Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Band-Quiet Riot Album-Metal Health Song-Cum on Feel the Noize, now what all three of those had in common, is that almost overnight they put glam metal on the map big time and effectively gave the USA its first major metal movement. Until 1983 the NWOBHM had given metal its biggest reference point to date and it had done that in the most masculine way possible (see 1980 NWOBHM review) but it now had a more feminine and sleazy competitor from across the pond, which in turn effectively served as the commercial death knell for the NWOBHM. Before 1983 the USA had been starved of its own metal bands making any real commercial breakthrough to speak of, largely because the 1970s had been littered with talented American bands like Sir Lord Baltimore, Legs Diamond and Riot to name just three, not getting any real backing by their own record labels, largely because they didn’t know how to market them! Therefore the only significant American metal band of the late 70s and early 80s was of course Van Halen the natural heirs to Aerosmith, who effectively had become the face of American metal. But despite Van Halen’s lauded heavy metal credentials largely thanks to Eddie Van Halen, frontman David Lee Roth portrayed a completely different aspect of metal with his own extravagant and showbiz style that were certainly a world away from what Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford or Biff Byford were doing. Therefore Van Halen gave many aspiring American metal acts a focal point on which to build in terms of achieving commercial recognition (kiss in this period had dipped as a reputable act at least until Creatures of the Night, therefore leaving Van Halen on centre stage) A number of influenced bands soon sprang up to challenge, with the most notable being Motley Crue with their addictive and sleazy sound at one end of the spectrum and at the heavier end there was the edgier sounding Twisted Sister. But as with many movements an actual trigger band was needed the fire the whole thing off and in this case it was Quiet Riot with their big production sound. Quiet Riot were certainly not a new band in 1983 and had already put out two pretty shoddy albums, which for some reason always attracted Randy Rhoads disciples! Quiet Riot by 1983 were a distinctly average metal band who just happened to strike gold and that came in the form of a perfectly selected glam rock cover track from Slade called “Cum on Feel the Noize” a band well known to British audiences from the 1970s glam rock period. It came with a slick MTV video and the band also managed to assemble their best ever selection of songs by far. On top of this the band had one other saving grace and that was the scratchy and powerful voice of Kevin DuBrow, who had the ability to carry the sound of the band off. Like any pivotal album Metal Health was built around a slew of polished tracks to demonstrate its metal worth and these tracks start with the title track the uber-anthem “Metal Health” aka 'Bang Your Head' which starts with the sinister vocal style of Kevin DuBrow before he lets fly and the accompanying sound from the rest of the band is just downright heavy with the band's crushing guitars. The cover of Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize” even improves on the original version, which in the UK is kind of like a national glam anthem and both these songs sound as good today as when they first came out in 1983. Third track though is the slick and groovy sounding “Don’t Wanna Let You Go” which is a world away from the previous two tracks with its therapeutic feel and is probably my favourite from the album. Other favourites include "Love's a Bitch" a song impregnated with some real attitude and heaviness, and another cracker in the breezy sounding "Breathless". Of the other tracks “Slick Black Cadillac” is nearest in style to “Cum on Feel the Noize” and its a rehash of a previous track by the band, and it's certainly an improvement over the previous version. Album tracks like "Run for Cover" "Battle Axe" and "Let's Get Crazy" all do the business despite being the weaker tracks. The only weak spot of the album is probably "Thunderbird" which is a limp sounding effort that closes the album. As for how popular and important glam metal was at this time, well Quiet Riot became a national phenomenon in the US and the album reached no.1 on the Billboard chart and went on to shift 6,000,000 units, also principal NWOBHM bands like Def Leppard tapped their mainstream metal sound to appeal to appeal to a similar market after Pyromania. Quiet Riot proved that timing was everything and trumped a more talented band like Y&T to stardom, along with denying a band like Helix their chance of success with their No Rest for the Wicked album (just missed this year’s list) mentioned because Helix were covering similar territory to Quiet Riot. Thanks to Quiet Riot glam metal would be the hottest thing around for a number of years and gave birth to a whole load of bands both good to very bad over the ensuing years.

Kevin DuBrow- Vocals
Carlos Cavazo- Guitar
Rudy Sarzo- Bass/Synths
Frankie Banali- Drums

Production- Spencer Proffer

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