RAVEN – Signs With Metal Blade Records

**Bonus Live Tracks

Vocalist, bassist, and founding member John Gallagher comments; “We are ecstatic – we go way back with Metal Blade (we’ve known Brian since meeting him backstage at one of our shows in the UK in 1982!!!) so there’s mutual respect. We feel that having this killer new album Walk Through Fire and a relationship with Metal Blade, an outfit that lives and breathes this music – that UNDERSTANDS where we have been and what we’ve been through, will show that we are not trading on past glories but that we are a band that continues to be relevant…and kicks ass more than ever before! We’ve set the bar high here with this album and are happy to have a partner willing to get it out there to the metal fans and spread the word. This is the RAVEN album the diehards have been beating us up for…and then some!”

Metal Blade Record’s Michael Faley comments; “We are excited and proud to be releasing the new album by RAVEN entitled Walk Through Fire! This record has garnered tremendous reviews worldwide and combines all the strength and power that only the Gallagher brothers can deliver, Rock Solid METAL! With a career that has spanned over 25 years, RAVEN is back with a CLASSIC album.”

According to the pages of the various metal media, the labels “LEGENDARY,” “INNOVATIVE,” “TRUE ORIGINALS,” as well as “F**K!ING CRAZY!!” have been rightfully pinned upon RAVEN over the years. In a music scene filled by clones nurtured with a cookie-cutter mentality, the unique personality, power and humor of the three band members has always shone through. The crazed vocals & bass playing of John Gallagher, the full frontal guitar assault of brother Mark Gallagher, and the punishing polyrhythmic pounding of drummer Joe Hasselvander all combine to form a sonic battering ram unique in rock!

From the well documented early days as NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) frontrunners, RAVEN’s albums ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP, WIPED OUT and ALL FOR ONE virtually invented both the speed metal and power metal genres – during the trailblazing USA tours of the 80’s introducing the States to “Athletic rock” as well as giving opening acts like Metallica and Anthrax their first tours, through the doldrums of the late 80’s/early 90’s when a grunge obsessed media wrote off so many acts — RAVEN has consistently proved to be both survivors par excellence and in a genre of grim imitation – shown that they are “the real thing”. Where so many of their contemporaries have either faded creatively or become parodies of themselves, RAVEN have consistently pushed the envelope while retaining their unique sound and attack – both in the studio & in their true element, onstage!

Following a forced layoff through half of the last decade due to Mark Gallagher’s long recuperation from a serious accident where Mark’s legs were crushed after a wall collapsed on the musician, the band have fought back with a number of European festival appearances, a UK tour in 2008 and a triumphant jaunt to Japan in 2009.

And now, the band unleashes the best album they’ve done in many years, Walk Through Fire – this, quite simply, is the real deal – the right songs, the right sound and the right feel – guaranteed to rip yer head off! – Raven are finally set to reclaim the title that is rightfully theirs – “the wildest band in the f**kin’ world!!”

RAVEN is:
John Gallagher – vocals & bass
Mark Gallagher – guitars
Joe Hasselvander – drums

http://www.myspace.com/ravenlunatics