Reviews list for Riot - ThunderSteel (1988)

Power Metal is a genre that I hold in high regard given it's significance within my lifetime and my growth and appreciation of heavy metal as a whole. Considering the NWOBHM is one of my favourite era's in the entire genre, and they way that it helped pave the way for bands like Helloween and Blind Guardian to advance it to new heights is very important to me. And Blind Guardian is one of my favourite acts of all time in this genre.

Now why do I bring this all up? Well, all of those acts come from Europe. For some reason, when power metal started to become prominent in the western hemisphere, much of the appeal that fascinated me with the genre was diminished or outright gone. The bombast and intensity were reduced to fragments and most of it felt like a skeleton of a power metal song. And having been given this opportunity to explore US Power Metal in a little bit more detail than ever before, I have found very little that has changed my mind.

Of course, this brings us to Riot, New York's finest arbiters of the genre and their 1988 album ThunderSteel. And I can credit the group for at least attempting to maintain more elements from the European strain of Power Metal than their contemporaries. The vocals are powerful and have influences from Bruce Dickinson, King Diamond and Michael Kiske. And the riffs are strong as well on the tunes "Sign Of The Crimson Stone" and "Run For Your Life".

So why don't I like this more? Well, to be completely honest, it's quite simple: Riot have no identity of their own on ThunderSteel. While "Sign Of The Crimson Stone" and "Run For Your Life" are the best tunes on the record, they are also blatant flips of Van Halen's "Runnin' With The Devil" and Iron Maiden's "Two Minutes To Midnight" respectively. And outside of that, the rest of the albums just feels like a prototypical US Power Metal album once again; lacking the dynamic punch/force that the European strain can obtain without effort.

The guitar riffs are not all that impressive. They feel gutted and are only a quick tempo change away from being thrash epics. And without a significant fundamental bass line, "Fight Or Fall" and  "Flight Of The Warrior" just don't go anywhere. The vocals, while technically impressive at times, falter from being too reliant on Tony Moore's low register. If we are being completely honest, these vocals are not that dissimilar to Tom Araya's vocals on Slayer's debut album from 1983; usually restrained and lacking in intensity, and only occasionally letting it all out with a howl. These vocals don't even hold a candle to Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson even today as they both approach their mid to late 60s (Halford turns 70 this August!).

Of course, it also doesn't help that the sound of this record is very uneven. Sometimes, you'll have a full, uncompressed guitar line to kick off the album ("Thundersteel"), but then "Flight Of The Warrior" will divert that tone to something that is more compressed and tinny. This compression does not help the lead guitar either as they become quite muted. 

Perhaps US Power Metal is a change of pace within the Power Metal scene that I just can't comprehend. I have listened to plenty of Iced Earth, Manilla Road, Metal Church and Riot within the past year that I cannot fathom how anyone would listen to this over the European juggernauts. Maybe my upbringing has tainted my opinion on an album such as this. At least groups like Manilla Road maintained a consistent sound through their most successful albums like Mystification. This sounds forced, and trying to be too many things all at once. And with ThunderSteel being the bands first album in this style, following a five year absence, the best way I can describe Riot is "trend-hoppers".

The rampant energy that greets the listener on the title and opening track on this record sets the tone for what to expect over the coming album.  It's full on intensity summarises the intent of the band from the off.  They are here to entertain most certainly, deploying a brand of heavy metal tinged with power metal vocals to give variety or annoyance (depending on your viewpoint of Tony Moore).  I find the majority of the vocals remind me of a less capable Rob Halford but it is obvious that they fit the music and the guitar work of Mark Reale, whilst never reaching Downing or Tipton levels of brilliance, is skillful enough to keep the JP reference relevant.

Structure-wise, songs are very anthemic in their build giving a core focus across most tracks even if you aren't concentrating enough to enjoy the whole array of solid percussion and riffs on display.  This makes the album great background music. That's not a criticism either.  It is unlikely that I will spend much of my life sat studying the intricacies of any Riot album, so it is refreshing to be able to tune out of the detail and still enjoy an album whilst my main focus is elsewhere.

It gets the foot tapping and on some occasions the fist gets raised also, as I allow  the album to provide momentary distraction from whatever it is I am doing.  The only criticism comes in the sense that it is all too similar overall and to some extent I get track creep where I don't necessarily see the beginning of one track as being an actual difference in comparison with what just ended.

Mild repetition aside, this is enjoyable enough and one of the better releases I have heard from the band in al honesty and would probably make a great addition to most hard rock/heavy metal fan's library.