If it is OK with Kurt and Ult.....

For the uninitiated who are curious about the Atlantic Years of Raven, I compiled a ummm....compilation of the best songs from that era....

RAVEN - THE ATLANTIC YEARS

megaupload.com megaupload.com0QOSOQ6O


password: spectrefate

Thanks spec! I'll check it out.

Thanks Spec.

Sounds pretty good to me, but I'm assuming you scooped out the turds floating in that Atlantic Records punchbowl and left us the best of that era.

I can certainly see the difference in sound from those early discs though.

Just curious Spec, what tracks did you pick for that compilation o-Raven-stuff? I'm not gonna download it cuz obviously I already have all the CDs from that period.

Time to move on again y'all:



"You've made the summit but you'll never reach the top..." - lyric from "You're A Liar"

The above lyric is very appropriate, as it pretty well sums up Raven's situation in 1987. By that time, it had become quite obvious that Raven were never going to become big-time rock stars, or cash cows for Atlantic Records. Their first two big-budget album releases for the label had gone down as expensive failures, and the stop-gap EP release that followed them was all but ignored. When it came time for a new album, Raven had been banished to the back burner of a record label that didn't give a crap about them anymore, and who were probably hoping that they would just hurry up and fulfill their contract so they'd go away. In other words, Raven was pissed, and their next batch of songs showed it. They poured all of the frustration and anger that had built up over the previous three years of major-label Hell into their music and capped off their Atlantic obligations with the fare-the-well/middle-finger-in-the-air album LIFE'S A B*TCH (sorry for the asterisk, but if I don't put it there, the forum filter will call this album LIFE'S A SMURFETTE --- haha!) ... and what a way to go out!!!

Just like on the MAD EP, the band made no concessions to radio play or to MTV on LIFE'S A B*TCH. Instead, they came roaring out of the gate like a pissed off bull, packing heavy duty artillery like "The Savage and the Hungry," the slyly humorous/offensive title track (a foul mouthed little ditty that earned Raven their first-ever "Parental Advisory" sticker on the album cover), full-on speed burners like "You're A Liar" and "Overload," and crushingly heavy tracks like "Juggernaut." If they had released this album in 1985 (in place of STAY HARD) rather than '87, Raven might've had a chance in the speed metal sweepstakes. LIFE'S A B*TCH was the heaviest, most manic material they'd recorded since the heady days of ALL FOR ONE and WIPED OUT. The few fans who were still listening rejoiced, of course, but to the metal population at large Raven were still thought of as "those freakin' sell out posers" and again, the album sank without a trace. Raven did some touring with W.A.S.P. to support this release and by the time that was done, Atlantic Records tossed them out on their asses, which at that time was probably more of a relief to the band than anything else.

Now older and wiser after a trip through the major label meat grinder, Raven had one more obstacle to overcome as they attempted to resurrect their good name. After completing tour commitments for LIFE'S A B*TCH, long time drummer Rob "Wacko" Hunter announced that he was leaving the band. Mark and John Gallagher were faced with replacing a charismatic drummer who was an integral part of their metal machine. But that'll be coming up in the next entry. To be continued....




LIFE'S A B*TCH was re-issued on CD in 1997 by Mayhem/Fierce Records, with two bonus tracks attached - "Finger on the Trigger" (mis-identified as simply "Trigger" on the Mayhem CD), which had been a bonus cut on the cassette version of the original Atlantic release, and "Speed of the Reflex" from the MAD EP.

Raven may have been at a low point career-wise at this time but at least they closed out their controversial, traumatic major label period with one of their high water mark albums!!!

A nice return to form, though NO ONE paid attention.

I had this album on vinyl, and even thou only myself and the Gallagher brother's mother where fans of the Pack is Back, I did not want another album of that sort of material, thankfully that was not the case.

This album was one pissed off angry rant but in a good way. This album if it had been given a chance would have won over some of their old fans but alas it was not to be, the die was cast and Raven would all but disappear from my mind and it would be several years before I even purchased a Raven album.

BTW this is the only vinyl album I ever had stolen.

When I did my initial LIFE'S A B*TCH post I was running short on time and only had time to find the title track on YouTube... here are a few more tracks for the uninitiated...

Went and saw Anvil last night and just before "Metal On Metal" a very special guest comes out on stage to play bass with the band - Lips said "No, we're not doing big bottoms", but the bass player was John from Raven!!!!!!!!!! Here's the pix:

That is so f@@king Cool!!!

hellyeah! RAVEN!

it was AWESOME!!!!!!!! John was a cool guy - told him been a fan since All For One. I asked him about the Atlantic years - he just said "ugh" and rolled his eyes. That was so frakin' cool to see!!!! The show was a last minute thing - I forgot they were playing and my friend reminded me, so we went!!!!

Sorry for the crappy pics, but I forgot my camera! Opening band was an all girl Metallica tribute band called Mistallica - they were cool and they only played stuff from the first four albums! The bass player even dressed like Cliff!!!

Joker - that is excellent. I am totally jealous and hatin' you right now. Haha.

Stay tuned for the next installment (NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS) coming soon....

1988 was a year of changes for Raven. The band signed a new deal with legendary metal indie label Combat Records, and drafted a new drummer to replace the greatly missed Rob "Wacko" Hunter. The new guy was Virginia native Joe Hasselvander (a.k.a. "Joe Has-No-Bladder," "Joe Vaseline-Handler, a.k.a. "Man of Many Pseudonyms"), a long time fixture in the Virginia/Maryland/D.C. metal scene and former member of bands like Pentagram, The Boyz, Overlorde, and Armageddon. John Gallagher says that Joe was chosen to take Wacko's spot because Joe "was nuts, and he liked the same kind of music that we did." Their first studio album with Joe behind the kit was NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS, released in the Fall of 1988.

NOTHING EXCEEDS was another strong album for Raven, featuring a dozen balls-to-the-wall, pedal to the metal tracks like "Die For Allah," "You Got A Screw Loose" (John's salute to his brother Mark) and "Hard As Nails." The only time the band let up on the gas pedal was in the live favorite "Into the Jaws Of Death," which incorporated some way-cool slow, doomy passages. The band also displayed more of their trademark Geordie humor on songs like "The King," an ode to Elvis (John joked in an interview that "Elvis was still alive and working as a Raven roadie") and "In the Name of the Lord," a dig at the then-current scandals involving TV preachers ("Repent, you scum sucking pigs! Send me your money!"). NOTHING EXCEEDS proved that Raven were still in fine musical form, but again, the band found themselves fighting an uphill battle to regain their former footing in the U.S. John has said of this period, "Combat tried to market us as 'Yeah, Raven were commercial, but they're back,' but we ended up getting caught in between the glam bands and the hardcore thrash like Slayer. It was horrible." In other words, Raven's straight-up traditional metal was out of favor in 1988, so again, few were listening.

I myself remember freaking out when I walked into a record store and found NOTHING EXCEEDS sitting on the new release rack, because I'd had no idea Raven were still around at that point. There had been no news about the band in the metal press since the announcement that Wacko was leaving the band a year earlier, so as far as I was concerned, NOTHING EXCEEDS was a surprise gift from out of nowhere. I was actually more excited about Raven's return than I had been about the release of Metallica's ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL a few months earlier!! I loved the album and still do to this day.

An interesting note is that though original cassette copies of the album listed the song "Kick Your Ass" as the final track, it wasn't included on the tape -- the song was a CD-only bonus track.

Raven's tenure with Combat Records only lasted for this one album (Combat itself dissolved by the early 90s) but the label also put Raven on the bill for the ULTIMATE REVENGE 2 live VHS compilation, a "sequel" to the legendary 1985 concert video release that featured Venom, Slayer, and Exodus. Filmed at the Trocadero in Philadelphia, ULTIMATE REVENGE 2 featured Raven headlining over a selection of other stars from the Combat Records stable -- Death, Dark Angel, Forbidden, and Faith Or Fear. A companion soundtrack CD was also released, which featured a couple of tracks from each band's set. My brother owned this VHS back when it was a new release and since I wasn't a terribly big fan of any of the other bands included, I mainly watched the 4-song Raven portion of the video over and over again. I will say that Raven's "Athletic Rock" style does sound a bit out of place amongst the thrash and death metal sounds of the other participating bands. I was also once told by an acquaintance who attended the taping of this concert that three quarters of the audience cleared out before Raven even took the stage, so the clips in the video of a sizable crowd going crazy for Raven were likely the result of careful editing.



NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS would be Raven's last studio album to receive a U.S. release for almost a decade. Once their relationship with Combat Records ended, they chose to concentrate on territories outside of America where their fan base remained stronger.





After Combat Records went out of business, NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS was out of print until Century Media Records in Europe reissued the bulk of the Combat catalog in the late 90s.

I never owned this CD, and by the time I knew this album existed, it already had been out for several years and figured Raven had disbanded. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this thread and read about 20 plue years of Raven music I missed out on.

"Nothing Exceeds..." is brilliant! Pure Raven lunacy. The band brought back the manic, trademark speed. Despite the loss of drummer Wacko, this album sounds more like Raven than anything the band did on Atlantic Records. Some were even labeling it thrash metal. Raven had always been the kings of speed since the early 80's. However, thrash metal this is not. I will admit that when it first came out I was a bit put off by it. I didn't hear the immediate hooks that I had heard on those first three albums. It took some time do discover that the hooks hidden within. Standout tracks are Gimme a Break, You Got A Screw Loose and Die For Allah.

I've never owned the Mad ep but I do have all the songs on cd on the various re-releases. I think my favorite song off it is How Did You Get So Crazy. Heck,just reading the review had that song playing in my head.

Life's A B!tch is another great album from these guys.I thikn Savage and the Hungry,Iron League,and Juggernaut are the standouts.

Nothing Exceeds... keeps it going.Gimme Me A Break,Into The Jaws Of Death,In The Name Of The Lord are all great tunes. My only problem is the volume of this cd. It's way too low but I guess it's easily fixed by cranking up the volume.

Never heard this one, but sounds like a good disc!!!!

To follow up my post about John Gallagher playing with Anvil, the footages has showed up online - I am on the 2nd level that you can see on the rail:

After 1988's NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS album/tour, Raven took a break to re-examine their record label and management situation. Since interest in the band was at an all time low in the U.S. the band opted not to even bother pursuing an American deal next time out and instead concentrated on Europe (particularly Germany) and Japan, where they still maintained a strong cult of fans. This "Europe-and-Japan-releases-only" arrangement would last through most of the next decade.

Raven signed with the Drakkar organization (a European band management company, who were also handling Kreator at the time - Raven had opened for Kreator during the NOTHING EXCEEDS tour cycle) which led to a deal with the European metal giant Steamhammer/SPV Records and the eventual release of 1991's ARCHITECT OF FEAR. It is a shame that this album never got an American release because it is a VERY strong effort from the recharged band. ARCHITECT is easily one of Raven's best albums, totally obliterating everything that came after ALL FOR ONE in my opinion. The band blazes right out of the gate with the title track and blasts through 13 tracks in all, including such killer songs as "Blind Leading the Blind," "Part of the Machine," and "White Hot Anger," which captures one of John Gallagher's longest, most manic screams EVER (even longer and crazier than the one I mentioned in the LIVE AT THE INFERNO entry)! This is probably the closest Raven came to ever being an out-and-out "thrash" band, some of this stuff is incredibly fast and bone-crunchingly heavy!!!

It was kind of lonely being a Raven fan in the U.S. around this period. When I heard a new album was on the way from Raven I naturally assumed that it would turn up eventually via Combat Records, who'd released the prior album in America, but by the middle of 1992 it became obvious that it was probably never going to materialize on my side of the ocean so I had to pay big $$ for an import copy (I ordered it from one of the many "import CD" advertisers in Metal Edge magazine; if memory serves I paid $29.95 for it which at that time was the most $$ I'd ever spent on a CD). When the long awaited CD finally arrived, it proceeded to destroy my stereo and totally rule my life for several months afterward. Now that I think about it, that was probably my first experience with having to hunt down an import copy of a desired album... but it wouldn't be my last...

In a nutshell: ARCHITECT OF FEAR freakin rules. If you have it, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't have it, you need it. You really, REALLY need it. This is one of Raven's watershed albums and it ranks right up there with ALL FOR ONE and LIFE'S A B*TCH in my book.