Review by Daniel for Riot - Born in America (1983)

I wasn’t completely sold on Riot’s early works. But their third album, 1981’s legendary “Fire Down Under”, had finally grabbed my interest & this led to me really enjoying their more bluesy & heavily underrated follow-up album “Restless Breed” from the following year. “Restless Breed” was a bit of a guilty pleasure for me as most Riot fans seem to agree that the Guy Speranza-fronted albums represent the pinnacle of Riot’s career with Rhett Forester’s influence seeing the band steering towards a more accessible & less energetic direction that wasn’t to everyone’s taste. But I don’t shy away from the big calls so it’s without fear that I make the bold claim that I rate the Forrester era more highly than the Speranza one.  

However Rhett’s erratic behavior on the “Restless Breed” tour & a changing of the guard at Riot’s record label Elektra saw the band’s fifth album, 1983’s “Born In America”, being self-financed by producer Steve Loeb. It would see Riot steering the ship back towards a heavy metal direction after Rhett’s arrival had seen them catering for his style with a bluesy hard rock sound that better suited his skill sets on “Restless Breed”. To be honest, I felt that the bluesier direction sounded pretty cool & suited the band quite well. I’ve always favoured Riot’s more hard rockin’ material though & I enjoyed the added atmosphere, even if the production wasn’t as strong as it could have been. And they haven’t quite got the production right again here on “Born In America” but it’s certainly improved.  

This is definitely a more aggressive record than “Restless Breed” but I wouldn’t say that it’s overly ambitious. I mean the opening title cut may be one of the better tracks but it’s a clear take on the tried & true AC/DC stadium hard rock anthem. Closer “Promised Land” is also pretty clearly paying homage to Led Zeppelin & most of the metal material could be classed as Judas Priest worship but it’s the quality of the song-writing & performances that allow Riot to still offer the listener something interesting.  

No matter what your opinions on the Rhett Forrester era albums it’s hard to deny his talent. He was a great front man & “Born In America” sees him sitting more comfortably within the context of the band after “Restless Breed” saw him occasionally trying too hard & being guilty of over-singing. There are plenty of quality metal riffs on display & some great guitar work. The solos are high quality as usual & I really enjoy the more expansive lead sections. They make for some of the more exciting parts of the album. The tracklisting is reasonably consistent with only a couple of blemishes. Second track “You Burn In Me” being the most obvious of them but why they thought covering Cliff Richard’s pop hit “Devil Woman” would be a good idea is anyone’s guess. Thankfully a good half of the album is of a very high standard & this well & truly covers the weaker moments.  

But it wouldn’t be a Riot album without one of the most ghastly album covers in metal history now, would it? And this one is outrageously bad with Riot’s awful seal mascot returning once more but I have to admit that it only works to further enhance my enjoyment of the album in all honesty. Those that were surprised by my adoration for “Restless Breed” will likely be equally surprised by my affection for “Born In America” as I place it just behind “Restless Breed” as my second favourite Riot album to the time. I just like this more mature & less glossy Riot sound over the faster & more energetic Speranza material. Unfortunately though, this would be the final Riot album that Rhett Forrester, guitarist Rick Ventura, bassist Kip Lemming & drummer Sandy Slavin would appear on as Riot disintegrated shortly after the release of “Born In America”. Sadly, interest in the band had waned following the loss of Speranza & the backing of their label. The huge popularity of Los Angeles hard rockers Quiet Riot hadn’t helped either with many fans becoming confused between the two bands so founding guitarist Mark Reale decided to pull the pin altogether. He’d go on to reform the band three years later with a completely new lineup & it would be a full five years before the next Riot studio album.