So far, this year has been golden for Raven who’ve been inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame, recorded a new album ready on the blocks for release, awarded a front cover on the highly respected International Rock & Metal magazine Aardschok and preparing for an upcoming tour. Bassist & vocalist John Gallagher explains the positive mood in the Raven camp…
The new album ‘All Hells Breaking Loose’ will be our 15th full studio album. The album name is one of the tracks and it’s always nice to have a title track. This one stuck out as a great title to build the album around and sparked the cover idea too.
But lately at gigs we’ve been playing the ‘All for One’ album as it’s reached it’s 40th anniversary.
1983 was a big year for Raven – they hoyed the kitchen sink and both taps at a major USA tour, previously there was a gig at London’s Marquee and a few nights later they landed on Newcastle Mayfair.
The biggest bands on the planet including Zeppelin, Queen, Nirvana and The Who had played the venue, then on one red hot sweaty night in June ‘83, Raven played on home turf.
John remembers that night… I do seem to remember doing a ‘runner’ during my bass solo. Jumping offstage, running up to the balcony, round and back on before most people knew what happened!
It was a great night, I was doon the front as were many from Sooth Sheelz as the show was opened by local metallers Hellanbach. The red hot atmosphere of the night was captured in these excellent live pics by music fan Duncan Butterfield.
Sadly, the Mayfair was demolished in 1999 only to be replaced by a shiny pub and restaurant block with some bonny lights. But here we are many moons later and Raven have been busy in the studio mixing up the latest concoction.
It’s 10 songs, about 40 mins of all killer no filler – 1000% pure mania! So far we’ve put out two video singles, ‘Go for the Gold’ and ‘Surf the Tsunami’ and there will be one more when the album comes out.
The Godfathers of Thrash release their new album All Hell’s Breaking Loose on 30th June 2023. Check the official Raven website for merch/album/video & upcoming European gigs in July & September 2023.
Raven | Official Raven Lunatics Website
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ALL FOR ONE at 40 with Chief Heedbangers, Raven | ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK (garyalikivi.com)
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