this song, released a dozen years later on the RAW TRACKS compilation album, totally smokes this version.) I'll also admit to enjoying "Youngblood" (the lyrics to this one remind me of Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight" in a weird way) and "Screamin' Down the House," a Twisted Sister style party anthem. But the majority of THE PACK IS BACK is either middling (at best) or just plain bad.

In terms of record sales, THE PACK IS BACK was a catastrophic failure. The cries of "sell out!" that began on the STAY HARD album became even louder after this one was released. Raven's old fans wanted nothing to do with their "new" sound, and the legions of pop metal fans that they were shooting for never bothered to check the band out. It probably didn't help that Atlantic did little in the way of promotion for the record. No videos were shot, and after a short run of dates opening for Judas Priest on their TURBO tour, the band watched THE PACK IS BACK crash-land into record store cut-out bins in record time. For all intents and purposes, THE PACK IS BACK was D.O.A.







Raven eventually were able to live down this album but it took them a number of years. Unfortunately, by the time the smoke cleared the band was dead in the water as far as their label was concerned, and the debacle torpedoed whatever headway they'd made in the U.S. Raven would go on to release two more records with Atlantic to fulfill their contract with them, but they were simply playing out the string till they were mercifully released from the label in '88. Nowadays THE PACK IS BACK is synonymous with "the sellout album," alongside such dubious offerings as Savatage's FIGHT FOR THE ROCK and Celtic Frost's COLD LAKE.

Raven hit rock bottom here. Thankfully they stuck around long enough to redeem themselves. But that's a story for future entries....

I briefly spoke to Eddie Kramer at a KISS Convention in the early 90s. He was a hell of a nice guy. While we chatted about KISS related stuff I briefly considered mentioning this album to him but I thought better of it, figuring that he probably wasn't particularly proud of it, if he even remembered it at all.

THE PACK IS BACK has been reissued on CD twice since its initial vinyl-and-cassette only release. Mayhem Records put it out first in the late 90s, and oddly enough, despite its near-total lack of popularity THE PACK IS BACK is the only album from Raven's Atlantic tenure that remains in print, as it is currently available from the Wounded Bird Records catalog.

Extra tidbit that probably should've been inserted between the LIVE AT THE INFERNO and STAY HARD entries but I forgot:

Around the beginning of their major label period ('84), Raven recorded the title track for a low budget '80s teen-sex comedy film called "Hot Moves" that hardly anyone saw. The song wasn't released on a Raven album till 1999's RAW TRACKS compilation but here's a clip of the opening title sequence to the movie, with the song playing in the background.

The "What were they thinking?" album! This album essentially destroyed this band's core fan base who were moving in the direction of thrash metal and were for the most part shunning "false metal". It's unfortunate for Raven that they allowed their record company and Eddie Kramer to neuter them like the neighborhood stray cat. This album just has no balls whatsoever! There are a handful of songs that aren't bad, but are essentially destroyed by a lifeless, glossy production.

Gimmicks were very much a part of metal in the mid-80's, so Atlantic and Raven pushed the band further in their look. The band had always bee wild. Wacko had worn hockey gear for years as he was such a nutcase behind the kit, he would tend to cut and beat himself on cymbals and such. However, the look here was definitely Twisted Sister in hockey gear. A strange look indeed. Didn't really bother me as much as the music. The look actually was fun, the music on the other hand was forced, happy, schlock rock.

Yeah,easily their worst. A friend of mine bought this as a new release on vinyl (and still has it) so that was my exposure to this (I've since gotten it on cd). For some reason, I've always liked the title track and that's about it. Gimme Some Lovin' is just horrid,and I never liked the original,but I guess they couldn't improve on it.

Heard this one (a friend had it) when it came out and quickly gave up on Raven at this point..... The cover of the album looks like it was shot at the Blue Oyster Bar.

I remember I almost bought this album when Tower Records was going out of business. I had a huge stack of cd's already, so I started slimming down the stack and pulling out ones I wasn't sure about. This one made the cut, simply because of the album cover.

At that point, I wasn't all that familiar with all of Raven's albums, but I knew they had some clunkers in there. I took a chance because of the name, but when it came time to walk up to the counter, some discs had to go back on the shelf and this was one of them. When I got home that night, I quickly went to Ult's site and checked out all of the discs I did and didn't purchase to see if I made any errors. I think I made the right decision.

At the time this CD came out other veteran metal bands such as Judas Priest, Ted Nugent, and Deep Purple where making albums that where in a more commerical vein, hell even Iggy Pop made a very commerical album during this period. The fact that Raven joined in the fade did not bother me too much, sadly as ULT stated it bothered lots of long time fans and it destroyed their momentum right in their tracks. Sadly Raven never recovered from this misstep where Purple, Nugent, Priest and Pop all had long established careers that allowed them to get away with their flirtation with pop metal.

I personally like the disc, the title track is catchy and a fun song, 'Gimme Your Lovin', if this was Eddie Kramer's idea, he should be ashamed of himself, for crying out loud he worked with Hendrix!!! 'Screaming Down the House' is a silly but fun song with a killer bassline from John Gallagher and killer solo from brother Mark.

'Hyperactive' is so cliche ridden as is 'All I Want' and the only thing that saves this songs, is that the band is so damn likeable that you cannot totally hate this songs.

'Rock Dogs' is a cool commerical rock song with an OTT solo from Mark Gallagher, which proves what a great guitar player he is.

Not a great album and while I enjoy it, I wish it had never been made. It destroyed their chances of making it big in this country, and Eddie Kramer who has worked with some of the greatest rock artists in history took everything he learned working with Jimi Hendrix and threw out the window in order for big cash pay out. Bastard.

Movin' on...



THE PACK IS BACK's corpse was barely cold when Raven (or Atlantic Records), in an attempt to stop the bleeding caused by its failure, rush-released this follow up, the 5-track MAD EP in late 1986. (Wikipedia seems to think it was released prior to THE PACK IS BACK, but they're wrong. Trust me. I was there.)

Thankfully MAD was a return to more traditional pastures for Raven, who seemed intent on proving that they could still be heavy as ever. There are no slick radio-friendly songs, no overprocessed production tricks, not a guitar synth in sight. The five tracks on MAD piss all over anything from THE PACK IS BACK or STAY HARD, and are in fact the fastest, heaviest songs the band had released since ALL FOR ONE. Opening with the nitro-fueled "Speed of the Reflex" and slamming into "Do Or Die, "How Did Ya Get So Crazy," "Seen it on the TV" (a personal favorite Raven track) and finally "Gimme Just A Little," Raven pulled no punches on MAD and the album is about as subtle as a spiked gauntlet upside the head. THIS is what Raven was SUPPOSED to sound like!! Those of us who bought this little EP as a new release in '86 (though I doubt there were many of us) pumped their fists and rejoiced, "Woo hoo! Raven is BACK!"

...unfortunately, it seemed that nobody really cared.

The MAD EP was pretty well doomed from the get-go. Though it was most likely intended as an apology to Raven's fans for the PACK IS BACK debacle, their audience was understandably gun-shy about giving them another chance so soon after that disappointing album. I'm sure the godawful ugly album cover (a live-in-concert close up of Mark Gallagher's grinning, sweaty mug) didn't help matters; it's not exactly the kind of thing that would scream "BUY ME!" from the record store shelf.

MAD's release was supposedly timed to coincide with a planned tour that would've had Raven opening for Twisted Sister, which ended up getting cancelled. Atlantic Records didn't shoot any videos from this EP and barely did any promotion for it at all. Once again, things had come up snake-eyes for Raven, who never got much chance to promote this EP., therefore it sank without a trace just like its two predecessors.

Years later, John Gallagher admitted that releasing MAD so soon after THE PACK IS BACK was "a mistake," as it "made it look like we had an album coming out every week."

MAD has never been re-released on CD in its entirety, but the five songs were split up and tacked onto the end of Mayhem/Fierce Records' 1997 reissues of STAY HARD, THE PACK IS BACK and LIFE'S A B*TCH as bonus tracks.

Quite simply, MAD was and still is a great/underrated record. It showed that Raven still had plenty of fuel in the tank and that they were finding its way back onto the right musical path after a small detour, but sadly MAD never got its proper due.

Killer come-back EP. Too bad nobody cared at this point, save for us die-hards! Love this EP. Wish it would have been released on CD as is. Instead they broke it up and put it as bonus tracks on the other three Atlantic releases.

I never bought the EP back when it was originally released and have regretted not doing so. I am glad FF you gave me the info that EP's tracks where split into bonus tracks on the Raven CD reissues.

The cover certainly did not help but it is a way better cover than 'The Pack Is Back'.

...and dammit, I forgot the YouTubes again!! I suck.