RIOT — Rock City (review)

Album · 1977 · Heavy Metal

4.5/5 · 2018-01-17
Unitron

"Shine, shine on, Warrior."

Exploding onto the quickly growing metal scene in 1977, Riot unleashed the first taste of their high octane traditional metal with their debut Rock City. By this time, heavy metal was evolving out of it's development stages, and into a second wave of bands that propelled the genre into the 80's and into a more focused sound. So along with Judas Priest, Scorpions, Motorhead, and Heavy Load, Riot brought heavy metal into a truly "traditional" sound.

Already Riot feels very comfortable in their own sound, as this debut is not far off from the band's legendary classics like Narita and Fire Down Under. Influences from Sweet's heavy metal moments can be heard, as well as some more hard rock leaning moments reminiscent of bands like Led Zeppelin and UFO. Overall though, it can easily be compared to what Judas Priest would be doing on Killing Machine just a year later.

The album opens right up with a one-two punch of "Desperation" and "Warrior", which have everything that's great about late 70's metal. The title track follows with a more hard rock sound, though the solo is pure metal all the way. "Angel" and "Heart of Fire" are a couple more high energy bursts of classic metal, especially the latter. It just explodes right out the door, and has an absolutely driving main riff that pulses with energy. While it's close with that song, the best on the album would probably have to go to "Overdrive", which has such a massive drum sound that makes it impossible to not stomp your foot.

Something that I absolutely love about the first three Riot albums, is how much personality there is. A lot of that personality comes from Guy Speranza's vocals. He has such a unique voice and has the perfect combination of metal attitude and beautiful melody. The closest comparison I can make is James Young of Styx, who sang on the band's heaviest tracks. "Overdrive" and "Heart of Fire" have that great heavy metal attitude blended with wonderful melodies, while "Gypsy Queen" has one of the most beautiful melodies in 70's metal.

Like with many debuts, Riot's is another one that has gone underrated. Ignore the atrocious cover art, and get ready for a ride of awesome classic metal that screams of personality. It's a great start to a fantastic career. Hope you found this review helpful, feel free to comment!

more than 2 years ago
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voila_la_scorie wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I don't think that's the kind of influence we were thinking about, Mike. Ha ha!

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I think you may be right about that. Iron Maidnen's idea for a mascot (a much better one) could have possibly come from these guys

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah, their first three are a fantastic masterpiece trilogy. I'd be surprised if Riot didn't heavily influence the NWoBHM.

voila_la_scorie wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I just got this a couple of months ago and I like it so much that I'll get Narita and Fire Down Under soon. I think the first three albums must make a great trilogy. It's funny how NWoBHM it sounds. I recently also bought several NWoBHM CDs and Riot fits right in even though they were American.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I do have Fire Down Under. It's Ok, but i haven't checked this band out very much. Always something else to distract me! Good review :)

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah, they've got a pretty awful mascot, but don't let that stop you from checking them out. You'd be missing out on some amazing music otherwise. Fire Down Under is a classic.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I have to admit that i have a problem with the floofy headed thing on all their album covers. Usually i can overlook these things but Riot's just creeps me out for no logical reason :o