The next cab off the rank is British heavy metal band Raven. Formed in 1974 in Newcastle a few years after both Sabbath and Priest. Raven hit the ground running playing a few shows and developing their image sound etc. Scene wise, by now we had the bigger hard rock bands Zep, Purple etc ruling the world which was definitely providing a gateway drug effect for those getting into world of heavy metal. Sabbath were kickin’ ass on big tours and moving large units and Priest were playing shows and about to put out their first album) and the newly formed Raven starting to gig.
Again as is so often the case the spoils of victory are reserved for those who released albums first. I believe Raven could have been a lot bigger if they got an album out earlier than they did. When the album finally did come out in 1981 we already had bands who’d formed after Raven but released albums like Motorhead, Angelwitch, Def Leppard etc…. but many of them sounded far more accessible to the popular hard rock taste than Raven did. Some of those bands even charting and as a result more or less defining what Heavy Metal was.
This is not to say Raven aren’t good. They are quite good at what they do (I quite like them too).
THE EARLY RELEASES
Their first couple of albums were quite well received amongst the metal population at the time. Picked up and released by the label neat records and they managed to achieve some lower level success charting with a spot in the 60’s on the UK charts. At this time the band managed to gain opening slots for UK legends like Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead, Whitesnake and Iron Maiden which no doubt really helped raise the bands profile. and also capturing the interest of Johnny Zazula from Megaforce records who took the band under his wings and organised their first US tour and became a champion of the band for many years to come.
For More detailed reviews of Raven’s early albums click on the albums below:
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Anyway I’ve included the album streaming from Youtube below for you guys to listen to:
Raven went on to release a whole bunch of quite well received albums but the sales never really materialised for the band.
To this day they’re probably more well known for the fact they took a very young Metallica on the road for the first time when they toured America. Which is kind of a shame really.
The band are still playing to this day to the more well versed Metalheds in the scene which again still warms my heart.
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