Description
Double album on green vinyls with gatefold cover and the entire album on cd as bonus
Raven were at the forefront of the NWOBHM and their Heavy, Fast, Vigorous Live set paved the way for heavy bands that followed resulting in venues being opened up to such bands. Raven toured America in 1983 with Metallca as support, the tour being called the Kill ‘Em All For One Tour (the Raven album being All For One). They then toured America with Anthrax as support in 1984. They were the originators of Thrash/Speed Metal and influenced Metallica, Voivod, Kreator, Pantera and Marty Friedman amongst others. A record deal with Atlantic Records resulted in the record company wanting more commercial albums so Raven slowed down when everyone else was speeding up! Fortunately Raven returned to their trademark Athletic Rock and has continued to produce excellent albums even if they weren’t always highly regarded by the critics. I have been a huge fan since All For One came out and I tought their Walk Through Fire album was fantastic but their 2015 album Extermination might be the best yet. They really pull out all the stops on this one. The key here are the riffs. Catchy as hell. Especially on songs like Its Not What You Got and Fight. They pack a lot of songs on this album of different styles and tempos but all rock, no filler.. Malice in Gordieland has an old school NWOBHM feel being slightly punk slightly metal in the traditional Raven fashion. Then listen to the opener, Destroy All Monster. Oh my God what a beast of a track! It’s hectic. It’s full of twists and turns. It’s aggressive. And it’s fun! It really lives up to the name. There’s even a moment in the song where this, I believe bass effect is given, which sounds to me like a monster called Gayos, from one of the old Gamera films. I’m not sure if this was intentional or just intuitive. But MAN I love it! So the brothers Gallagher, John and Mark and Joe Hasselvander might be veterans, and it shows here in a good way. They know their way around their instruments, when to tighten up and when to play loose and fast. Yeah, and don’t let their time active fool you. They have so much energy and power behind every chord, every drum slam, every note! So many bands from the early 80s wind up slowing down over the year and becoming kind of a husk of their former selves. These guys just seem to keep getting harder and heavier. But again, they maintain that melody and song integrity. So do you like metal? Do you like thrash? Do you like monsters? If you do, this is the album for you! There are just so many guitar riffs, bass effects, growls, screams and underneath all of that, actual melody! One of 2015 highlight
Track listing:
1. Destroy All Monsters
2. Tomorrow
3. Its Not What You Got
4. Fight
5. Battle March/Tank Treads (The Blood Runs Red)
6. Feeding the Monster
7. Fire Burns Within
8. Scream
9. One More Day
10. Thunder Down Under
11. No Surrender
12. Golden Dawn
13. Silver Bullet
14. River of No Return
15. Malice in Geordieland