Almost fifty years have passed since brothers Mark and John Gallagher joined forces to form Newcastle metal pioneers Raven. Signing to the now legendary Neat Records in 1980, the band cemented their names in NWOBHM history with its debut album Rock Until You Drop and a succession of other quality records during the eighties including the likes of Wiped Out, All For One and The Pack is Back.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, and even despite an enforced four-year hiatus due to an injury to guitarist Mark Gallagher, Raven never completely disappeared from the scene. Even when music trends inevitably shifted direction in the ’90s and the 2000s that didn’t stop the band who by then had already managed to influence Metallica and half the Bay Area thrash scene. Seeing no point in changing a winning formula after all these years, the fifteenth full-length studio release All Hell’s Breaking Loose (Silver Lining Music) does exactly what it says on the tin. Around forty minutes of balls-to-the-wall traditional metal with no compromises and no ballads. 

After a slow, moody intro, drummer Mike Heller (Malignancy, formerly with Fear Factory) unleashes all manner of hell, and opener ‘Medieval’ bursts into life with some simple but serious riff energy and frontman John Gallagher stretching his sixty-four-year-old vocal cords to the max. Just like fellow labelmates Venom from back in the day, you do wonder how three men can make such an ungodly racket, and ‘Surf The Tsunami’ asks this question right from the off. An insane ‘Painkiller’-esque drum intro from Heller leads into a more complicated pull-off-based riff, the song kicking into another fantastic slice of traditional heavy fucking metal. 

‘Turn Of The Screw’ is up next, an instant heads-down bruiser featuring some frantic thrashing riffery, a particularly wicked guitar solo, and even a brief Lemmy meets Cliff Burton bass break.

The title track says everything really, Gallagher having fun with his vocals while his younger brother provides some vigorous whammy action. Easily one of the record’s standout cuts, ‘The Far Side’ is prime NWOBHM with a killer galloping chorus while the upbeat ‘Desperate Measures’ and the thundering powerhouse of ‘Victory’s Call’ combine to form an all-action pairing of classic metal. The driving fury of ‘Edge Of A Nightmare’ manages to cheekily steal from both themselves and fellow NWOBHMers (Newobbemmers?) Blitzkrieg while Gallagher tries to force his vocals so high that only dogs can hear them.

The penultimate track ‘Invasion’ is just good old-fashioned classic metal while the closer and preceding single ‘Go For The Gold’ is a determined and furious renewed mission statement from the self-professed originators of “Athletic Metal”. With a combined age of 127 (168 when you include Heller), the astonishingly nimble fretwork and glass-shattering vocal histrionics of All Hell’s Breaking Loose prove the original (and best) Gallagher brothers are still as fit and raring to go as they were back in the day.

Buy the album here:

https://smarturl.it/AllHellsBreakingLoose

8 / 10

GARY ALCOCK