Description

Reduced price due to small cut out on spine European version that features live versions of ‘Architect Of Fear’ and ‘Enemy’ that on the Japanese and US versions was replaced by ‘All For One’ and a live version of ‘Youngblood’ from ‘The Pack Is Back’ ‘Raw Tracks’ was the first of two releases from Raven in 1999. Its a compilation of previously unreleased bootleg, demo, and live material from the band's vaults and is described in the liner notes as ‘a box set without the rip-off’. Originally the band's plan was to release a simple best of with a couple of demo/rare goodies tacked on as bonus tracks, but they dug up so much stuff while going through their archives that they eventually decided to go with a full blown compendium of unreleased material. John G.'s message on the back cover of the booklet makes it clear that you shouldn't expect crystal clear, digital quality recordings here, saying ‘This is raw, undiluted Raven — 90% of this stuff has been pulled from various tapes festering in our basements (I kid you not) and some serious emergency room tactics had to be used to bring em back alive — so any pops, clicks, hiss, etc. is part of the deal!’ Despite the rather raw quality of some of the material here, ‘Raw Tracks’ is an absolute treasure trove of neat stuff for the diehard Raven fan. The 19-track collection includes tons of live songs taped at various points throughout the band's career, plus a good number of demos and unreleased songs. My faves of these are the original 1984 demo of ‘Nightmare Ride’ (which totally smokes the more polished version recorded later on ‘The Pack Is Back’), a ‘Stay Hard-era leftover called ‘Barbarian’, and a cover of ‘Move Over’ by Janis Joplin, which was used as a practice/workout to break in then-new drummer Joe Hasselvander. There's also a cool alternate version of ‘The Savage and the Hungry’ (later used on the ‘Lifes A Bitch’ album) and the silly hair-metal track ‘Hot Moves’ which was recorded for a B-Movie soundtrack. The live songs vary in quality (some sound quite good, others are muffled, sub-bootleg quality) but are always interesting, particularly the trio of ‘Get It Right/On And On/Extract The Action’ taped during the ‘Stay Hard’ — i.e., songs the band rarely, if ever, plays live anymore. Also included are couple of cool leftovers from the ‘Destroy All Monsters’ live taping (that couldn't fit on the cd release due to time restraints) – ‘Altar’ from ‘Glow’ and a rip-roaring take on Queen's ‘Tie Your Mother Down’. This disc probably wouldn't be a great place to start for those unfamiliar with the band but for long-time fans it's a hell of a cool ‘thank you note’ from Raven for all the years of support. ‘Raw Tracks’ was picked up for U.S. distribution by Metal Blade Records, making it their first American release since ‘Nothing Exceeds Like Excess’ eleven years earlier. By this time, old school or traditional metal was making a return to prominence in the U.S. underground, and luckily Raven had stuck around long enough that the wheel finally came around for them again. Track listing: 1. Firepower-live 2. Dont Need Your Money-live 3. Savage And The Hungry-demo 4. Nightmare Ride-demo 5. Get It Right-live 6. On And On-live 7. Extract the Action-live 8. Barbarian-demo 9. Hot Moves-demo 10. Rock Until You Drop-live 11. Juggernaut-live 12. Thunderlord-live 13. Gimme A Break-live 14. Move Over-Janis Joplin cover 15. White Hot Anger-live 16. Altar-live 17. Tie Your Mother Down-live-Queen cover 18. Architect Of Fear-live 19. Enemy-live