Artist: Quiet Riot
Label: Sony BMG
Released: 1983
Rating: 4/5
Another rock legend has said his goodbyes: Kevin DuBrow, this time, unlike the fairly violent trends of late (Dimebag, for one), in the classic style, with a cocaine overdose. So quietly and almost unnoticed he joined Randy Rhoads in heaven (or hell, as the case may be). The two of them founded the band in the mid-seventies, and now they’re probably both wondering how the hell they ended up there before Ozzy.
After two albums that the band released only in Japan, Randy left and joined Osbourne, while Kevin recorded Metal health in 1983 with a new lineup. It holds an honorable place in rock history as the first metal album to hit the very top of the famous Billboard chart. In November of that year it knocked The Police and their album Synchronicity off the throne, and even though it didn’t stay at number one for more than a week, it’s still fair to call it an achievement of historic proportions. With this record, metal rode in on the wings of the NWOBHM and glam from Europe and landed in America, paving the way for all the similar bands that later contributed to its downfall. Quiet riot may well have embodied that glam rock paradigm that’s so unpopular today, but it’s precisely because of this record that their role in the development of rock and metal is probably key.
It’s actually an extremely fun and listenable pop album with cranked-up guitars, thanks to producer Spencer Proffer (who also has his name on W.A.S.P.’s second album, The Last command) and the skillful Carlos Cavazzo, who, besides DuBrow, shows up most often as a songwriter. Cavazzo studied his predecessor’s style thoroughly, which is most obvious in the arpeggios in Battle axe and other solos that are well above average. The album opens with a classic Purple-style riff on the hard-hitting Metal health, which became a sort of American high-school anthem that year, followed by the album’s workhorse, Cum on feel the noize, a cover of the Slade hit from ’73. Slade, one of the most underrated glam-rock phenomena of the 70s, outdone in number of hits on the island only by the Beatles and cited as a reference by greats like Kiss, Alice Cooper, Oasis, Tom Jones and David Coverdale, were at the start of the 80s nearing the end of their career. Metal Health undoubtedly spurred them to record their best release of that decade the same year, The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome, known for the hits Run Runaway and My Oh My. Even more potential hits can be found on its successor, the unsurpassed AOR masterpiece Rogues Gallery, which, despite the enviable production and catchy choruses, is sadly considered the swan song of the glam giants. So Slade’s direct influence on the development of rock can hardly be denied, and it’s certain that, alongside Rod Stewart and Humble Pie, they were one of Kevin’s favorite bands, which is confirmed by the other cover, Mama we’re all crazy now from the album “Condition Critical”, where DuBrow’s raspy voice already sounds a lot like Noddy Holder’s.
On Metal health, it’s also worth mentioning Slick Black Cadillac, which can be found on the second of the aforementioned Japanese albums, and the ballad Thunderbird, dedicated to Randy Rhoads, who died in a plane crash. It’s Kevin’s “hommage” to a good friend, and it feels far more genuine and heartfelt than Ozzy’s attempt with the Tribute release, which you could call a typical marketing move after his album “The Ultimate Sin” from 1986 took a fair amount of criticism.
Quiet Riot never repeated the success of their debut. Two more albums followed: the aforementioned “Condition Critical”, which, besides the phenomenal and morbidly slow title track, still has some of the drive typical of “Metal Health”, and the dismal “QR III”, which did the band more harm than good. The mid-eighties decline was marked by squabbles with the label and producer Proffer, plus Kevin’s verbal lashing out at the music scene of the day and his constant insistence that all the metal bands that got famous in America at the time were in his debt. So in 1987, after the end of a tour, the other members, fed up with his excesses, slipped a plane ticket under his hotel room door and left him in Hawaii. And so, in a good three years, right when metal in America hit its peak, the Quiet Riot fairy tale came to an end, with its last chapter closing tragically exactly twenty years later, on November 25, 2007, when Kevin was found dead in his apartment in Las Vegas. He had reportedly died almost a week earlier, lying forgotten in his bed at home the whole time. Symbolic.
Lineup
Kevin DuBrow – vocals
Carlos Cavazo – guitar
Rudy Sarzo – bass
Frankie Banali – drums
Production
Spencer Proffer
Track list
1. Metal Health
2. Cum On Feel the Noize
3. Don’t Wanna Let You Go
4. Slick Black Cadillac
5. Battle Axe
6. Breathless
7. Run For Cover
8. Love’s a Bitch
9. Let’s Get Crazy
10. Thunderbird
Album length: 40.56
