Immortal Soul

It's very sad to see how happy was Mark Reale with this album and Riot's line-up in late 2011, when he died by surprise only three months later. Now, the title of this album makes more sense than ever. But I'll try to stick to the music itself and avoid any sentimentalism.

Riot is a band that, despite constant line-up and style changes, always maintained a high degree of quality and an identity personified in the guitar of Mark Reale. This reunion with the full "Thundersteel"/"The Privilege of Power" line-up (plus Mike Flyntz) really lives up to the expectations created. It can be true that Tony Moore has lost a bit of his range from the aforementioned albums and that some of the songs lack the instant charisma of "Thundersteel", "Johnny's Back"or "Bloodstreets", but it's hard to imagine a better continuation more than 20 years later.

Since the very first seconds of "Riot" and, specially, "Still Your Man", a sensation of familiarity will suddenly run your spine. The same power metal riffing, Tony Moore's over the top vocals, the impressively skilled and thundering drumming of Bobby Jarzombek, Mark Reale's classic soloing... all of the Riot trademarks are here, in the best tradition of 80's US Power Metal. Certainly there are some modern euro power metal influences spiced in a few songs from the album, but nothing that would take them out of what you'd expect to hear in a Riot album.

"Still Your Man" is insanely catchy, "Wings Are for Angels" is fast as hell, "Fall Before Me" will give you thrills as "Bloodstreets" did in 1988, the opening riff of "Sins of the Father" is the pure essence of heavy metal... I'm not very fond of making track by track reviews, but I promise that "Immortal Soul" is a worthy successor of this band's legacy and now, after how things turned after its release, also a great way of ending a brilliant 35 year career. Shine on Metal Soldiers!

Originally written for Ample Destruction 'zine.