“Road Rage” is the first album from Quiet Riot since “10” in 2014. That album featured 6 studio tracks with Jizzy Pearl on vocals along with 4 live tracks recorded during Kevin DuBrow’s final shows in 2007. “Road Rage” was released on 4th August and features James Durbin on vocals. I had chatted with Durbin on the Friday NI Rocks Show back in March; just after the announcements that he was the new singer and that previous recordings for the album were to be scrapped ( http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/3099-ni-rocks-interview-with-james-durbin-from-quiet-riot.html ) . It seems like no time at all from talking with him about writing the tracks until I was actually playing them on the Friday NI Rocks Show.  “Freak Flag” was included on the Show on 23rd June and “The Road” is featured this week.

 

 

Quiet Riot are Frankie Banali on drums, Alex Grossi on guitars, Chuck Wright on bass and James Durbin on vocals. None of the current members of the band were part of the line-up that came together in the 70’s and featured of course Randy Rhoads. Banali is the longest standing member, having been brought into the band by DuBrow in 1982 (around the same time as guitarist Carlos Cavazo from Snow) and was therefore on board for the recording of Quiet Riot’s defining album “Metal Health” in 1983. Wright first joined the band in 1985, whilst Grossi only arrived in 2004. The latter had been working with Durbin on the Maps to the Hollywood Scars project when he was announced as the new singer in March 2017.


Quiet Riot is a band with a big history and near iconic status; forged not only by the late Rhoads and DuBrow, but by the chart-topping, ground-breaking album “Metal Health”. Living and performing in those shadows must be immensely difficult if not impossible, but the band has delivered a great album with 11 tracks that are sure to impress most fans. I’ve no doubt there will be some detractors – you’ll always get the trolls – but overall I reckon Banali, Durbin, Grossi and Wright have done a great job.

My favourite tracks would include “Can’t Get Enough”, “Freak Flag”, “Wasted”, “Make A Way”, “Renegades” and “The Road”.

 

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About “NI Rocks Recommends”

The simple idea behind “NI Rocks Recommends” is to acknowledge and promote some of the great music being submitted to Rock Radio NI. I'll not be giving marks or ratings or analyzing the tracks in great detail; just telling you something about the artist and the album. It’s a personal recommendation to go check something out, not a traditional “review”!

My musical tastes cover most things rock; from the not too melodic to the not too heavy. The albums that I’ll be recommending are those that you’ll hear me playing tracks from on my shows on Rock Radio NI.


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