RAVEN – HELL AIN’T A BAD PLACE TO BE

As the frontman for metal legends Raven, bassist / vocalist John Gallagher is one of metal's elder statesmen. He, along with his guitarist brother / co-founder Mark Gallagher, has seen and done it all since the band's 1974 inception, and they have no intention of slowing down any time soon. On the contrary, Raven's new album, All Hell's Breaking Loose, continues to narrow the gap between releases since their 2009 return following a construction accident that could have ended Mark Gallagher's, and the band's, career. It offers up everything one expects of the NWOBHM veterans and the era in general - it's fast, brazen and dirty - and although Raven is an acquired taste for some, John Gallagher is more than a little proud to be crushing skulls this late in the game, and happy people are still on board their rollercoaster.

"We know when we've got a good record, but it's nice to get validation," says Gallagher. "Absolutely. Probably over the past 10 or 15 years, we've been getting a lot of that 'I listened to you guys when I was a kid...' or 'You guys were a huge influence on our band.' That's really nice because we've been on that side of the fence, as it were, when we were talking to Jon Lord or Ian Paice (Deep Purple). Not that I'm putting myself up with those guys (laughs). Those guys were huge influences, so being able to tell them that was a very cool thing. Definitely."



Raven has been around for close to 50 years and are often cited as an influence by some major names in metal. As mentioned, Gallagher is proud of and grateful for the accolades, but says "we're very happy to (a) just be around, and (b) to be doing it better than we've ever done it.











"Everyone is surprised, of course, when you start looking at the figures. There was some chart on the internet that was sent to me by a friend, and it listed the longevity of bands; we were in the Top 6 or 7. It was like Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones and... us (laughs). That's quite humbling and sobering. We're also enjoying it more than we ever have, and that's obviously very good. But to your point, after Mark's accident in 2001 we had a good three years of absolutely nothing. When we finally got Walk Through Fire (2009), that was kind of like planting the flag in the sand and going 'Okay, this is where we start from.' We've reached the bar every time since. Being able to do that and just increase everything; made better records, increased our profile, done more shows. The big thing for us was getting Mike Heller (drums / Fear Factory) six years ago. That really kicked things up to a different level."

Gallagher feels Raven has a constant duty to live up to their five-decade legacy when they write new music.

"There's a standard we have to live up to, and a standard we have to beat. I can pick up and guitar, play anything, and say 'Okay, we're gonna build a song around that...' but no, come on, put a bit more thought into it. I could come up with something literally every time I pick up a guitar, but it's a case of taking the bits and pieces that I do come up with, sorting through them and figuring out which parts work together. Then I have to bash it off the guys and they add to it. That's our process. We've got to elevate it and be better than we were yesterday."

"One of the great things is seeing Iron Maiden increase in popularity over the past 15 to 20 years, to the point that they're bigger than ever. Do you know why? Because it's the rising tide that lifts all gods. It's good for music and it's good for metal. More power to them because that's what you want. You don't want the bands that are putting out half-assed watered-down albums because the whole scene gets tainted."

Even with that in mind, Gallagher says he didn't feel any real pressure going in to write All Hell's Breaking Loose. It was more a case of business as usual and knowing Raven is good at their job.

"A lot of that is kind of peripheral, in the back of my head," he says. "I have to be in a situation where I'm surrounded by guitars and I'm playing around with ideas. A little later on come the more craft end of it where I'm being vicious and saying 'This isn't good enough. We need something else.' We wrote a lot of songs for Metal City (2020), we wrote a lot of songs for this album, and some of them weren't good enough. There were others that could have been great, so we elevated them to the point that they became great. And there were others that there was no way they weren't going on the record because they kicked ass from the get-go."

"We had 10 songs, no longer than 40 minutes total, and we made sure they just beat you over the head. Nobody wants to hear an 80-minute metal album unless you want to come up with a concept that needs a narrative. This is why, back in the day, albums like Van Halen I or Montrose's first record, you played it, it kicked your ass, and you put it back on again. That was all part of the form because you couldn't be too long on a vinyl LP, but as soon as CDs came out with 83 minutes, the attitude was 'Let's fill it...' But if you don't have the material, don't do it. This new record, you can get your head around it and it makes sense because it's short and sweet."

"You also have to remember that back in the day, a 75-minute record was a huge artistic statement," Gallagher adds. "That was Tales From Topographic Oceans (Yes) and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (Genesis). You could handle that because there was a method to that madness. But just song after song, endlessly... nah."

As mainstays of the metal scene, Raven has lived through the various changes in how fans consume music. With streaming effectively screwing any artist not at KISS or Metallica level with regards to having a solid income, Raven are one of those bands pushing to turn a profit from touring to supplement whatever they do make from physical albums sales. Financial wrangling is nothing new for Gallagher, and he doesn't bat an eye.

"You've got to factor in that when we were with Atlantic the budgets were, by decimal points, far higher," he offers. "But the amount that we got, by decimal points, was far lower. We were going out on tour with Judas Priest, but we were getting a per diem of $20 a day. There was no thought of the band getting paid because we were out promoting a record, meanwhile Joe Schmoe tuning my guitars was getting $500 a week. At some point we looked at each other and said, 'I don't think so...' (laughs). That coincided with all the other factors, like Raven not being thrash or glam metal, and then grunge slipping in there which killed everyone else. We made hay where we could, so we went to Europe and Japan, and by the mid-2000s things started to get better in the States. We've been around the block long enough to have seen this happen before; the music business is cyclical, so when it gets tough you've just got to hang in."

BLACK SABBATH – LIVE EVIL (SUPER DELUXE EDITION)

It’s hard to believe that despite Black Sabbath being one of the top metal concert attractions throughout the ‘70s, the band never issued a live at any point during the initial Ozzy era. And while the unofficial Live At Last was issued in 1980 (from performances in early ’73), it was not until 1983’s Live Evil that metalheads received the Sab’s first fully sanctioned concert release – the last gasp of the initial Dio era – which has now been issued as an expanded edition.

There has been much said about the mixing of the album (which eventually led to Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice exiting the group after failing to see eye to eye with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler), it does show that the band was still an extremely potent live act while touring in support of their classic Mob Rules LP. And unlike their former singer (who would only perform three Sab-era tunes in his set…tucked away at the very end), the Dio era of Sab split their set evenly between material from both singers throughou

SKID ROW GUITARIST DAVE "SNAKE" SABO TALKS PARAMOUNT+ DOCUSERIES "I WANNA ROCK: THE '80S METAL DREAM" - "ONE MINUTE WE WERE TOURING WITH BON JOVI, AND THE NEXT IT WAS WITH PANTERA AND SOUNDGARDEN

 

Paramount+ recently released the new three-part docuseries, I Wanna Rock: The '80s Metal Dream. Skid Row guitarist / co-founder Dave "Snake" Sabo appears in the documentary, and Metal Edge recently caught up with him to discuss his / the band's participation in the series. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Metal Edge: What do you feel made Skid Row of particular interest (for the documentary)?



Sabo: "I think that even though Skid Row had been under the radar for a bit, we were still touring and managed to survive. And while we were touring, I got involved in the management side of things, and I think they found that intriguing, too. I wanted to speak about that aspect of things and that I've dealt with mental illness since I was a young kid, so that was another part of it. My personal story was something I felt ready to speak on, but I haven't seen the final cut, so I'm not sure how in-depth they went with it all.

JEFF YOUNG SAYS KINGS OF THRASH HAVE FIVE NEW ORIGINAL SONGS IN THE CAN FOR DEBUT ALBUM

 

Kings Of Thrash, featuring Megadeth alumni bassist David Ellefson and guitarist Jeff Young, recently returned from their Thrashin' Down Under Australian Tour and Young gave BraveWords an update on the original material the band is working on.

"It’s not frightening at all,” he says about creating new music that measures up to the band classic repertoire. “We have five tracks in the can. David lives in Arizona and we have this amazing underground recording studio. And in Arizona with that heat, it’s great if you’re underground because it’s like an oven there. That first song that David and I started which was spawned by the Menza movie. That song has come to life, and it’s called “Bridges Burned” (which has its origins from a riff Jeff brought in back in 1988, intended for what became Rust In Peace). We were doing it on the road with Kings Of Thrash. We’ve kind of taken a turn to where we are going to proceed. And David has talked about it a little bit, so I guess I can be the next one to leak out the next bit of news. Kings Of Thrash are going to continue to do exactly what we do. Doing the best of the classic Megadeth that we were a part of. It’s part of our heritage. We’re doing extra stuff in the encore like Riot’s ‘Swords And Tequila’. We even got Rick Ventura, the original guitar player, joining us when we were in New York. And I think we inspired them because Riot Act are out on the road performing Fire Down Under and it’s entirety. We are expanding and doing Metallica songs and Def Leppard’s ‘Wasted’ which is on David’s covers album. So Kings Of Thrash is going to continue on this path and play as many shows that people want to see us. For the original material, we are going to use a different singer. We are working with somebody who is frighteningly good. He’s already finished the vocals on 'Bridges Burned'. It’s really brand new, so I can’t really say too much more about it. The originals, they have thrash elements, but there’s everything because David and I have lived 10 different lives since Megadeth. We’ve grown as musicians, so we’re gonna bring all that stuff and the energy we had in our 20s and combine that with everything that we’ve learned in our 30s 40s and 50s is in that music. There is a thrash element, and it’s got the speedy, shreddy stuff, but we had much more. It’s like a jambalaya. I just love the songs. Each of the songs are quite different, but they all sound like the same band.”



Jeff Young will be on BraveWords' Streaming For Vengeance in the the coming days.

Crypta lança o aguardado álbum ‘Shades of Sorrow’

O quarteto brasileiro Crypta lança nesta sexta-feira, 04, o segundo álbum de estúdio, Shades of Sorrow

Apos polemica envolvendo  a vocalista que insiste em pedir pix na internet ,fica a duvida será que ela pediu pix para pagar esse álbum no famili mob  ou alguns de seus amigos da panela do metal ajudaram a pagar esse álbum...

Sucessor do aclamado Echoes Of The Soul (2021), o novo álbum é o primeiro a contar com a guitarrista Jéssica Di Falchi como integrante oficial da banda, substituta da holandesa Sonia Anubis, ao lado de Fernanda Lira (vocal e baixo), Luana Dametto (bateria) e Tainá Bergamaschi (guitarra).

O disco foi gravado no estúdio Family Mob, em São Paulo, a produção e engenharia de som é assinada por Rafael Augusto Lopes. A mixagem do disco foi feita em Estocolmo, Suécia, por Daniel Bergstrand, bem como a masterização, realizada no Fascination Street Studio pelo renomado Jens Bogren.

ANGRA: LANÇADO CLIPE OFICIAL DE “RIDE INTO THE STORM

A banda Angra lançou hoje o videoclipe oficial do “Ride Into The Storm”, o primeiro single de Cycles of Pain, o 10º álbum de sua discografia, produzido por Dennis Ward. O novo trabalho trará 12 faixas inéditas e será lançado pela Atomic Fire Records em novembro. A bela arte da capa é assinada por Erick Pasqua. O comunicado oficial da banda diz:
“Cycles of Pain” traz diversas perspectivas sobre a dor humana e os ciclos que a envolvem. Embora a dor seja inevitável, também é parte do crescimento e aprendizado. Ao reconhecer e enfrentar esses ciclos, podemos descobrir nossa força interior e encontrar um caminho para a cura e a transformação. É um convite à reflexão sobre as complexidades da dor humana, abordando temas como perda, desilusão, solidão e desespero, mas também levando uma mensagem de resiliência, superação e esperança.
A combinação de elementos na capa – um anjo da morte com asas brilhantes e desgastadas adornadas com símbolos religiosos e pagãos, uma floresta escura com fogo e chuva, a prevalência de elementos brasileiros – transmite uma representação da ideia de que a dor é uma experiência recorrente e transformadora, abrangendo aspectos espirituais e terrenos e nos encorajando a mergulhar nas profundezas de nossa própria dor, explorar suas várias dimensões e encontrar força e cura na jornada desses ciclos”


Cycles of Pain trará diversos convidados especiais, como Amanda Somerville (“Tears of Blood”), Lenine (“Vida Seca”), Vanessa Moreno (“Tide Of Changes – Part II”, “Here In The Now”) e Juliana D’Agostini (piano em “Tears Of Blood”). O primeiro single de Cycles of Pain, a faixa “Ride Into The Storm”, composta por Felipe Andreoli, Rafael Bittencourt, Bruno Valverde e Fábio Lione, acaba de ser lançado em formato de videoclipe oficial. Sobre a faixa, diz a banda:"'Ride Into The Storm' é uma peça implacável e agressiva que captura a essência do estilo do ANGRA. Com seu ritmo acelerado e toque moderno, a música mantém o DNA distinto da banda enquanto oferece passagens complexas e tecnicamente desafiadoras; a fusão de elementos tradicionais e progressivos ultrapassa os limites sem sacrificar o estilo característico da banda. 'Ride Into The Storm' é mais um passo na evolução do ANGRA, incorporando agressividade, velocidade, modernidade e habilidade em um pacote coeso e envolvente, em uma jornada poderosa e transformadora, retratando a dualidade dentro de nós ao enfrentarmos desafios e oportunidades. Em meio à divisão e à adversidade, encontramos a força para evoluir e crescer. Guiados pela esperança e pela sede da verdade, embarcamos em uma nova cruzada , unidos como guerreiros da mudança. Com determinação inabalável, enfrentamos o caos sem medo, abraçando a transformação e forjando nosso próprio destino. A tempestade se torna nossa aliada, impulsionando-nos enquanto cavalgamos em direção a um futuro melhor."

VISION DENIED - AGE OF THE MACHINE

 

Age Of The Machine is the wide ranging debut from twin guitar German quartet Vision Denied. Loosely a sci-fi concept album, in ten songs (with introductory voice-over, just in excess of an hour), the touchstones are progressive tinged metallers Evergrey and Kamelot, come the slow-to-medium tempo material, whereas the speedsters recall even bigger names.

Clean, mid-to-high vocal range, but well metered (no extremes), as "Two Worlds Collide" is a fine example of clickety-clack Germanic construction. There's a chugging Judas Priest undercurrent riding beneath the proggy rhythm. The throbbing electricity of "Broken Wings" (as well as the subdued vocal performance) is a virtual Tommy Karevik era Kamelot doppelganger, while the emotive, synthesized orchestral strings ballad, "Would You" should hit home with fans of Tom Englund (Evergrey/Redemption).



"Never Surrender" (not the Triumph gem) gets the blood pumping once again, while lively, albeit mid-paced "Seventh Galaxy" once again circles central Florida, for influences. "Indestructible",is the pick of the litter, with its Priest Firepower vibe (title track and/or "Rising From Ruins"). Great stuff! Pure speed, full Teutonic double bass drum gallop for "Beyond The Mirror" follow-up. The 6:18 "I Roam The Black" begins as an exercise in minimalism, but about half way through, someone throws a switch and intensity gradually rises, towards the end (with another narrative, as well). A dose of keyboards (including piano) in the undulating dynamics of culminating "Unchain The Light", but there's also plenty of time alotted a wicked guitar solo.