Search - Raven :: Rock Until You Drop

Quintessential NWOBHM album

Tom P. the Underground Navigator | Park Forest, IL USA | 08/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I consider Raven to be like the Metallica of the NWOBHM, only I have to say I like Raven better. Just like Metallica's "Kill 'Em All" debut that would emerge a few years later, "Rock Until You Drop" was the very first long player from Raven, who just like their American counterparts were a hungry young band barely in their 20s whose youthful fire is evident in every note and track. The photos that adorn the LP sleeve (or CD in this case) are priceless, showing the band members among wrecked equipment in their rehearsal area. These guys were that loud and bombastic.



I first got to hear this band on Lars Ulrich's essential 1990 "NWOBHM: '79 Revisited" compilation, which included the title track to the band's April 1980 debut single "Don't Need Your Money." Over the course of several sessions later on at the end of 1980 and into early '81, the band recorded their first full length proper and the album being reviewed here "Rock Until You Drop."



Speaking of Metallica, Raven were among the group's biggest influences from the NWOBHM and the latter are undoubtedly an early incarnation of what would later become speed metal as we know it. But what Raven also had that most later American speed/thrash metal bands lacked was an overriding catchiness and melody to their sound that still ranked them as a product of the late '70s Judas Priest metal era, as all NWOBHM was, whereas the stuff that came later was more concerned with one dimensional speed and brutality.



Nearly every track here is fast, and all of them are highly energetic and great. The production is raw, but that's actually an asset in this case, as the sound has a live, fluid and created as it was actually happening feel to it that really impresses. Other than the aforementioned "Don't Need Your Money," my favorite tracks on the LP are "Hard Ride," "Hell Patrol" (a song title which would later be borrowed by Judas Priest), "Lambs to the Slaughter," and the classic closer "Tyrant of the Airways," which is an epic that exceeds the seven minute mark. (The band even throw in two covers of '70s U.K. glam act the Sweet, "Hellraiser" and "Action.")



All of the 2002 NWOBHM reissues on the band's label Neat Records are choice and this one is no exception. Included is all original LP artwork and a reproduction of its back cover, lyrics, various reviews and clippings from the day and a magnificently written retrospective on the material included here by rock historian Dave Ling. Last but not least are no less than eight bonus tracks, including the B-sides to the band's early singles, most of which are even faster and more bombastic than the LP tracks.



I had this album on tape for years before upgrading to the real thing recently in the form of the '02 Neat CD, which is unfortunately out of print currently and commanding some hefty prices on the internet, as most rare NWOBHM does. But if you are at all interested in this essential era of music, Raven's debut is one of its cornerstones, sure to please any and all fans of other great bands from the day such as Tygers of Pan Tang and Iron Maiden. Classic stuff here."