Raven All For One (1983) – The Wild NWOBHM Charge That Shocked Metal Fans #raven

Raven - All For One (1983, France) 12" Vinyl LP Album

- French Release on Bernett Records: the NWOBHM sprint that refuses to sit still

My vinyl LP collection isn’t a “catalogue” so much as a loud, slightly warped timeline of the moments rock actually meant something: NWOBHM sparking, thrash sharpening its knives, punk kicking the door in, new wave smirking in the corner. As a record collector, I don’t buy museum pieces—I buy fan-favourite breakthroughs and scene-defining troublemakers that still hit with texture: pick-scrape grit, sweaty room reverb, bass that thumps like a boot on a wooden stage. Sunday coffee, sleeve crackle, needle down. I keep coming back to the opener that lights the fuse, the mid-side anthem that makes me grin, and the closer that refuses to die. First press when I can, because I’m predictable like that.

Raven: "All For One" - French Frenzy on Vinyl

Album Description:

NWOBHM is usually sold as mythology: leather, fog, destiny. Fine. But when I put Raven’s "All For One" on the turntable, what I actually hear is a band grinning while they sprint. Two Gallagher brothers (John and Mark) plus Rob “Wacko” Hunter on drums, playing like the rent’s due and the van’s already running outside.

This is the 1983 album—Raven’s third—and my French Bernett copy (SB 18004) wears that “Made in France / license Neat” detail like a little passport stamp on the label. Grey afternoon, needle down, and suddenly the room has elbows.

Setting the Stage

By ’83 the scene had plenty of serious faces. Raven… didn’t do serious. They did velocity, sweat, and that slightly unhinged “watch this” attitude that makes a trio sound bigger than the stage they’re standing on.

Musical Exploration

The LP doesn’t “kick off” with the title track—it hits you with "Take Control" first, and that’s the correct choice. No warm-up. "Mind Over Metal" follows, all clenched-jaw chorus and forward motion, and "Sledgehammer Rock" keeps swinging like it’s trying to dent the speakers.

The title song "All For One" lands mid-side like a banner being yanked open in the wind, then "Run Silent, Run Deep" stretches out and shows they can do more than just sprint. Flip the record and you’re right back in the scrum: "Hung, Drawn and Quartered", "Break the Chain", "Take It Away", "Seek and Destroy"—and then "Athletic Rock" closes the whole thing with a ridiculous wink and a boot to the chest.

Genre Bending

Raven always had that punkish shove in their shoulders—less “epic quest,” more “hold my beer.” The humor isn’t a gimmick; it’s how they survive the speed. You can practically hear the stage dives in the riffs.

Controversies

The only “controversy” Raven ever really earned was snobbery. Some people wanted metal to be solemn and armored. Raven showed up doing athletic laps around that idea, and the fun-police never forgave them. Their loss.

Production and Recording

The sound has shape without getting polite: recorded at Pineapple Studios in London, and produced by Michael Wagener, Udo Dirkschneider, and the band themselves. Wagener later ended up mixing Metallica’s "Master of Puppets", so yeah—he knew how to keep sharp edges sharp.

Quick collector footnote (because reality matters): the Steppenwolf cover "Born to Be Wild" and the track "Inquisitor" belong to later CD reissues as bonus cuts, not the original 1983 LP sequence.

The French Connection

Bernett putting this out in France isn’t some grand “international appeal” trophy. It’s simpler: the record moves, the choruses stick, and the sleeve looks right in a rack. Raven didn’t need permission from radio. They just needed a needle and a loud system.

"All For One" still works for the same reason it worked then: it doesn’t ask you to admire it. It shoves you, laughs, and keeps running. Keep up—or don’t.

References

Michael Wagener is the German-born producer/engineer who taught heavy guitars to sound huge without turning into soup. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s he helped shape Accept's steel-plate punch, then in the 1980s Los Angeles grind he became a go-to set of ears for Dokken—tight, glossy, and still mean. By the late 1980s he was guiding arena-sized hard rock for Skid Row and White Lion, and in the 1990s he kept that balance of bite and clarity alive for bands like Extreme. I can spot his signature fast: drums snapping, guitars spread wide, and reverb kept on a short leash. From his WireWorld room in Tennessee, he mixes like a craftsman: edges sharp, low end disciplined, vocals sitting just forward enough to start trouble.

Michael Wagener Wiki