RIOT

I was just listening to Born In America earlier today. What a great album! And I really like that Cliff Richard cover. Vigilante Killer and Gunfighter are also very catchy tunes.

My favorite from Born In America is Running From The Law.

My favorite Riot album is probably Fire Down Under or Rock City (which I've always enjoyed more than Narita for some reason). They're such a kickass band, though. I need to listen to some of their stuff. It's been a while.

Thundersteel is the sixth studio album by Riot, released after coming back from a period of inactivity in the mid-80s... It features an entirely new lineup with only Mark Reale as the original member. (Got to admit that somehow I missed this album back in the late 80s when it was released)...The song "Thundersteel" was originally written by Mark Reale and Don Van Stavern for Narita, a short-lived project Reale formed with members of S.A.Slayer following the demise of Riot in 1984. A demo released by Narita exists, with "Thundersteel" and two other tracks: "Liar" and "The Feeling Is Gone". The song's cover appears as a bonus track on 2013 album "Possession" by the Polish heavy metal band Crystal Viper. The song "Flight of the Warrior" was covered by the Swedish heavy metal band HammerFall on their 2008 album Masterpieces. A cover of "Flight of the Warrior" also appears as a bonus track on the 2013 album Beneath the Surface by German metal band Alpha Tiger who've performed the song live as well.

1. "Thundersteel"  
2. "Fight or Fall"  
3. "Sign of the Crimson Storm"  
4. "Flight of the Warrior"  
5. "On Wings of Eagles"  
6. "Johnny's Back"  
7. "Bloodstreets"  
8. "Run for Your Life"  
9. "Buried Alive (Tell Tale Heart)"  

Band members..

   Tony Moore – vocals
   Mark Reale – guitars, producer
   Don Van Stavern – bass
   Bobby Jarzombek – drums
   Mark Edwards (Steeler, Third Stage Alert, Lion) – drums on tracks 2, 3, 5 & 7
......

It's the only Riot album I own, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I find Thundersteel terrific. Tight speed metal, and that ballad, Bloodstreets. Quite a record, especially in this style, for 1988.

I feel, for their own good, they were 10 years too early with this.

Thundersteel is a kickass record. Very different than early Riot, but definitely a great platter of metal.

Thundersteel is a great album indeed! Worthy of all the praise it gets.

I was heavily into Thundersteel (1988), and then, The Privilege of Power (1990), but maybe since I grew up as "KISS" / "Ramones" fan primarily, I eventually hated it.

Just like I don't like Iron Maiden after Di'Anno left...
maiden's production became too clean, the sound, the guitars ,etc,  ain't gritty enough to be considered real rock/metal.

RIOT "Rock City" Lp is where it is at for heaviness, real grit, and where thrashy riffs originate from.

mlotek wrote:

I was heavily into Thundersteel (1988), and then, The Privilege of Power (1990), but maybe since I grew up as "KISS" / "Ramones" fan primarily, I eventually hated it.

Just like I don't like Iron Maiden after Di'Anno left...
maiden's production became too clean, the sound, the guitars ,etc,  ain't gritty enough to be considered real rock/metal.

RIOT "Rock City" Lp is where it is at for heaviness, real grit, and where thrashy riffs originate from.

Funny how its the reason why theres no Riot for me prior Thundersteel.

Aside form stupid "Run For your Life" the record is a scorcher.

In 1989 Riot Released Riot Live (not to be confused with the live Ep from "82) in Japan...It was Riots first full length live album. It was recorded back in 1980 and features Guy Speranza on Vocals. It was finally released in The US in 1993 on metal blade...

Next up is THE PRIVILEGE OF POWER....

This album took a little different turn for Riot...It included horns on some tracks and is an attempt at a concept album...It also included a cover of the Al Di Meola song "Racing With The Devil On A Spanish Hiway"..

1."On Your Knees"  
2. "Metal Soldiers"  
3. "Runaway"  
4. "Killer"  
5. "Dance of Death"  
6. "Storming the Gates of Hell"  
7. "Maryanne"  
8. "Little Miss Death"  
9. "Black Leather and Glittering Steel"  
10. "Racing with the Devil on a Spanish Highway (Revisited)"


   Tony Moore - vocals
   Mark Reale - guitars, producer
   Don Van Stavern - bass
   Bobby Jarzombek - drums
.....................

   Tower of Power horn section: Greg Adams, Emilio Castillio, Steve Kupka, Lee Thornburg, Steve Gross
   Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis, Dave Bargeron, Ron Cuber, Lawrence Feldman - horn section
   James 'Blood' Ulmer - guitar
   G. E. Smith - guitar
   T. M. Stevens - bass
   Joe Lynn Turner - vocals on "Killer"
   Bob Held - bass on "Little Miss Death"

I love the Privilege Of Power. It was one of the last Riot CDs I got but it wascworth the wait.

Great band . but between their "hard rock" early 80´s material and the latter power metal stuff , I prefer their power metal stuff

I have all the Riot on vinyl and with the issues of Sons Of Society & Inishmore on vinyl it adds to the collection. I have all of it on cd as well.

Wargod

Army of one is getting re-released during this month. Cannot wait for it. The only missing RIOT album in my collection.

Confession:

I've only just now "discovered" Riot. I honestly think it's their cover art. I always took them to be some crappy psychedelic/stoner rock or just some really crappy John Denver wanna-be band. I don't know. That stupid album cover shows up in all the "weirdest album cover" lists.  Anyhow...

Their early stuff reminds me of a mix of Rush and Iron Maiden (and I guess Iron Maiden might owe a lot of their sound to them?).

Pretty good stuff. They were ahead of their time.

I also hear some Resurrection Band sounds in there in the early stuff...

Thundersteel is great!!

Immortal Soul?!?! Wow!

Can't believe I've missed out on these guys.

Curious to know what others think of the Mike DiMeo era of Riot. I've been streaming them often these past few weeks those albums have been growing on me. Production gets a little crap depending on the album but the songwriting is always top-notch and balanced. DiMeo has a unique voice for this type of metal and the secondary guitar work by the Mike Flyntz (I guess he jumped on board the same time as DiMeo) is STIRRING. Hell, there's a dual lead run in the below clip that gave me goosebumps (I had to go back and play it several times over)! No one talks about this era of Riot, it seems. It really is high-class 90's metal and beats the brains outta Ripper Priest.