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Artist: Riot |
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Out
of the 70's New York Metal Scene they came and delivered three ground
breaking releases ‘Rock City’, ‘Narita’ and ‘Fire Down’,
together with an appearance at the inaugural Castle Donnington Festival in 1980, this
can only be one band, Riot. But
the eighties saw line-up changes and the metal scene dominated by Thrash
Metal. so the band lost is momentum. That was until its rebirth in 1988
with the release of their 'Thundersteel' opus, with only Mark Reale
remaining from the bands original line-up. This made way for Tony Moore
to take up the vocal spot, and he was joined by Don Van Stavern on bass and
Bobby Jarzombek on drums. The band were now a hard edged metal machine
which was further cemented with the release two years later of the immense
‘The Privilege Of Power’. But as we all know, the music scene is a
tempestuous beast and music tastes change as often as the seasons, but
the band kept plugging away and Reale kept the Riot machine going.
Producing quality metal releases through two decades. So
that's the history lesson over with, it's over to the now and the return of that
'Thundersteel'
line-up as Reale, Moore, Jarzombek and Stavern return, along with
guitarist Mike Flyntz, for the welcome return to metal world with their
new album ‘Immortal Soul’. This
is full on no holds barred riff fuelled metal, with Moore leading the
pack with his powerhouse vocals, while Reale and Flyntz throw out the
licks like six string confetti, against the rhythm section of Stavern
and Jarzombek, which provide this engine with the power to drive the band forward. From
the opener ‘Riot’ it's clear to hear the band haven’t lost any of
their edge and this pure riff spewn metal continues with ‘Still Your
Man’ and ‘Crawling’, before the intense
‘Wings Are For Angels’ . The
pedal is just eased off the metal a fraction for the dark tones of
‘Fall Before Me’, then it's full steam ahead once more with the riff
spewn ‘Sins Of The Father’, before bringing an air of majesty with
the aptly entitled instrumental ‘Majestica’, which acts as the intro
to the title track ‘Immortal Soul’. A track that features one of Moore’s
finest vocals of the entire album. It's
time to pick up the tempo once more with ‘Insanity’ and old school
metal of ‘Whiskey Man’, before the album closes with the thumping
‘Believe’ and the final onslaught ‘Echoes’. Both of which
round off a
great return for one of THE greatest, all time metal bands. A band that were
pioneers and who should have been a big as the likes of Metallica and
their like. |
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Tracklisting: 1. Riot |
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