Raven
Metallica
Utopias
Bridgeport, Connecticut
July, 1983
As an avid fan of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, I was completely surprised that Raven was to play the hole-in-the-wall place at the University of Bridgeport’s Utopias. Raven was at the second tier of the NWOBHM movement behind the likes of Def Leppard, Saxon, and Iron Maiden. The trio had just released “All for One” and was at the front end of a brief US tour. In tow as set openers was an unknown Bay area band called Metallica. The tour was aptly called “Kill’em All for One Tour.”
As the band arrived on stage through a dense fog of dry ice, the two guitarists had flying V’s so in our minds they couldn’t be that bad. Well, as the opening riff of “Hit the Lights” ricocheted about the tiny venue, we knew that this was no ordinary opening band. James Hetfield was dressed in tight jeans and a Lemmy-like studded bullet belt, while Kirk, who looked like he was 12 years old, had on a brand new leather jacket. Cliff was just as you would imagine him – bell-bottom jeans and a jean jacket. And Lars? Well, you couldn’t see him behind his kit he was so small! The band was about a week away from releasing “Kill’em All” and played several of the songs from it including “Phantom Lord”, “Seek and Destroy”, “The Four Horsemen,” “Whiplash”, and “Metal Militia.” Of course, at the time Metallica played a wealth of covers too. We got Diamond Head’s “It’s Electric”, and “The Prince”, “Am I Evil.” The last two songs were “Loose and Lethal” from Savage and “Blitzkrieg” by the band of the same name. Who would’ve thought that these rag-tag teens would go on to achieve worldwide domination!?
Raven simply couldn’t follow the unbridled energy that Metallica possessed. Nonetheless, they were excellent as well. They played several songs from their new release including “Run Silent, Run Deep”, “Break the Chain” and the title track as well as selections from their first two albums. “Firepower”, “Don’t need your Money”, “Faster than the Speed of Light”, “Rock till you Drop” and others blitzed by. I remember going home that evening thinking about that band Metallica and how they blew away one my favorite British metal bands. I waited with baited breath until “Kill’em All” came out five days later and when I put the stylus on the record, I wasn’t disappointed. And the rest, as they say, is metal history!