Artist: Quiet Riot
Title: “Setlist: The Very Best Of Quiet Riot – Live”
Label: Sony Music
Release Date: 7/13/2010
Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
Rating: 4/5
Historically speaking Quiet Riot was one of the first bands that I was able to see in concert on my own and don’t laugh because you know that each and every one of you went to a show or two with your parents standing safely in the shadows to observe the shenanigans. While I know that I am dating myself, it was back around the time when they had just released their “Metal Health” album and they were appearing at the long shuttered L’Amour’s in Brooklyn. At the show I was blown away by the bands delivery and skill and overall catchy tunes and that made listening to their “Setlist” live CD an absolute treat since we don’t really have too much of a representation of the band during its early years in the live sense. Some music historians will remember easily how the band once found Randy Rhoads among its number but this release focuses on what was musically established by the classic lineup of Kevin DuBrow, Frankie Banali, Rudy Sarzo and Carlos Cavazo. After reviewing a couple of these releases so far, I was happy to find the “Setlist” collections offering up the occasional unreleased tune or two, but the Quiet Riot edition must be lauded for its presenting 50% unreleased tracks from the band in concert. The album also primarily focuses on two years in the bands life (1983 and 1984) and with that comes off as very vintage in their history. The younger generation of fans today might need to look into the album collections of their older siblings or parents to find a copy of “Metal Health” and its recommended action to better absorb a band that helped build a music scene at the time. “Metal Health” is strongly celebrated on this collection and presents us with six of the albums original ten tracks. We get the classic Slade tune “Cum On Feel The Noize” and the title track along with my long time favorite “Run For Cover”. I would have liked to hear “Thunderbird” or “Breathless” but I will not complain with what we did get here since it was so satisfying. The band shows themselves to be a hungry Metal machine and DuBrow screams over blistering Cavazo guitar riffs and thunderous Banali drumming.
Continue reading “Setlist: The Very Best Of Quiet Riot – Live” by Quiet Riot →
Artist: Quiet Riot
Title: “Metal Health” (remaster)
Label: Portrait/Epic Legacy
Release Date: 8/28/2001
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4/5
Quiet Riot was originally founded as far back as 1975 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and singer Kevin DuBrow and the pair recorded two albums together, but while a Hollywood fan base found them popular, their fame and a US record deal was still many years away. Rhoads would leave the band to join Ozzy Osbourne’s group in 1979 and tragically die in a plane crash in 1982. It was following this tragedy that DuBrow would attempt to reform the band with a returning Rudy Sarzo on bass as well as guitar wizard Carlos Cavazo and drummer extraordinaire Frankie Banali. Their album “Metal Health” was unleashed to the world in 1983 and with it the music scene for Heavy Metal and Hard Rock would be dramatically transformed and propel the band into the stratosphere. There were a number of factors at play here and while I think that a large part of it was in the overall talent of the band who was definitely a Hollywood staple act, I also think that the growing scene in Los Angeles was set to overflow at any moment and had to peak at some point. It was not long after QR’s signing the deal that the rest of the world would be taking notice of the many bands that were on the Hollywood club circuit of the day. Quiet Riot as a band definitely delivered catchy songs with memorable guitar hooks and as result the album “Metal Health” was a fan favorite across the board. It might have frightened the more Doom Metal based followers of Sabbath and the like but you could not take away the fact that based on this album Heavy Metal music was considered a booming industry.
Continue reading “Metal Health” (remaster) by Quiet Riot →
On Monday, November 26th the sad announcement hit the Metal news wires like a rapidly firing machine gun that legendary Heavy Metal singer Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot had been found dead in his home. The initial report was that he had passed away the previous day and the full details were not disclosed but it was only days after the public announcement that we found out that it was determined that Kevin had been dead for at least six days before he was found. The singer was always surrounded by controversy/news/wild stories and with his passing the online mediums were bombarded with music personality recollections about their own experiences with him. As you might expect some of these tales were very interesting and I have yet to read a bad one. I was a fan of Quiet Riot since the beginning, well, I mean since the album Metal Health came out and did its whole blockbuster thing for Hard Rock and Metal music on the nation’s airwaves. I even played a lot of their music in the bands I had in my youth and I even find myself listening to those old records every so often. Based on this I decided to offer up my own recollections as they relate to the band and the singer.
Continue reading R.I.P. Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot Dead at 52 (11/26/2007) →
Where Heavy Music & Pop Culture Collide
