If you're a metalhead who has never experienced the bombastic,
Judas Priest-influenced pleasures of
Raven, it's best to cut to the chase and go directly to the British headbangers' most essential and enduring output. That means skipping
Raven's inferior Atlantic work and starting out with its early recordings. 1981's Rock Until You Drop is
Raven's best album, but 1982's
Wiped Out (which Roadrunner/RC Revisited reissued on CD in the early '90s) runs a close second. When guitarist Mark Gallagher, drummer
Rob Hunter, and the
Rob Halford-influenced lead singer John Gallagher rip into such blistering, ferocious classics as "Star War," "Fire Power," "Battle Zone," and "Live at the Inferno," you're hearing a band that was very much in their prime and had yet to lose any of their freshness, imagination, or vitality. Collectors and completists will want
Raven's Atlantic recordings despite their problems, but for beginners, Rock Until You Drop and
Wiped Out are definitely the gems to start out with. [The Navarre reissue offers an outtake of "20/21" as a bonus track.] ~ Alex Henderson