Formation (1974–1979) Raven was formed in 1974 in
Newcastle, England, by brothers John and Mark Gallagher, and Paul Bowden. The band began creating a sound which was rooted in British
hard rock, with
progressive rock tendencies and a willingness to take musical chances. Sufficient noise was made for the American market to take notice and New Jersey's
Megaforce Records signed them, issuing their next recording in the States as
All for One in 1983.
Atlantic Records signed Raven to a worldwide contract after a minor bidding war (major label contracts would follow for
Metallica and
Anthrax in the following year). The band moved its permanent base from Newcastle to New York City. A live album called
Destroy All Monsters/Live in Japan was recorded featuring songs from
Glow, as well as older cuts such as "For the Future". 1996 was spent writing and recording the new studio album
Everything Louder, The band played its first full-scale tour of the US since 1989 headlining on the East Coast and joining forces for a double headlining jaunt through the West Coast with fellow UK heavy metal band
Diamond Head. November and December had the band playing Europe with old mates
Girlschool as support, garnering favorable reviews for the energetic performances. In January 2014, the band were featured on the
70000 Tons of Metal cruise from Miami to Mexico and played in South America in March. Metallica invited the band to open for them at a
football stadium in São Paulo, Brazil in March 2014 in front of almost 70,000 fans. The band started work on a new album,
ExtermiNation, in September 2014, and were special guests on three United States showcase gigs with
Accept. They then played a 43-date United States tour in October and November.
ExtermiNation (2015–2016) In order to cover additional recording costs for a new album to be titled
ExtermiNation, the band initiated a
Kickstarter crowdfunding project; in the process they recorded eleven songs for a cover album entitled
Party Killers exclusively for the contributors. The album rehearsals and recording of
Party Killers were held at Etching Tin Studios in
Richmond, Virginia. As with the
Walk Through Fire album,
ExtermiNation was recorded at Assembly Line Studios in
Vienna, Virginia with Kevin "131" Guitierrez engineering and the band producing. Recording took place in August 2014 with a short break as the band played special guest on three shows by German band Accept in the US. The band spent a lot of time in the writing/arranging phase of the project; actual recording took approximately two weeks.
ExtermiNation was released in late April 2015 and consists of 14 songs plus the bonus track "Malice in Geordieland" (sung entirely in the
Newcastle "Geordie" accent). It was released worldwide via SPV, except in Japan via Spiritual Beast and in South America via Die Hard. The album garnered both favorable fan reaction and critical acclaim noting the production, songwriting, performances and especially the aggression of the band which harkened back to the early albums. A lyric video for "Destroy All Monsters" kicked off the album release, followed by a band video for "Tank Treads – The Blood Runs Red" In 2015, the band played their first shows in Colombia (in
Pereira and
Bogotá), where they were present for a 6.2 earthquake; then, the Pentaport Festival in South Korea was followed by dates in Japan. After a two-week run of dates in the United States, the band embarked on their longest headline European tour for many years from September through October, visiting a number of countries for the first time.
New drummer, Metal City and ''All Hell's Breaking Loose'' (2017–present) In May 2017, Joe Hasselvander suffered a heart attack two days before a string of US/European dates. In order to fulfill these obligations, the Gallagher brothers had a number of drummers to assist. Jimmy Mess did the Chicago show,
Mike Heller (
Fear Factory,
Malignancy) performed on three US dates, Fabio Alessandrini (
Annihilator) did the Muskelrock (Sweden) festival, and Dave Chedrick did the 11-date tour of Europe. When it became obvious Joe Hasselvander would not be physically able to play drums for the foreseeable future, the Gallagher brothers invited Heller to play the upcoming Euro festival dates they had booked (
Bang Your Head, Leyendes Del Rock, Headbangers Open Air,
Metaldays and Alcatraz), as his playing was a perfect fit. The band then embarked upon a 70-date European run with 50 dates as special guests on the
Udo Dirkschneider "Back to the Roots 2" tour and 20 select headline shows. Raven released their fourteenth studio album,
Metal City, on 18 September 2020. It marked their first studio album in five years, and their first to feature
Mike Heller on drums. In July 2022, Raven announced that they had signed to Silver Lining Music and released their fifteenth studio album, ''All Hell's Breaking Loose'' in 2023. The band played at
Milwaukee Metal Fest in May of that year. ==Band members==