2023’s All Hell’s Breaking Loose and predecessor, 2020’s Metal City, proved, as if proof was needed, that Geordies Raven still had plenty of gas in the tank. We are now 50 years since the Gallagher Brothers started creating their music, and although they will be forever associated with their part in the NWOBHM movement, as well as their own firebrand style Athletic Rock, anyone who has witnessed them live in recent years would be hard pressed to argue that they are probably in as good form now as they were back in those halcyon days of All For One, Rock Until You Drop and Wiped Out.
Raven – Can’t Take Away The Fire (Silver Lining Music)
Release Date: 14 February 2025
Words: Paul Hutchings
Indeed, although Can’t Take Away The Fire is only a five-track EP with a couple of bonus live tracks added for good measure, it finds Raven as feisty and punchy as they have ever been.
“After the last album, All Hell’s Breaking Loose, we knew it was time to raise the bar yet again,” Co-founding lead vocalist and bassist John Gallagher says. “Can’t Take Away The Fire is the perfect introduction to this new EP … five tracks of pure cranium-crushing headbanging mania!”
Gallagher is not wrong. Opener Black And Blue is as frenetic as anything in their entire catalogue. The band is on fire, with high-intensity riffage from guitarist and brother Mark in fine form. Vocally, John’s delivery has always been marmite, but for me, his high-pitched falsetto combined with the deeper approach fits their intensity perfectly, and he spits out the lyrics at machine gun pace.
Underpinning all of this is the powerhouse drumming of Mike Hellier, the former Fear Factory man whose arrival in 2017 provided Raven with the lift and dynamic engine that they needed. His drumming is monstrous, with an unstoppable battery that powers each track along at 100mph.
Power Hungry is surely the band’s new motto, delivered with the typical Speed Metal delivery that has always been a trademark, whilst the title track is an anthem which is surely destined to grace future live sets.
There’s a bit of an Airborne flavour to it, albeit with an additional upgraded tempo and some extra riffage. Throw in the punchy Gimme A Lie, which continues the controlled chaos and the different, Doom-tinged The Wreckage, which departures substantially from the band’s usual crash, bang, wallop approach, and you have an EP that screams at you from every angle. It’s Heavy Metal, through and through.
The three bonus live tracks from the band’s career feature former drummers Joe Hasselvander and Rob Hunter. I assume this is, in part, a nod to the band’s history, and I wonder what the thinking was behind the choices here. Regardless, they are illustrations of how fast this band played when playing live and left me yearning for another opportunity to catch their frenzied aural assault.
There is artwork by All Things Rotten, which adds to this release, limited to 1000 CDs that come with signatures and an exclusive 50th anniversary Raven patch.
Fifty years since Raven formed, they are still firing on all cylinders and on this showing, will still be showing their quality for another decade. And for me, that is great news.
