Label: AFM Records
Release date: 02.08.2019
Running time: 110.03 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Buy the album!
Rating: 9.5 / 10
Long, long before Iron Maiden dropped their debut studio album, there was a band playing in New York that had already put out two studio albums by 1980 and was writing a modern take on metal for the time, one whose visionary streak soon set the ground rules for a few years that everybody else followed. Sadly, the Atlantic Ocean separated them from the European continent, otherwise they’d have held a prominent spot in the N.W.O.B.H.M. boom. Instead, to this day they’ve more or less remained unfairly overlooked, and they never got the real recognition they deserved for their outstanding body of work, their perseverance and, last but not least, their vision.
Ladies and gentlemen! Riot, or Riot V since 2012. Everything that soaked through the pioneering heavy metal of the classic era — the bombast, the three-part harmonies, the mocking mid-eight passages packed with piercing multi-part solos, the sudden shifts in atmosphere with a change of rhythm and riff, and a vocal sitting in the center register that, through the melodic explosiveness of clean singing, aims authoritatively and dominantly even at the extreme heights, which it conquers with feather-light ease — Riot, with their talents and fresh ideas, established and defined back then, before the metal horizon had even begun to open wide on the other side of the Atlantic.
Over the years the band won the hearts of Japanese audiences and has put out two live albums from past Japanese tours to this day. In recent years, now riding a gigantic wave of creativity and inspiration again and having released two new studio albums (“Unleash the Fire”, “Armor Of Light”), they went back to the land of the rising sun for a new tour and recorded a show at one of the club venues in the city of Kawasaki (the club Citta). They played twenty tracks: the first part mostly new material with a few gems from the iron ages mixed in, and then in the second half of the show — yes, you read that right — they played their cult album »Thundersteel« (1988). In its entirety.
I won’t drag this out. Founder Mark Reale would be deeply proud of his old pals Mike Flyntz and Don Van Stavern, and he’s surely smiling down from heaven right now, watching what’s happening with Riot V. The band has started turning up on European stages more often again, especially at the bigger festivals, which of course includes our own Metaldays in Tolmin. What’s more, Riot V confirmed the incredibly winning chemistry and form of the new lineup last fall, when they toured with Germany’s Primal Fear. That was only the second time in their career they’d played Ljubljana since 1999 (third time in Slovenia overall), and they blew everyone away with their stage prowess. Simple as that. This chemistry of a galloping quintet needs to be crowned somehow. With a new live document. There’s hardly a more fitting solution.
The quintet crowned its excellence, and we can safely call it performance-wise perfection, with this show too, and »Live In Japan 2018« captures it down to the last detail. The feel within the crew is incredible, and the quintet approaches the performance razor-sharp, focused and completely committed and dedicated in everything. Todd Michael Hall is a devilishly good, classically trained vocalist, and he stuns with his vocal power very early on. In the »The Priviledge Of Power« (1990) classic On Your Knees, he climbs in the closing vocal tornado up to extremely high registers without letting up on the power for even a split second. Production and sound. Alive. Red-hot alive. Steel. The crowd slips into the verses with ease, especially when Hall demands it of them. Authenticity like this is hard to find these days — or rather, stage authenticity this well transferred onto a recording, with all the virtuoso execution on top. »Live In Japan 2018« is also a great document to start exploring the story of Riot, or Riot V. That goes especially for the new generation of metal fans: don’t jump too quickly from Sabaton to Behemoth, but first discover the pioneering bands that carried metal in its early days. The quality of the release shows the incredible mileage of the quintet’s members, and it simply couldn’t be any other way. May this story last as long as possible.
The included DVD is certainly further proof of the incredible stage sharpness and elegance of the execution, and the brilliance of the band’s mutual chemistry, which we always demand when it comes to the essentials of classic metal. In Warrior, tacked on right at the tail end of the show, the band is joined by bassist Masayoshi Yamashita of Japanese legends Loudness.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
CD1
01 – Armor Of Light
02 – Ride Hard Live Free
03 – On Your Knees
04 – Metal Soldiers
05 – Fall From The Sky
06 – Wings Are For Angels
07 – Land Of The Rising Sun
08 – Take Me Back
09 – Messiah
10 – Angel Eyes
11 – Metal Warrior
CD2
01 – Thundersteel
02 – Fight Or Fall
03 – Sign Of The Crimson Storm
04 – Flight Of The Warrior
05 – On Wings Of Eagles
06 – Johnny’s Back
07 – Bloodstreets
08 – Run For Your Life
09 – Buried Alive
10 – Road Racin’
11 – Swords And Tequila
12 – Warrior
DVD:
01 – Armor Of Light
02 – Ride Hard Live Free
03 – On Your Knees
04 – Metal Soldiers
05 – Fall From The Sky
06 – Wings Are For Angels
07 – Land Of The Rising Sun
08 – Take Me Back
09 – Messiah
10 – Angel Eyes
11 – Metal Warrior
12 – Thundersteel
13 – Fight Or Fall
14 – Sign Of The Crimson Storm
15 – Flight Of The Warrior
16 – On Wings Of Eagles
17 – Johnny’s Back
18 – Bloodstreets
19 – Run For Your Life
20 – Buried Alive
21 – Road Racin’
22 – Swords And Tequila
23 – Warrior
Lineup:
Todd Michael Hall – vocals
Mike Flyntz – guitar
Nick Lee – guitar
Don Van Stavern – bass guitar
Frank Gilchriest – drums
