Great Metal Albums of 1985: Raven- Stay Hard

At the beginning of the documentary about Anvil, it lists all of the metal bands who were around at the same time and have gone onto achieve greater glories while Anvil vanished into obscurity. The question here is: Can the same thing be said about NWOBHM band Raven?  They too came about riding on the tide of heavy metal bands coming out of Great Britain in the early 1980s but while the likes of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and to a lesser extent, Saxon, have become the household names of NWOBHM, Raven seems to have vanished into obscurity.

For me, Raven never vanished into obscurity. While I acknowledge they never received the accolades of the bands I’ve just mentioned, true metalheads knew who they were and listened to their albums along with the greats. Cue their fourth album, “Stay Hard.” This album is a pure metal album, nothing but one great metal tune after the other. The first half of the album is just one metal party with one great song after another. There’s nothing fancy about them, Raven just do what any good band should do with great guitars, vocals and rhythm section. In fact, all the songs one the first side of the album just blend into each other in a good way and I would be extremely hard pressed to pick a favourite from those five songs.

Raven do mix things up a little on the second half of the album but in no way does it take from the quality of the album. For one, while listening to the album on the Tubes of You, track eight, “Hard Ride,” sounded very familiar and I don’t mean that I remember hearing it in the distant past. It took some digging but I realize the the track appears on a £3 compilation album I bought a few years back. For that reason, it’s the standout track on “Stay Hard.” As for other mix ups, the second side opens with a harder “Power and the Glory” which has a cool intro and ends with some weird laughs after the music. Then they try a power ballad with “Pray For the Sun,” which isn’t bad. I wouldn’t play it to seduce a lady because there is some real power in the ballad here. Mark Gallagher plays a blinder of a guitar solo on it. The final two songs go back to familiar waters but yet are still unique enough making it a great way to end the album.

Track Listing:

1. Stay Hard
2. When the Going Gets Tough
3. On and On
4. Get It Right
5. Restless Child
6. Power and the Glory
7. Pray for the Sun
8. Hard Ride
9. Extract the Action
10. The Bottom Line

John Gallagher- bass, vocals

Mark Gallagher- guitar

Rob Hunter- drums

So once again, the question can be asked, why didn’t Raven go onto greater glories like their counterparts? My belief was that they might have been a little too metal for commercial radio to digest at the time. But for metalheads like me back then, we knew what a cool band they were with albums like “Stay Hard.”

Next post: Hanoi Rocks- Rock and Roll Divorce

To download Rock and Roll Children, go to: https://c-newfreepdf.cf/olddocs/free–download–online–rock-and-roll–children-pdf-1609763556-by-michael–d–lefevre