The Raven Age Takes London by Storm with Electrifying Performance at The Lafayette.

November 12, 2023 rocknews

Well tonight certainly rocked!

We were excited to see The Raven Age live, and this storming performance at The Lafayette in London’s Kings Cross certainly didn’t disappoint.

Hailed as one of the finest bands in modern British metal, the Raven Age are currently touring this year’s ‘Blood Omen’, their third full-length album release and first since they signed a huge deal with Music For Nations / Sony back in January.

These guys are used to playing in front of big crowds, having supported Iron Maiden, Anthrax and Killswitch Engage (to name but three) and they brought that big-gig energy to the Lafayette.

Tonight’s 15-song set featured 8 from ‘Blood Omen’ and the audience clearly loved the new material. This started right from the off as opener ‘Parasite’ got the Lafayette rocking, the duel guitars of George Harris and Tommy Gentry providing the intro to this melodic and hard-hitting tune.

‘The Day The World Stood Still’ from 2019s ‘Conspiracy’ was next, it’s mellow intro lulling us into a false sense of security before those guitars and Jai Patel’s thunderous drumming reminded us that this band were here to rock!

Three more new songs followed – ‘Essence of Time’, ‘Forgive & Forget’ and ‘Nostradamus’ – each one showing off the musicality of this band and the incredible vocals of Matt James. It’s easy to see why KERRANG! called them “tight as hell and impressively melodic”.

The rest of the set carried on in the same vein. We were treated to ‘Angel In Disguise’ and ‘Salem’s Fate’ from 2017s ‘Darkness Will Rise’, and the main set finished with ‘Tears of Stone’. The last held note of “these tears have turned to stone” held for what seemed like forever as the band took their well-earned applause.

They were back after a short break for a three-song encore that drew again from ‘Conspiracy’ with ‘Serpents Tongue’ and ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ before finishing with this year’s ‘Fleur de Lis’, the double bass drums of Jai Patel and Matt Cox’s heavy bass, along with those duel guitars playing in harmony driving this high-energy closer.