Rolling With The Punches |
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By Vinnie Apicella
In a brief off the cuff conversation in the damp, dank resources of that highly decorative broom closet… the luxurious confines off side stage graciously afforded for warm up bands, I managed a quick one on one with Raven's roving bass-beater, frontman, lyricist and head lunatic John Gallagher. "Winging it" in the truest sense, we pushed open the door to the past ever so slightly to gaze into the present to uncover the events surrounding their latest release as John picks it up, "We wanted to do a new record and all this stuff came about in the middle of last year. We just wanted to get a better sound-we wanted everything louder… bring the songs out more. And out of the blue, I got an e-mail from Michael Wagener and he's like, 'Come on, we gotta do a record man!' And I'm like, 'I can't afford you!' He said, 'You know it's not like that anymore… and besides, we're family-we'll make something up!' It was so cool working with him again. He's so intuitive." Fans will recall of course that many of the band's earlier and in particular one that's usually heralded as their best, 1983's "All for One," first featured Wagener's production talents. Coincidence? "Well some of the German guys that reviewed it said it's the natural successor to 'All for One' which of course is funny since it's called 'One for All.' But it's just a play on words since we were working with Mike again. If you compare the two, there's definitely a difference in sound-it's just like a 3-D sound to me, compared with a lot of our shit. It's very powerful… very up feeling. It's not dark, doomy or depressing (obviously the waiting area was still looming in his mind). I mean, we got a couple of really mean songs on there… (take your pick, there's about 8 or 9 if you wanna get cynical!) But it's just got a great feeling. It's one of those albums like your favorite album when you're a kid, where you listen all the way through and wanna put it back on again. There's too many CD's these days where there's like 94 minutes of contents and you're like brain-dead by the time you get halfway through it! (Yes, I think they call it "Progressive…" just a joke, don't shoot me!) This is just long enough so it's one piece of work and you can put it on again and keep rockin'." "One for All" actually follows up on a number of other Raven titles recently released and so in actuality, it's not really a comeback-though it might be looked upon that way with the return of Wagener, but really Raven's last studio release "Everything Louder" only came out a short time ago. But since, Neat Metal from England has done an excellent re-issuance of the first three Raven records with full digital restoration and plenty of extras. So how does "One for All" measure up in content to some of the original classics? "There's definitely a lot of songs that hearken back to the glory days-you know what I mean, the 'All for One,' 'Rock Until you Drop' type of thing. The one called 'Seven Shades,' (which leads the album off) is a double-kick, ice pick in the face type of deal… 'Double Talk' is, if it's gonna compare to anything, it's a little bit like 'Live at the Inferno…' that kind of up-feeling to it. We got a very interesting break in there. It's funny how it evolved actually. We just had this three piece sort of jam session that started out with this weird sort of funk guitar… which is like, 'What the Hell is that?' The song is about an A&R guy we used to know, so I just spontaneously did this A&R rap before the song started (purposefully unflattering) and it just all made sense there… it was really cheesy but it all made sense. That was fun. (Laughs) Then we got some really heavy, powerful songs like 'To Be Broken,' which is like commentary on the legal system. 'In the Line of Fire' is really fucking heavy! 'Kangaroo' is a real fast and crazy song… Then we got rock and roll stuff like 'Roll with the Punches' and 'Get that Motor Running…' it's like a 'Don't Need your Money' type actually-real short and to the point. We did one that's… without rippin'off or anything, it's kind of almost Sabbathy-a song called 'Last Raid.' Don't ask me where I got it from-it's a real nasty story in the lyrics! It would make a great movie I think! (Laughs) But that's real heavy as shit! And on the Japanese version, we did a cover of an old Status Quo song that unfortunately you guys don't have… So maybe we'll stick it up on our website for people to download cause it's been out now already so to Hell with it!" (Laughs) An old band that embraces modern technology… and a smart move in any case. Self-starters that they are, Raven's developed their own pretty intense website showing they are without question in tune with the expectations of their fans. The address is www.ravenlunatics.com and we can expect to see several new revisions in the coming days but as of now, it's as informative and contains anything anyone would expect-Bulletin Board, options for band member questions… a great way to stay up close and personal with the guys. Not long before the release of "One for All," their first Metal Blade release had them digging up some rare gems from their past in what turned out to be "Raw Tracks," or lost classics and rarities done both live and in the studio that in spite of the irritable sound quality, should be a welcome addition to any fans collection… "Well that came out of the reissues of the Atlantic stuff. The company I was dealing with was like really unprofessional. So I had the idea for 'Raw Tracks,' and after trying for a month to get an answer from phone calls, I just said to Hell with it, and I went through our Japanese label who loved the idea. Then I pitched it to Brian Slagel at Metal Blade who thought it was cool and we did it. It really developed from a lot of the 'Whatever happened to…' and 'What about this song…' inquiries so we said, okay let's just delve in the archives… you know some of the stuff sounds real raw, but it still kicks ass! It's got some great performances. A little housecleaning before the new album… It's like a box set but without all the stuff you've already got! Since you've already got it anyway, why rip people off? Just give 'em the interesting stuff." Just then I commented on how the last time I saw the band was back at this same venue, The Birch Hill Nite Club in Old Bridge, N.J. where they played with Anvil and did this whole Megaforce Records reunion thing… I'm not sure why I brought it up but whatever point I was attempting to make, John luckily interceded and so it goes… "This is like full circle. A few of the dates we've done on this, it's been, to be honest, kinda like badly promoted. But people are finding out and people are coming and we're blowing their heads off! And people are like, 'Oh my God,' and all this shit… and it's really good. It means we can come back by ourselves. I mean, the time was never right before… the time is right now." I brought up what typically amounts to the obvious topic of how bands of their era all are managing to resurface to have another go at it-even many of the real oldies, like Jaguar and Savage and those other fringe New Wave of British… types, and what many might find interesting, though the true metal stalwarts would've known this right along, is that Raven really never went anywhere. Through the good times and plenty of the recently bad times, they've stuck it out and managed to record somewhere for someone… "A lot of those bands, you know they stopped… we never did. After we did 'Nothing Exceeds…' (in '88), we toured Europe and we hooked up with German management. And nothing's happening here (in the U.S.) and we did 'Architect of Fear' ('91) and we did 'Heads Up' ('93). Then we did an album called 'Glow' ('95) in Japan and in Europe… then we did the live album ('Destroy all Monsters'-guess where) and then we did 'Everything Louder…' We did the odd shows here in the states, like the Foundations Forum in '94, and we did a couple of gigs with Anvil in '95. But next to nothing really. We also did the Foundations Forum in '97 when 'Everything Louder' came out and we did the March Metal Meltdown last year. We had a lot of fun but personally, I think that 95% of the bands out there were absolutely horrific. I mean, a bunch of Norwegian guys with white faces making sounds like power drills doesn't really do it for me! (Laughs) Originality's kinda hard to come by now, which is why you're seeing a lot of the older bands getting back together, or just existing because they have something quality to offer that's just a little different from everyone else. It's pretty hard for example for a band to come out and rip us off!" (He's not kidding!) During this "down" period, at least what we've endured here in the states throughout the early to mid '90s, Raven certainly wasn't the only band to go into forced exile for a while and thus suckers like us had to go calling on the import stores and rummage through they're catalogs to see what we were missing and then not only that, worry about incurring a month's worth of debt just to get a hold of those select titles we otherwise would never get to hear… but of course we always had Pearl Jam and Nirvana to run to! So what about those relative obscurities that came out since their then last U.S. release "Nothing Exceeds Like Excess?" Any chance of getting 'em reissued domestically? "Ah, we'll see. I mean, we don't actually own the rights to 'Architect…' and 'Heads Up,' but we do own the rights to 'Glow,' the live album, and 'Everything Louder.' So probably not now but since they've reissued those other ones, maybe a little further down the line it may be a good idea." "Architect of Fear" incidentally is easily one of the band's best recordings. I actually stumbled upon it when I was visiting France a while back and was thumbing through some selections in this record store and there it is… on tape! But the title track and really the whole album just blows away anything they'd done in their recent past-even John considers it "All for One's" evil twin! "They're good albums. 'Glow' is heavy, but it's a little more varied. We actually do a ballad on it (What?!) which came out really nicely. And we'd just said, 'Fuck it, we've never done it so let's try it.' And we do a cover of 'The Rocker' by Thin Lizzy (well can't go wrong there!). So I think we pissed Metallica off cause I know 'The Rocker' is one of Lars' favorite songs and we beat 'em to it… I'm very happy about that!" (Laughs) Yeah, but oh boy, they did manage "Whiskey in a Jar…" sing it James! What's next for them, Garth Brooks? Raven has been opening a select few dates here for U.D.O. which the fact that that band has made it here for the first time in over ten years is a story in itself-in fact, it is, go look for it-but how'd they pair up the two of these acts? Obviously Raven's got a decent following in other parts of the world, particularly Japan and Germany, where everyone's big, but it just seems like sort of an unusual pairing, though they both pulled it off very well… "Michael, who is very good friends with Frank, who's the tour manager for U.D.O., got the ball rolling. Of course we'd met U.D.O. in '97 when we were touring over there-for the first time in years. And he suggested that we play together sometime. And so it just came about. We did Europe in January, which was excellent-large crowd, great bill. And they said, 'We're coming over here to America, would you like to play with us there?' So I'm kinda committed cause if I don't take my wife out on holiday, she's gonna kill me this year, so…" (Laughs). By the time this goes into print, the current U.D.O. / Raven tour will likely have wound down. It just turns out to be a brief East Coast fling for John and the guys, but then it's off to Europe for some possible headlining and then maybe of course Japan, but as John concedes, some of the band's strongest following comes from Germany, lighting it up in the states is what the band's set their sights on… "I don't wanna disappear for the next five years again. I mean, we got our feet wet here and I wanna get a little deeper in the water. I mean, this is how the original tour with Metallica came about. Some of those gigs, there was 25 people there. But they told 25 people each and by the next time we came around, there were 500 people there. And the next time, there's 2,000… so you gotta do the legwork." Definitely no quit for these guys. New album, new touring schedule opening up for the summer… it's classic metal rising up again on the wings of this irrepressible power trio. In between possible festival appearances and eventual head-blowing tactics of all sorts, Gallagher, on behalf of the band, offers a last concluding statement that testifies in no uncertain terms that "All for One" or "One for All," has as much to do with the support of their faithful fans as much as anything else… "Everyone out there check out the new album-it rocks! Thanks for your support-you guys are the best! We'll hope to see you soon…" Copyright 2000, BallBuster, The Official Int'l Underground Hard Music Report |
They could easily have called their new album any number of terms suitable to that which does not quit, does not roll over and play dead… in fact comes back stronger and hungrier than ever-"The Savage & the Hungry" maybe... This is a band that's been beaten and left for dead in the gutter a countless number of times only to resurface… somewhere… again, sharpening their metal blade's and waiting to strike at just the right moment. Their unwitting victim lies helplessly… and just when they've managed to come to, there are the Gallagher brothers standing by to deliver another punishing blow. The time is here, the moment is now and Raven is again back to play the role they know so well-underdogs…the proverbial thorn in the side of pop-culture… the anti-heroes of the NWOBHM movement ready to have another go at it-Solid as a rock, swords raised in the air, touring again to support their brand new "One for All" release… a new album that signals the triumphant return of their classic style, fueled by the knob-spinning production talents of one Michael Wagener, and the ongoing desire to truly make everything they do louder than everything else…
