RAVEN Announces Spring 2026 North American 'Can't Take Away The Fire' Tour

Satellite Touring and GLM Artists have announced that the British/American metal trio RAVEN will return to the live stage for an extensive North American tour of more than 35 shows from March through May this year. Support on the trek will come from SLACKJAW.

RAVEN vocalist/bassist John Gallagher states: "After our 'medical gap year' of 2025, we are hungry and itching to get back to doing what we do best — cranking out the megawatts and putting on a RAVEN metal show for the lunatics out there. We have a killer band SLACKJAW out with us as special guests on these shows and it's gonna be a take-no-prisoners full-out affair!"

Dates announced so far, with more to come:

March 18 - Louisville, KY @ Goodwood Whiskey Row
March 19 - St. Louis, MO @ Red Flag
March 20 - Kansas City, MO @ Westport Brewery
March 21 - Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th Street Live
March 22 - Dallas, TX @ RBC
March 26 - West Hollywood, CA @ The Whisky
March 28 - San Francisco, CA @ Above DNA
March 29 - Reno, NV @ Club Underground
March 31 - Portland, OR @ Dante's
April 1 - Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
April 2 - Seattle, WA @ The Funhouse
April 4 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High Saloon
April 5 - Denver, CO @ The Federal Theatre
April 7 - Lincoln, NE @ 1867 Bar
April 8 - Cudahy, WI @ X-Ray Arcade
April 9 - Chicago,IL @ Reggie's Rock Club
April 10 - Columbus, OH @ The King of Clubs
April 11 - Lakewood, OH @ Mercury Music Lounge
April 12 - Hamtramck, MI @ Sanctuary
April 14 - New Kensington, PA @ Preserving Underground
April 16 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
April 17 - Ottawa, ON @ Rainbow Bistro
April 18 - Quebec City, QC @ L'Anti Bar & Spectacles
April 19 - Montreal, QC @ Piranha Bar
April 21 - Albany, NY @ Empire Underground
April 22 - Old Town, ME @ The Old Town Theatre
April 23 - Manchester, NH @ Jewel Music Venue
April 24 - Clifton, NJ @ Dingbatz
April 25 - Harrisburg, PA @HMAC
April 26 - Richmond, VA @ Ember Music Hall
April 29 - Raleigh, NC @ Chapel Of Bones
April 30 - Greenville, SC @ Radio Room
May 1 - Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
May 2 - Atlanta, GA @ Boggs Social & Supply
May 3 - Bradenton, FL @ Oscura

Last August RAVEN announced that it was postponing its previously announced summer/fall 2025 European tour due to John Gallagher's health. John later released a video message in which he said that he found out he had "a bleed on the brain."

Considered part of the "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" movement of the early '80s, RAVEN is perhaps best remembered for its trailblazing tours in America in the early '80s that gave groups like METALLICA and ANTHRAX their first taste of the road.

In a 2014 interview with CantonRep.com, John stated about RAVEN's tour with METALLICA, dubbed the "Kill 'Em All For One Tour", the moniker coming from the combination of the bands' two albums at the time: "It was like guerilla warfare. There were 17 people in a six-person Winnebago. We ended up spending most of our time traveling in the back of one of the trucks, because it was more sanitary! You'd turn up in places like Oklahoma City going, 'Doesn't this remind you of the 'Blues Brothers?' And it was except there was no chicken wire, so when people were throwing (crap) around, it would hit you! But we'd played for punks in workingman's clubs in the North of England, so we just gave it back, kicked their beers over, jumped on the tables, and said, 'Are you with us or against us?' That was our job. It was METALLICA's first tour. We showed them the ropes, and they were completely out of control. It was great. It was like this big gang traveling across America."

RAVEN's classic albums "Rock Until You Drop", "Wiped Out" and "All For One" virtually invented both the speed metal and power metal genres, with the band consistently pushing the envelope while retaining its unique sound and attack — both in the studio and in their true element: onstage.

RAVEN's latest EP, "Can't Take Away The Fire", came out in February 2025 via Silver Lining Music.

Photo by Magalie Aspeele (courtesy of Earsplit PR)