SHOWTIME: 8pm December 15th at the Music Room in San Bernardino.

Raven Mad opens for Beat the Bone.

For those of you who have not yet heard Raven Mad at all, live is the way to go. The opening number, "Metallurgy" (from the new EP A Bit of Madness) an instrumental shred-a-thon slapped the audience into full on awake and crap in the shorts mode.

The showmanship here was truly top notch, everyone falling into place with everyone else like a well-oiled machine. It was very apparent that the screaming axeman, William "Fro-Boy" Rustrum, had way too much fun slamming the crowd through the high speed metal free for all. Bass basher Melanie Sisneros got her hits in like falling sledgehammers. Bringing up the other guitar swat is Dustin Swad, who twists leads with William in a manner not seen since Megadeth was young and pissed off. Resident skin bruiser Joe Verastegui totally abused his drum kit for the whole set.

Their playing is tight, and when I say tight I mean just plain hermetically sealed leakproof waterproof TIGHT! The tempo changes on top of the brutally dissonant key changes make for some righteous metal true to the Raven mad name. Here is a band who brings back the joy I felt in the middle 80's with the metal craze at full tilt. Despite the throwback to the days of yore, their sound is still potently new millenium. If screaming, exploding, hardcore, volcanic metal is your thing, these are the guys (and gal!) to do it! Catch them in your area, or ELSE!