By: Jesse Striewski
In all honesty I actually want to like Raven, and was hoping for some promising metal from them after seeing the comic book-inspired cover of their latest release, All Hell’s Breaking Loose. But there’s just something off about them that seems to be holding them back that I can’t quite put my finger on.
I tried to give the album an honest try, but really struggled to find anything to hold much attention here. Listeners are instantly greeted with the corney-ness of “Medieval,” and it doesn’t get much better from there. Many tracks like “Surf the Tsunami,” “Turn of the Screw,” and “Go For the Gold” might contain the occasional decent guitar or drum riff, but are usually overshadowed by juvenile lyrics and weak vocal performances that unfortunately come off as not much more than a poor man’s King Diamond in most cases.
Many of the previously-mentioned numbers also have videos to go along with them, which do little to no justice for the songs themselves. In fact the only track I can really even give an honest recommendation for would be “The Far Side,” which actually finds each member of the band firing on all cylinders, and contains a catchy chorus for once.
While I appreciate a band with some slight, tongue-in-cheek humor (see, Anvil), too much of it can sometimes be a bad thing for sure. I wish with Raven they could have perhaps taken a different, more serious approach seen from such fellow contemporaries as Iron Maiden or even W.A.S.P.; maybe then this would have been a much different kind of review.
Rating: 1.5/5 Stars
