09. Riot Rock City 1977 (Fire Sign)
Heavy Metal
I've got my hands on your crotch and I'm in overdrive!
Overview
At the time of
Rock City’s release, the American scene as far as bands at the heavier end of the spectrum had started to polarize, in what would be the all too familiar East Coast/West Coast divide. Up until now the East Coast was where the quality bands came from, just think the Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss and Aerosmith. But of course that was no guarantee of success, as a number of talented bands from there hadn’t made it such as Sir Lord Baltimore, Bang and Dust. The current crop of East Coast bands that were now popping up, had already included the likes of Starz and also the far more talented Riot. Riot were a New York City based band, that had been formed by guitarist and songwriter Mark Reale and he was soon joined by Guy Speranza on vocals, Lou A.Kouvaris guitar, Jimmy Iommi bass (no relation to Tony) and Peter Bitelli on drums, and Riot typified everything that would be vital to mainstream metal for the next decade at least. From the word go, the band went in for an arena based sound, that relied on true heavy metal credentials, melodic flair, energetic overtures and a tight production, all making the record just seem the kind of thing that the label could promote, but what did the label do…..they just went and released this album in Japan! Which does seems strange, considering the popularity at the time of arena rock bands in general. It would take quite a few years for Riot to make their commercial breakthrough on the excellent
Fire Down Under in 1981, but the foundations to their sound had certainly been laid on this strong debut. Any metal historian, could easily link a line that goes from bands like UFO to Def Leppard in terms of influence and sound, but that line surely goes through a band like Riot as well with their arena sound. Unsurprisingly the band were built around the vocal prowess of Guy Speranza who dominated the band’s sound from the word go. The album’s tight production is credited to Steve Loeb, who would go onto to produce the first big chunk of the band’s discography, as well as working with the future Public Enemy. On a downside, the band went in for an albino-type creature as a kind of band logo (pre-Eddie the Head here) and sadly the band’s first several albums are littered with this creature, whose presence still to this day, overshadows the quality of the band’s early sound.
Guy Speranza- Vocals
Mark Reale- Guitar
Lou A.Kouvaris- Guitar
Jimmy Iommi- Bass
Peter Bitelli- Drums
Production- Steve Loeb
The Album
Desperation- With a classic metal pounding intro, this song sets the stall out for the rest of the album and Guy Speranza’s vocal style would be much mimicked in the 1980s by a number of vocalists.
Warrior- Not too different from the opening track, as the band usher us through another energetic track and the song is surely a great exponent of what would become known as speed metal in the 1980s.
Rock City- The title track has a heavy and crunchy intro and needless to say is another straight-up energetic track, and probably displays more 1970s overtures than the previous two tracks.
Overdrive- Slower and heavier from the word go, before picking up speed and adding in some heavy riffing to mix things up a bit. This is a great song and a great metal listen, and probably the best track on the album.
Angel- Another guitar based intro and it’s obvious that the band have put out their first weak track on the album, by placing it further down the listening list, but saying that though, the song is still kind of addictive!
Tokyo Rose- A more melodic track that comes across as an obvious single choice here and it certainly resonates a UFO sound style here.
Heart of Fire- A pacey and catchy song that has both a distinctive gusto style, feel and beat about it. The song is a quality cut if ever there was one.
Gypsy Queen- A strong and melodic track and one of the lighter-weight tracks on the album.
This is What I Get- A catchy melodic track, that isn’t exactly a world away from the kind of thing that Boston could’ve put out around this time.
Verdict
Rock City is largely an album of tight metal cuts, which are full of energy and bite, along with riffs aplenty. The strength of the album surely lays in its top-heavy opening section where the best cuts are placed, such as “Desperation” “Warrior” “Rock City” and the excellent “Overdrive”. The album largely serves up, a what you hear is what you get kind of experience, certainly mirroring the Montrose
debut of a couple of years earlier. The real strength of
Rock City though, is that the album supplied to the metal community, all the bits that were missing from Judas Priest’s interpretation of metal around this time. The band certainly didn’t have the sinister feel that Priest did and instead went in for a vibrant and catchy sound……something that Priest themselves would eventually do on
British Steel several years later. Neither did they have the exaggerated vocal stance of Rob Halford, as Guy Speranza just simply went in for an energetic burst instead. The riffs were also less exaggerated than those of Priest and tended to meld into the songs rather than dominate them. You could kind of say, that Riot and Judas Priest more or less symbolized the differences between British and American metal at this time.
Rock City is not a classic debut per se, but it’s a strong and a must listen to album for anybody into American metal around this time. The album demonstrates a metal lineage that goes from the commercial American heavy acts of the time and then adds speed metal elements into the mix, which would go on to influence a number of future speed and power metal bands further up the road. Also Guy Speranza’s bell-like voice certainly influenced a number of the future glam metal acts as well, in fact the listener can pick up a sleazy stance on the band’s overall sound, a factor that would link them to the future glam metal bands of the 1980s. In fact the band after the Guy Speranza era, would actually go onto adopt a more power metal stance in the late 1980s.
Rock City is a perfect example of what American commercial metal should’ve sounded like in the late 1970s had the band made their breakthrough....but alas the album went completely unnoticed in the USA at the time of its release.