Immortal Soul

A Riot album featuring essentially the same lineup as the unforgettable Thundersteel, which was arguably the band’s crowning achievement? Well, this could only turn out to be awesome, right? Luckily, the answer is that Immortal Soul is indeed quite awesome and (almost) everything a fan could hope for. After all, it would have been quite a pity had the band screwed this one up, as it unfortunately turned out to be Riot’s last and final album with founding member and guitar hero extraordinaire Mark Reale, who succumbed to complications stemming from Crohn’s disease shortly after its publication. It was probably mentioned in just about every review about this record that Reale leaves a legacy as one of the inventors – maybe even THE inventor – of speed metal, writing songs that could rightfully be called speed metal as early the late seventies, when most everyone else was still playing hard rock or punk. Well, this cannot be mentioned often enough, along with the fact that he was one of the best guitarists to ever grace the metal scene and that his band, Riot, is one of the most consistently good – as well as perpetually underappreciated – metal outfits of all time.

With the aptly titled Immortal Soul, the band added another milestone to their more than impressive catalog, but before we point out why, let’s discuss some of its shortcomings first. Such as ... the cover art, which, as can be expected, is god-awful. Why this can be expected, you ask? Because the majority of Riot albums to date have featured horrendous cover art, so this could almost be considered a charming and long-standing tradition. Then again – a Les Paul guitar rising up from a graveyard? Really? Lord have mercy. The motive may be kind of fitting in light of Mark Reale’s untimely demise, but it’s still horribly clichéd and unoriginal.

Alas, on to more important categories. As far as the music is concerned, there really aren’t a lot of negatives to be brought up. A point could be made that some of the songs or, to be more precise, some of the choruses are so melodic and catchy as to appear almost syrupy sweet, but that’s basically just nitpicking. Heck, some of the songs feature melodies in the pre-chorus that less naturally gifted bands would probably kill for. Another point of criticism is the lack of more truly fast songs, which have always been Riot’s forte and made records like Thundersteel and Privilege of Power the milestones they are. Then again, Riot have never been simply a speed metal band, but a stylistically diverse bunch. Their style is difficult to pinpoint, featuring elements not only of speed metal but also of heavy/power metal and hard rock. (Their very early albums from the late seventies, as well as Restless Breed and Born in America, predominantly qualify as hard/heavy rock.) Regardless of what direction you prefer, Riot generally excel in all of them and do a great job of blending them together.

An asset of Immortal Soul that shouldn’t be overlooked are the intelligent, thoughtful and sometimes hilariously funny lyrics. A track like “Whiskey Man”, with its ironic tongue-in-cheek ramblings about the good ole days, will really put a smile on your face while the title track will make you laugh and wax philosophical at the same time. Taking the cake in that regard (and not only in that regard), however, is album opener “Riot”, a song more than worthy of being the namesake of the band. If you could use but one word to describe this song, it would be this: angry. Following a short melodic intro, this is one seriously fast, thrashing, pissed-off song full of anger, rage and aggression, and these feelings are reflected perfectly by the lyrics, with every word oozing hostility and bitter disillusionment. It’s basically a bilious state of the union address, ripping a government and political system that has made a mockery of the American dream and the democratic principles it was founded upon. At the same time, it’s a refreshing rant that every citizen in any of the post-democratic societies of the western world can easily relate to, as that frustration over being sold and betrayed by a self-serving political class is, after all, a universal one. Moreover, the central question asked, or rather screamed out in the highest notes lead singer Tony Moore is capable of hitting, is a perfectly legitimate one: disenfranchised and exploited by politicians who serve only their own agendas and ideologies instead of the people they are supposed to represent, politicians who couldn’t care less about what the average voter wants and thinks just as long as they dutifully pay their taxes – what else is it gonna take to make YOU riot?! Leaving such musings aside, “Riot” might just be the best song on Immortal Soul, epitomizing everything that speed metal or heavy metal in general is all about.

Other fast songs, albeit with slowed-down and more melodic choruses, include “Insanity” and “Sins of the Father”, both of which are very good, but not quite as spectacular as the opening track. Then there’s “Wings Are for Angels”, which is every bit as blazing and every bit as reminiscent of the band’s glory days and the legendary Thundersteel era. It really is a pleasure to hear Tony Moore screaming at the top of his lungs, and though he doesn’t use the highest registers of his voice quite as often as he did some twenty-odd years earlier, it’s obvious he can still hit all the high notes when he wants to. As good as Moore’s predecessor Mike DiMeo was, it’s safe to say he would not have been a very good fit for much of the material on Immortal Soul. Other particularly noteworthy songs include “Crawl” with its Middle Eastern or oriental guitar theme, the very, ahem, Thundersteely “Still Your Man” – don’t look now, but Johnny’s back again, again –, the riff-heavy yet also ultra-melodic “Believe” and the aforementioned, more hard rocking “Whiskey Man”, the main riff of which strikingly reminds of the one first heard in the song “Babylon” on the band’s criminally underrated 1993 output Nightbreaker.

Combining classic Riot songwriting with punchy production, Tony Moore’s vintage soaring vocals, the virtuoso riffing and soloing of Mark Reale and Mike Flyntz, the solid bass playing by Don van Stavern and the expert drumming by Bobby Jarzombek, who always makes his presence felt no matter which of his many bands he plays for, Immortal Soul is right up there with the best work ever recorded by these genre-defining trailblazers. The reason it doesn’t quite reach Thundersteel levels of awesomeness is that it may be a song or two too long, with the album’s latter half lacking a true standout track and dragging on a little longer than necessary. Nevertheless, it is a lasting testament to the amazing talent of the late Mark Reale, inventor of speed metal and guitar hero extraordinaire. Forever shine on!

Choicest cuts: Riot, Still Your Man, Wings Are for Angels, Immortal Soul, Whiskey Man