Raven - ExtermiNation

Published April 18 2015

*=Staff's pick	Destroy All Monsters Tomorrow It's Not What You Got Fight* Battle March/Tank Treads (The Blood Runs Red) Feeding The Monster Fire Burns Within Scream One More Day Thunder Down Under* No Surrender* Golden Dawn Silver Bullet River Of No Return Malice In Geordieland

Genre	Heavy Metal	John Gallagher	Vocals
Tracks	15	Mark Gallagher	Guitar
Running time	62 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Steamhammer/SPV	John Gallagher	Bass
Release	April 22, 2015	Joe Hasselvander	Drums
Country	England	-	Keyboard
Producer	-
Similar artists	---

The British heavy metal trio Raven has struggled as hell since its first record was released in 1981. Kind of similar to the Canadian outfit Anvil, the band has been pretty overlooked in comparison to colleagues in other bands who ultimately had greater success. In my personal opinion this is nothing strange really, because at that period of time people didn't have so much music to pick from as they do now and in spite of that a lot of those bands that climbed the ladder higher in fact did create immensely more accurate stuff to begin with and therefore I'm not surprised by the way things took its course with leaving this old school unit a little stranded.

The hassle back then and at this present point is that Raven's efforts above all lack really nifty and effective songwriting, which naturally in reality always is a qualification needed to come out strong and to put a brand to your records. This just over one hour of music moves forward in a traditional mode all the way through, yet without being impressive, even if they occasionally deliver some cool riffs and bring forth a few parts that I can find somewhat appealing. Although what comes out of my speakers isn't extremely bad though, I still can't find more than a few songs that gives me some of what I'm looking for in the end, like guts, cool rhythms and great melodies.

The guys are definitely heavy metal to their bones and marrow, but to me most of this disc ends up being kind of unsatisfying and bland and I also think that the vocal effort is running a little short of power and of nice tones. I believe that the Gallagher brothers should definitely have made an attempt to recruit a songwriter back in the day, since that highly important piece is really what is missing in this long running band at the end of the day.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	5	6	5	3

Summary
3 chalices of 10 - Tobbe