On the one hand the guitar sound and production on this lands it in the territory of New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the more raw metal textures of the 80s.
This album features Scorpions drummer (he’s done so much more than that, too, though) Herman Rarebell along with some pretty great “friends” as guests.
Raven is considered to be one of the original bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. They are also considered to be a huge influence on thrash.
This new four-CD edition of Raven's Rock Until You Drop features the full album along with bonus tracks on the first disc. From there we get demos and interview and live recordings to fill out the collection.
Rhapsody - Dawn of Victory Review by Mike Korn By the bristling beard of Odin, what manner of mortals be these? The members of the Italian power metal band Rhapsody have taken the fantasy theme to new...and often ridiculous...heights. More
In terms of sheer quantity you really can't beat this set. It's a six CD set of live Riot shows. These all started as bootlegs, and as such the sound quality leaves a bit to be desired.
Riot definitely deserved to be a bigger band than they were. While they have had a following all along, they got largely lost in terms of mainstream metal fans, largely because of the rise of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and hair metal.
Royal Hunt - Paper Blood Review by Gary Hill I came to this disc with a bit of trepidation. Frankly, having spoken with former Hunt vocalist D.C. Cooper on a couple of occasions and finding him to be one of the best hard rock/metal vocalists out there, part of me was afraid to hear what Hunt sounded like without him.
More
Royal Hunt - Double Live In Japan Review by Gary Hill Doing a wonderful job of combining classical music with heavy metal, Royal Hunt's albums have always sounded like studio-only productions. It seemed like a lot would be lost in the translation to live performance. More
Much of this album represents a nearly perfect synthesis of classical music and heavy metal. In many places, the two styles are so intertwined as to be inseparable.
A multi-continental band, RSC (at least on this tune) ply a form of heavy metal that's well rooted in classic hard rock. These guys would have been at home doing music like this in previous eras.
Jack Russell is probably best known as having been the lead singer in Great White. I have to think that it might be more accurate to think that Great White was his band.
If you give this album a listen, you'll surely be impressed by Sam Russell's mastery of the guitar. If you research the man, though, you are likely to be shocked to find out that he has a Masters Degree in Astrophysics.
