Raven - One For All
1999 Massacre Records

Track Listing:
1.  Seven Shades
2.  Double Talk
3.  Roll With The Punches
4.  Get Your Motor Running
5.  To Be Broken
6.  Derailed
7.  The Hunger Inside
8.  On Top Of The World
9.  In The Line Of Fire
10. Kangaroo
11. New Religion
12. Last Ride

Line-Up:
Vocals:  John Gallagher
Guitars:  Mark Gallagher
Bass:  John Gallagher
Drums:  Joe Hasselvander

Website:  www.ravenlunatics.com

Horatio's Rating:  D
Average Album Rating:  D

Horatio's Review:
Is it possible to overdose on a band so much you actually began to hate them?  That seems to be the case with Raven as far as I am concerned.  A few years back I was convinced they were one of the greatest metal bands ever.  Albums like 'Wiped Out' and 'Life's A Bitch' were compulsory listening and blow me down if I didn't include 'Nothing Exceeds Like Excess' (still reasonably good) in a twenty greatest albums of all time list.  These days I'll get through two songs of a Raven album and I can't go further.  I eject it in disgust.  Much like 'Number Of The Beast'.

Where Raven were once high energy, ''One For All' represented them at their most tedious.  Gone were the upfront rockers, replaced by a slew of mid tempo bores masquerading as metal.  Listening to this album actually weakens me.  It's that drab and lifeless.  When I first got it I tried to convince myself it was vintage Raven, just like 'The X Factor' was for Iron Maiden.  Gone were the days of major labels like Atlantic Records, even Roadrunner, instead Raven represented by the global might of Massacre Records, home to Z grade thrash bands if I'm not mistaken.  One of the Gallagher brothers was involved in a car crash a couple of years back and the band have been largely absent since.  Maybe they've lost the desire as well, touring to crowds of ten people throughout the US.  I can't blame them if they reconvene for a new album, plug in their instruments and at the first note are so bored they just pack up, go home and live off their two hundred dollars royalty for the rest of their lives.

Song summaries include...

1. Seven Shades - While this may sound like classic Raven, well paced, typical melodies, it's all too forced.  They'd done it better, nowhere to go.  Isn't it great when you pick up a CD from one of your supposed favourite bands and are left with an indifferent look on your face as it progresses?  B-
2. Doubletalk - Fast, but as John Gallagher says, 'we're excited, more like bored stiff.'  Actually I don't think I've listened to this since 2000.  Why would I?  C
3. Roll With The Punches - Slower than some bollocks doom metal and not even as tangible.  Reviewing Allegiance was more fun than this.  At least you can laugh at them.  Somewhere Raven turned into serious old men.  The whole Geordie lads angle was a fading, stale gimmick. D
4. Get Your Motor Running - Great concept here, a song whose lyrical content involves driving a car very fast!  Of course the music's fast, as if to emphasize the lyrics.  That doesn't mean I feel compelled to headbang, just press the skip button.  C
5. To Be Broken - A stunning statement on the injustices of the American legal system and its unjustness.  'False honour, false glory, false witness, twisted story'.  That's the crux of the chorus.  Words fail me as to how dull this is.  They try to speed it up slightly, but so what?  Is that supposed to redeem it?  C-
6. Derailed - Next to the lyrics of this is a photo of producer, one time big shot Michael Wagner (reduced to Raven's exclusive producer) mock strangling Mark Gallagher.  Maybe he should have killed him.  'Hey that hurts! Ahh stop!'  D
7. The Hunger Inside - This album must have taken five years to record judging by the lack of enthusiasm by all concerned.  This piece of crap sums it up, another plodder.  Did Raven believe in this material?  I can sense the mood in the studio as one of disdain, all concerned reaching mental breakdown at the thought of completing it.  Or as John Gallagher sings 'when you're broken down and busted, and the whip is at your back, it takes everything you've got, to pick yourself up and get back on the track.'  They never picked themselves up.  D
8. On Top Of The World - A rousing cover of the Van Halen favourite.  It isn't?  I just couldn't be bothered listening to it.  C
9. In The Line Of Fire - More innovative subject matter.  This time the utter futility of war and the senseless slaughter of innocent young men, pawns in a ruthless game played by dictators and tyrants.  The music's as worn as the topic.  F
10. Kangaroo - I regarded this track highly in late 1999, on a par with the best Of Raven's back catalogue.  Guess what I think now.  C
11. New Religion - Raven turn into Slayer with miserable lyrics about the fate of mankind and the depraved world we inhabit.  Take away Slayer's speed and heaviness and you're left with...Raven.  D
12. Last Ride - Judging by the current state of affairs in Raven's camp this track just might have been.  C

Horatio's Rating:  D

Also be sure to read:
Raven - Raw Tracks by Horatio
Raven interview by Horatio