Tuesday, November 17, 2020

RAVEN - Metal City review


RAVEN - Metal City

Steamhammer


A memory worth sharing. Around five or six years ago I saw RAVEN at a small club here in my town. There was around fifty or more people at the show. That was probably the bar's capacity as well. The place was small but it was a terrific show. Everyone there was singing along to their old tunes. You got the feeling as if you were whisked back in time to their early days playing local venues in England back in the 80's.


Now be that as it may I admit that as far as RAVEN goes my favorite stuff by them is their Neat Records releases. I'm probably not alone there. I'll toss out a second nugget of truth. I really don't know much, nor do I care about, the band's releases that came afterwards up to 2010's Walk Through Fire which was good. Add to that, 2015's ExtermiNation was a little better. In fact I'll say the past ten years has been good for RAVEN.


Which brings us to this latest one Metal City. Since the band has been on a roll leading up to this. I was not at all surprised at how good this is. The Gallagher brothers (Mark and John) plus Mike Heller (who's been on drums with them since 2018) sound fresh as opposed to retro. The release is a cool mixture of NWOBHM and old time speed metal. 


Of course seeing this is RAVEN then you're gonna get some cool riffs, wild vocals & screams, pounding drum work and thick bass lines. Ten tracks in all and to me it's good from start to finish. For me there's a few outstanding cuts like the anthem inspiring "Top of the Mountain", the intense rippers "Human Race"and "Motorheadin", plus the fist raising "Battlescarred". This is easily one of the best albums of 2020.

 

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LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKngTm8EtLs&t=1s


 

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