Riot – Immortal Soul

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More or less 20 years after their landmark Thundersteel album that line-up of Riot, which sees the return of vocalist Tony Moore, have recorded their first new album together in five years when they released the Mark DiMeo-fronted Army of One. Overlooking the mess of a front cover for Immortal Soul, when Riot slow down for the excellent title track, Crawling and half-ballad-half-heavy-groover Fall Before Me, they’ve got great songs in them, but besides exemplary drumming from Bobby Jarzombek throughout and some truly astonishing vocal turns from Tony Moore, the rest is total generic tedium. If lifting left-over tracks from recent Helloween album sessions (Wings Are For Angels, Still Your Man) weren’t bad enough, some of the rest aren’t even good enough to have been recorded and dismissed by other bands (Whiskey Man, Insanity). What makes the lack of quality material even more disappointing is the quality of the playing. When guitarists Mark Reale and Mike Flyntz share a harmony solo on Insanity it’s truly the stuff classic metal is founded upon. The fact that it’s in the middle of such a throwaway track is a travesty. Maybe fans of the Thundersteel-era of the band just want another album of the same stuff, but really some effort should have been made to mature from that starting point, and Riot have barely done that at all.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Power Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Riot