Label: No Remorse Records
Release date: October 14, 2022
Production: Antony Blaine
Album length: 45:25 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 9.0/10
Another blast out of Alberta, Canada! Riot City are yet another bunch of storm troopers of classic heavy metal revivalism, superbly resurrecting the times of the old-school, ossified American strain of ‘speed’ metal in particular, as well as the stuff of the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement. In short, we’re knee-deep in worship of the look and deeds of heavy metal’s dewy youth from 40 years ago! And what a youth. One standing on a hellish surplus of steroids.
Young bands hungry to prove themselves like this are crawling all over the world today. But. Riot City wouldn’t have landed in the vise of in-depth reviewer analysis if they weren’t so damn hellishly good at everything they do. Even on the technical side alone. The pioneers of metal would have killed for this kind of polish back when they started putting metal on its feet more than 40 years ago. On their debut, Riot City already warned us how dangerously sharp and honed they are, as they rush unstoppably through all the reanimated mockery of a bold riff cannonade and ear-piercing vocals ‘on helium’. The band, which has been around barely a decade, is back after three years with a new album and shows no signs of slowing down.
Interestingly, guitarist Cale Savy has meanwhile stepped down from lead vocal duties. His vocals were one of the biggest trademarks of the studio debut »Burn The Night« and the main magnet behind its top-notch persuasiveness. So what now? How do you pull off a new album without his vocals? Enter Jordan Jacobs, who is, unbelievably enough, even more unbelievably close to the characteristics of Cale’s vocal performance on the debut. With that, Riot City grew from a quartet into a quintet. Savy can now focus solely on his guitar work, while Jacobs is the guarantee of expressive inexhaustibility, which has been carried over so flawlessly, or at the very least retained, on »Electric Elite« too.
It opens invasively, the way an album like »Thundersteel« by the legendary Riot opened in 1987. With the same dizzying, wrecking drive and adrenaline rush that knows only speed, speed and speed. Unstoppable rushing before which everything breaks and collapses! Everything that comes its way. Production-wise too. The album carries over the gloomy sound of its predecessor, although this time the production is just a touch brighter and more ‘precise’, which means the veil of ‘sweet punk garage feel’ from the debut has mostly vanished on the follow-up. The cannonade of outstanding guitar phrases, igniting one after another across the album, sweeps you into an inexhaustible blaze of passionate heavy metal fervor from young guys full of unlived ambitions and a huge urge to prove themselves. The passion and the glow of the approach are heated to boiling point!
True, Riot City don’t bring anything new to the scene artistically, but if they play live the way the studio albums sound, every internationally established heavy metal act will be afraid to take them on tour. Riot City are a band that steals the show with feather-light ease, if they are – as mentioned – on stage the way the content of both studio records presents them. The ‘jerking’ through the phrases doesn’t let up, and neither does the breakneck shaking of the shared solos or the crossfire of trading them between the two guitarists, who also sound classically old-school. In short, on the new album »Electric Elite« Riot City carry over all the untamed mockery already shown on the hellishly satanic march of the debut »Burn The Night«. This time the new album as a whole gravitates closer to the elements of old-school American speed metal, so comparisons with Riot, Liege Lord, and also Helstar and Agent Steel are more apt than on the debut, where parallels with N.W.O.B.H.M. bands and Judas Priest were felt more strongly in places. Still, on the new album too we find a number of tributes to the British godfathers of heavy metal, in the closing, ten-minute epic Severed Ties!
»Electric Elite« opens (straight with a boot to the forehead, goofily) a triumphant new chapter in the history of this young but extremely sharpened Canadian outfit, which needs to bring its music to the stages of the old European continent ASAP. With the new album, Riot City again prove they’re among the most convincing imitators of the classic days of American ‘old school speed’ metal, and few (among their generational peers) can stand beside them. For those familiar with the substance of the predecessor »Burn The Night«, the new album »Electric Elite« won’t be as instantly, surprisingly captivating, but the fact is that the band (on a global level) keeps an astonishing creative-energy lock with the new album too, which earns it the label of one of the hottest, crispiest buns of metal revivalism right now.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Eye Of The Jaguar (5:00)
2. Beyond The Stars (5:08)
3. Tyrant (5:36)
4. Ghost Of Reality (6:18)
5. Return Of The Force (4:16)
6. Paris Nights (4:43)
7. Lucky Diamond (4:19)
8. Severed Ties (9:56)
Lineup:
Jordan Jacobs – vocals
Cale Savy – guitar
Roldan Reimer – guitar
Dustin Smith – bass
Chad Vallier – drums
