Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Quiet Riot
Label: 57 Records
Release date: 27.06.2014
Running time: 46:35
Rating: 2.5/5
This album is definitely one of this year’s surprises. In several ways. But only one really matters: its quality. Does it »hold water« or doesn’t it? Given the stormy years, especially those last November days of 2007, when the first and ultimate voice of the band, Kevin DuBrow, buckled under an overdose of cocaine and headed off to the great hunting grounds in the sky, hardly anyone believed Qiet Riot could carry on. What’s more, hardly anyone dared claim they could even keep up a credible succession without a factor as crucial to their musical story as Kevin DuBrow.
And yet. The only original member, drummer Frankie Banali, got every approval and all the »divine blessings« as a sign of support from Kevin DuBrow’s family, who encouraged him to keep Quiet Riot going. So he took the captain’s wheel of a name that once truly resonated on the world map of metal and hard rock. The album »Metal Health« still carries huge historical, groundbreaking value for metal, as it was the first album on the planet to storm the very top of the Billboard chart under the heavy metal label. After a string of singer changes, Frankie Banali landed on the seasoned Jizzy Pearl (Love/Hate) in the second half of 2013. We got to see him years ago at a show in Ronchi dei Legionari, Italy, as part of Tracii Guns’ version of L.A. Guns. The other two members of today’s Quiet Riot, since 2010, are the well-known bassist Chuck Wright and guitarist Alex Grossi, who also comes loaded with impressive experience from past collaborations (Bang Tango, Adler’s Appetite, Love/Hate,…).
As for the album »Quiet Riot 10«, Banali’s crew only partly fended off the attacks of skepticism and entirely real doubts about whether Quiet Riot even makes sense without DuBrow. Banali could have continued his career with the new lineup by giving the band a new name and filling the live shows with an ironclad repertoire of Quit Riot classics, which would have guaranteed that people still love coming to their gigs. »Quiet Riot 10« has the most in common with its predecessor »Rehab« (2006). But be careful. »Quiet Riot 10« is in fact a »half« live album. It features live recordings from the »Rehab« tour, which means you also get to hear Kevin DuBrow’s vocals on this album. The new material has a stripped-down hard rock backbone, catchily seasoned with a touch of blues. »Quiet Riot 10« picks up some famous elements of old-school rock visionaryism inherited from pioneering bands like Led Zeppelin or The Who. The guys also deliver a tangible helping of inventive ideas in the guitar phrases, around which they build full-blooded arrangements that squeeze out a catchy dose of unbridled energetic voltage, which makes the new songs (there are quality swings between them) perfectly digestible after all..
In such a musical milieu, vocalist Jizzy Pearl feels right at home and finds his footing. His cocky charisma and higher-register vocal excesses of frenetic outbursts occasionally try to conjure up the figure of Kevin DuBrow, even though the two voices don’t sound directly alike. You simply can’t find a double for DuBrow.
Although the album tears along quickly and catchily through the infectious first three songs, which are the opener Rock In Peace, followed by Bang For Your Buck and Bakcside of Water, the new material loses some of its charge through the static riffs of Band Down in Doghouse Alley.
Six new original songs would be enough for an EP. And yet. Four live numbers with DuBrow on vocals wrap up this release. First comes the »Quiet III« track Put Up or Shout Up, followed by two »Regab« tracks, Free and South of Heaven. The live part of the album closes with a Rock ‘N’ Roll Medley built around the full song Red Light Mama, Red Hot, where the band tacks on a snippet of the Slade classic I Don’t Need No Doctor at the end and finishes the number with the standard live cliché of many hard rock bands in our galaxy (read: the worn-out, predictable Led Zeppelin fade out with Whole Lotta Love). The recording was taken on 13.07.2007, when Quiet Riot played the then-current edition of the Rocklahoma festival.
So the question remains: why? The probelm is that we can’t talk about the new album as a proper studio album, more like an EP that tries as hard as it can to patch, with as little stress as possible, the gap left by eight years of staying out of the studio. At all costs, in other words. This move only shows a lack of creative freshness in the band’s new lineup and a fear of taking responsibility for the sake of holding on to the Quiet Riot name, which is to some extent even an expression of pathos. A solid first half of the album is therefore not enough for the new record to earn high-flying praise, even though it starts out on the right track.
The Quiet Riot case isn’t the only one in the world of rock. Thin Lizzy functioned for many years without Phil Lynott before they finally came to their senses and changed the name. Judging by the energy embodied in this newly released document put out under the name Quiet Riot, it would be best for Banali and company to change the band’s name. What »Quiet Riot 10« offers is neither a real studio album nor a real live album, but a few slurps of lukewarm, soured beef broth.
Lineup
Jizzy Pearl – vocals
Alex Grossi – guitar
Chuck Wright – bass
Frankie Banali – drums
live recordings:
Kevin DuBrow – vocals
Neil Citron – guitar
Tony Franklin – bass
Production
Quiet Riot
Track list
1. Rock in Peace (4:00)
2. Bang for Your Buck (3:52)
3. Backside of Water (4:18)
4. Back on You (3:24)
5. Band Down (3:17)
6. Dogbone Alley (4:29)
7. Put up or Shut Up (4:18)
8. Free (4:05)
9. South of Heaven (5:25)
10. Rock ‘n’ roll Medley (9:22)
