April 21, 2026 brought a roaring night of new and vintage heavy to Empire Undergound in Albany, NY. Headlining were the legendary New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) heroes Raven, playing their first gig in New York’s Capital District in 9 years, only the fourth show they’ve ever done in this area, and the first time in the City of Albany.
Raven did not come alone. This was a four-band bill, with direct support from young South Carolinians Slackjaw, who have been touring with Raven on this March-May 2026 North American tour, along with a pair of Upstate New York heavies, Skull Mason and Deveria. Tonight had a great crowd in for a Tuesday. Every band had supporters there. The age range was across the board: Slackjaw’s following was youthful, a contrast to the battle-scarred, old-school veteran metallers there to see Raven. The young’uns and greybeards mixed just fine – everyone was there to see heavy music, and no doubt every band that night picked up new fans from some of the other bands’ crowds.
Being a Tuesday, the show started early, and kicked off with a meaty, pummeling set from Skull Mason, whose various members hailed from bands such as Ghost Walker, Leeway, Straight Through Sanity, King Pariah, I, Conqueror and Last To Fall. This was their second show ever, although you’d never have guessed that – hammering, chugging stuff, highlighted by newest single “Cancerous Hate” (hunt it down on your preferred streaming platform). As our intrepid photographer, Lori McKone, commented “they will be one to watch in the 518 music scene.”
Deveria were the second band, a six-song set from an excellent Albany-area band whose set began with “Silent Cries” (the only track played from 2021 full-length debut Suicide Forest), the rest of the set coming from newest record, last year’s The Final Hour. They went down very well, the front of the club packed, the band active onstage and working the crowd, finishing with “Killing Fields”. Deveria are one of those bands that manages to bridge the gap between the classic metal of old (Charles Woodard is a great singer, killer guitars from Christian Bevoria and ex-Enertia/Within the Fire man Roman Singleton) and the newer contemporary metal. Great set.
Slackjaw played next, and they had a big, vocal following. Mark Gallagher from Raven told me they have a huge social media presence, a big following, and it translated to some very enthusiastic support during their set. They’re a cool, heavy band – great stage presence, on-stage enthusiasm and great playing. I heard comparisons to Pantera, but to my ears heard lots of Prong, Biohazard and some Celtic Frost influence weaved in there too. “Give ‘em Hell” was a standout. Another solid set.
Raven have been doing it for around 50 years as a band, and have been releasing great, hammering metal albums starting their debut “I Don’t Need Your Money” 7” single (on Newcastle, UK label Neat Records in 1980). Their first full-length record, Rock Until You Drop (1981) celebrates its 45th anniversary this Fall and was a direct influence the thrash metal boom that kicked off around 1983. This band brought out now-legendary bands like Metallica and Anthrax on their first US tours in the early-mid 80s, and have a glorious and extensive history – huge underground success in the early 80s, which led to a major label record deal and accusations of ‘sellout’ in the mid-80s, answered by a string of heavy, uncompromising records. After some breaks in activity due to physical injuries, the band has rebuilt and retooled with a new(-ish) drummer, Mike Heller, and a bruising host of recent albums like Metal City, All Hell’s Breaking Loose and newest EP Can’t Take Away the Fire. This is also a band with extensive New York history – although founding brothers John and Mark Gallagher hail from Newcastle in northern England and were a key band in the late 70s/early 80s UK metal boom, Raven emigrated to the US in the mid-80s and during that era various members lived all over New York State (including Cortland, the Ithaca area, Long Island and Woodstock)
At around 9:30, Raven hit the stage with the new EP title track “Can’t Take Away the Fire” – a great tune, mid-tempo and anthemic but a strange choice for a show-opener, particularly with a band with iconic opening songs like “Hard Ride” and “Take Control” – but “Can’t Take” led right into the evergreen “Hell Patrol”, a song from first record Rock Until You Drop, an immortal headbanger which got a huge response from the old-school faithful. But Raven’s show isn’t a nostalgia trip, as proved by the thrashing 1-2-3 punch of recent material which came next: “The Power” and “Top of the Mountain”, from 2020 LP Metal City, followed by “Surf the Tsunami” from 2023 full-length All Hell’s Breaking Loose. Of course, vintage standards had to be in there, and the always rousing first-album title song “Rock Until You Drop” got a the crowd roaring along, followed by a ripping guitar solo from Mark Gallagher, who all night was stalking the stage like a deranged, recently uncaged animal, and his solo manages to transcend the usual “bathroom song” quality of long instrumental solos, supremely entertaining and skillful, with bits of Raven classics like “I Don’t Need Your Money” and “Stay Hard” mixed in there. Would I have rather heard the entire songs instead of extended solos? Probably. But both Mark and John (who later took a bass solo) are such great players and keep the solo spots so interesting and fun, you can’t get too irked.
Next up was the ever-hammering “Faster Than the Speed of Light”, a song which came from second record Wiped Out (1982), and which song, arguably, may well have invented the entire thrash metal genre, along with Accept’s “Fast as a Shark”. That’s a Raven standard, but it’s the deep tracks that count for lifelong fans like this writer, people who have pored over every album, EP and single, and dug into obscure b-sides and compilation-album only songs. And Raven did not disappoint in that respect, next unleashing the long-unplayed first-album headbanger “For the Future”, which just crushed live, and even better followed it up with the raging “Pick Your Window”, from the long-ignored 1987 album Life’s a Bitch – arguably, their greatest unheralded album – which just killed. It’s great to see them revisit that album, too long left unrepresented in setlists.
A howling bass solo from John Gallagher was next, which led into the rampant title track from their most recent full-length album “All Hell’s Breaking Loose”. Down the home stretch were the band’s two biggest “hits”, the 1985 anthem “On & On” (from the 1985 album Stay Hard, and an oft-played MTV video in days of yore), and 1983 All For One-era single “Break the Chain”, which saw the crowd down front roaring along merrily. The band used “Break” as a launchpad for a lengthy, fun jam which incorporated a host of old-school metal standards, including UFO’s “Rock Bottom”, Budgie’s “Breadfan”, Judas Priest’s “Victim of Changes”, Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down” and Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut” and “Children of the Grave”. Super entertaining, but it leads to the question: would you have preferred some of the band’s own songs, or a covers jam? But it was hard not to enjoy, and the crowd lapped it up.
The gig closed with the rampaging “Chainsaw” from Wiped Out – back in the early days, this was always their closing song, but for years it disappeared from setlists, before returning recently to its rightful place. Truly a killer, headbanging show-ending blast of metal.
Great gig. For the hardcore fan, song choice is always the debate, and you could grouse that there was only one song from All for One, and nothing from the Mad EP to commemorate its 40th anniversary, or that a few more deep tracks in place of a covers jam or solos would be more ideal, and it would’ve been great to hear one or two of the lesser-played tracks they’ve sprinkled in this tour (“Lambs to the Slaughter”, “Crash Bang Wallop!”, “Speed of the Reflex”, “All for One” or “Seek & Destroy”). But this is hair-splitting. It was a killer show, the band played like men possessed, the Gallagher brothers delivering with the energy of bands 1/3 their age. And you cannot complain about inclusion of killer songs like “For the Future”, “Pick Your Window” and “Chainsaw” – glorious stuff.
All hail Raven!
Setlists:
Skull Mason: Neutralize, Finally Awake, Cancerous Hate, Short Fall, Lessons Slipped Away.
Deveria: Silent Cries, Red Devil, The War That Never Ends, When Darkness Falls, The Final Hour, Killing Fields.
Slackjaw: Caught in the Crossfire, House of Broken Bones, Vindictive, Gallows, Hate Affair (Manufactured Rage), Ascend Me, Give ’Em Hell, WMD, Mean It, Death Can’t Save You.
Raven: Can’t Take Away the Fire, Hell Patrol, The Power, Top of the Mountain, Surf the Tsunami, Rock Until You Drop, Mark Gallagher Guitar Solo, Faster Than the Speed of Light, For the Future, Pick Your Window, John Gallagher Bass Solo, On and On, Break the Chain, Jam, Chainsaw.
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