Year Of Metal #099: Riot - Narita
Firstly, the bad news: like UFO before them, it’s fair to say Riot are early metal also-rans. You’ll find them on retro hard rock and metal playlists, but they don’t really have a big hit to their name; I’d wager (perhaps meanly) that they garner some of their Spotify hits via being mistaken for Quiet Riot.
Their lack of hit making ability, though, is down to one of their strengths: from the offputting cover (it’s a sumo seal standing in a field of skulls, about to be scythed down by a plane… or something?) on down, 1979’s Narita is pleasingly and persistently off kilter. It’s not wild music by any stretch - they’re not pushing the boat out - but almost every track is just a little off, a touch left of centre.
They open on one of the stranger tracks, the quasi-new wave “Waiting For The Taking”. It’s one of the best cuts on the album, so eager to kick into gear that you’d imagine Riot have a few more good ideas than turns out to be the case. Within 40 seconds, they’ve cut through a jagged verse and an anthemic chorus, winding up back where they started. It’s hard to see how they’re going to sustain this momentum for another four minutes 20 but, like fellow lower tier act UFO before them, they have a secret weapon: just about every song has an absolutely killer guitar solo (or two).
I’m assuming lead songwriter (and longest tenured member) Mark Reale is playing these leads, because they’re nothing if not indulgent - more than half of this opening track is covered by two lengthy solos - but they’re also absolutely killer to listen to. It’s the perfect level of virtuosity and showmanship without devolving into wank. They don’t feel carefully laid out - Reale’s just playing his Chief Content Officer card and tearing it up for as long as he wants.
There are a couple more genuine bangers on Narita. Riot are inconsistent with the choruses and hooks, but they stumble on a cracker from time to time - blind squirrels and all that. “Here We Come Again” is wicked bluesy swagger-metal, doling out equal parts Aerosmith-like gunslinger riffs and hitting histrionic high notes. By the time frontman Guy Speranza gets in his zone, singing the title over and over, it’s stirring stuff. It’s faint praise, perhaps, to say it wouldn’t be out of place on the Dazed And Confused soundtrack, but there are worse soundtracks to which one’s wagon could be hitched.
I’m keen on “White Rock”, too, though this is in no small part because its melody sounds so much like “Kids In America” (or, more accurately, the other way around, Narita predating Kim Wilde’s classic by two years). A comparative sprint, this one keeps things hot and heavy by virtue of some country friend licks here and there.
Beyond that, there isn’t a whole lot to the LP, but you’re guaranteed a chewy enough riff and/or a ripping solo on nearly every track. Closer “Road Racing” - strangely the most streamed track by a mile - is the most metal cut on the LP, and it’s a good one, plenty of pace, vocal whoops, and gnarly guitars. The cover of “Born To Be Wild” is (let’s not mince words) shit and unnecessary, but the fact they’re giving the classic such a fast, strained treatment means it doesn’t overwhelm their original efforts.
I don’t mean to be patronising when I call this mostly forgotten record charming. These dudes know what they’re doing and they get some good stuff in across an album that’s nearly never a chore and has aged pretty well thanks to its idiosyncrasies. Well worth a listen.
