Description

Official US tape. White cassette with black texture ‘The Pack Is Back’ corpse was barely cold when Raven (or Atlantic Records), in an attempt to stop the bleeding caused by its failure, rush-released this follow up, the 5-track ‘Mad’ EP in late 1986. Thankfully ‘Mad’ was a return to more traditional pastures for Raven, who seemed intent on proving that they could still be heavy as ever. There are no slick radio-friendly songs, no overprocessed production tricks, not a guitar synth in sight. The five tracks on ‘Mad’ piss all over anything from ‘The Pack Is Back’ or ‘Stay Hard’, and are in fact the fastest, heaviest songs the band had released since ‘All For One’. Opening with the nitro-fueled ‘Speed of the Reflex’ and slamming into ‘Do Or Die’, ‘How Did Ya Get So Crazy’, ‘Seen it on the TV’ and finally ‘Gimme Just A Little’, Raven pulled no punches on ‘Mad’ and the album is about as subtle as a spiked gauntlet upside the head. THIS is what Raven was SUPPOSED to sound like!! Those of us who bought this little EP as a new release in '86 (though I doubt there were many of us) pumped their fists and rejoiced, "Woo hoo! Raven is BACK!" …unfortunately, it seemed that nobody really cared. The ‘Mad’ EP was pretty well doomed from the get-go. Though it was most likely intended as an apology to Raven's fans for the ‘The Pack Is Back’ debacle, their audience was understandably gun-shy about giving them another chance so soon after that disappointing album. I'm sure the godawful ugly album cover (a live-in-concert close up of Mark Gallagher's grinning, sweaty mug) didn't help matters; it's not exactly the kind of thing that would scream ‘BUY ME!’ from the record store shelf. ‘Mad’ release was supposedly timed to coincide with a planned tour that would've had Raven opening for Twisted Sister, which ended up getting cancelled. Atlantic Records didn't shoot any videos from this EP and barely did any promotion for it at all. Once again, things had come up snake-eyes for Raven, who never got much chance to promote this EP., therefore it sank without a trace just like its two predecessors. Years later, John Gallagher admitted that releasing ‘Mad’ so soon after ‘The Pack Is Back’ was a mistake, as it ‘made it look like we had an album coming out every week’. Quite simply, ‘Mad’ was and still is a great/underrated record. It showed that Raven still had plenty of fuel in the tank and that they were finding its way back onto the right musical path after a small detour, but sadly it never got its proper due. If you want to check out Raven then this is a cheap alternative Track listing: 1. Speed Of The Reflex 2. Do Or Die 3. How Did Ya Get So Crazy 4. Seen It on TV 5. Gimme Just A Little