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). I had one of their albums as a teenager in 90s, but at the time I was busy getting more into the bigger metal bands and the emerging death and black metal scenes. If you were around at the time I think they would have fitted in nicely with anyone seeking faster guitar sounds after the second Judas Priest album came out. I kinda look at Ravens first album as the logical extension from what Priest were doing. I feel that Raven were in a situation where there was a void of music for the metal fans of say 1975 – 1980 and this would have done way better if it came out a few years earlier.
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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