Glad to hear that you and your family are ok! Thundersteel has always been my favorite ( my introduction to the band) one that is always in regular rotation, Enjoyed Alan, Take Care
Great list sir. My personal top 5 would have to be 1. Narita 2. Rock City 3. Fire Down Under 4. Thundersteel and 5. Nightbreaker. Born in America was close to making it, it's high points are higher than Nightbreaker's. However Nightbreaker seems to have more quality songs spread equally throughout the album. Restless Breed has to be last place, no doubt. It's not crap, but it can't compete when compared to the rest of the catalogue. If we can remove almost all the dialogue from the beginning of the Privelege of Power tracks, it instantly becomes a more enjoyable album. (Except for maybe the 20 or 30 seconds leading up to the, "Whatever the Goverment Says Happened" part of the intro to On Your Knees. It's too good and explains the theme of the song.
Nice list! Nightbreaker definitely gets overlooked. The band's profile was pretty low through the early 90s but the albums they made then were still quite good. The intro clips took some getting used to; I wasn't crazy about them when I first got the album. But they grew on me with time.
@@letstalkmetal As you said, coming up with a top 5 is difficult. They all can't be top 5. You can ask randomly and I'd name like 7 or 8 albums off the top of my head as top 5 without realizing how many albums I just named. I wasn't aware that Fire Down Under could have been released in 1980 if history had allowed. It's crazy to think that releasing earlier could have changed Riot's luck, maybe they go in a more successful tour with a different band and had finally gotten paid early enough to keep everyone happy. I heard an interview with their producer or manager at the time where he claims he was happy Guy Speranza left, due to believing he hit a wall in regard to his talent, vocal range, and live front man ability. I can believe the front man reasoning, due to multiple sources saying Guy didn't like being center stage. But to disregard his range is upsetting. The man could hit high notes, change his tone when he felt like it (especially on all the live material), and was developing attitude and a snarl/growl that shows on points of Fire Down Under. The producer is just taking a salty piss at this point, he knows what he let slip away.
@@blackcatslash3314 I wonder if Guy's reluctance to be a front man was always an issue, or if it just became an issue near the end of his tenure. And you're right that they have so many albums that could be listed as favorites. I think that's what separates the Truly Great bands from the Very Good bands. If you ask 100 fans to name their favorite album and 90 of them name the same 1-2 albums, that's a band that had a very strong high point but didn't necessarily maintain that same level of greatness for very long. But if those 100 fans divide their answers up over 6, 7, 8 different albums, then you've got a band with a high caliber catalog over a long period of time.
Glad you and your family are all safe. I remember i was asking you if you're gonna do a Riot ranking on heavy metallurgy and im glad that you made a follow up on your channel. For me Riot is also my favorite metal band because i really love every album by them. Some are just better than the others. 14. Through the Storm 13. Army of One 12. Restless Breed 11. Narita 10. Immortal Soul 9. Sons of Society 8. Inishmore 7. Rock City 6. The Brethren of the Long House 5. Nightbreaker 4. Fire Down Under 3. Born in America 2. Thundersteel 1. The Privilege of Power
@@letstalkmetal yeah i have honestly given up to find another metal band that have this many albums and that are all great. Plus Thundersteel and The Privilege of Power are one of the best if not the best power/speed metal albums ever made in my opinion.
Evening Professor; Belated sigh of relief. You survived Helene. Great vid on an awesome band. Nice background info and opinions provided. I noticed your top five albums almost perfectly mimic Marty’s top five. Also noticed that most of the Mike DiMeo era albums were sandwiched together on Marty’s, Sue’s and your list - same with mine. My list includes the Riot V albums, hope you don’t mind. 1) Fire Down Under 2) Thunder Steel 3) The Privilege of Power 4) Inishmore 5) Immortal Soul 6) Rock City 7) Armor of Light 8) Sons of Society 9) The Brethren of the Longhouse 10) Unleash the Fire 11) Mean Streets 12) Nightbreaker 13) Through the Storm 14) Born in America 15) Narita 16) Restless Breed 17) Army of One Take care and keep banging your head 🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼
Cheers! Good list, lots in common with mine. We left out the RIOT V albums mainly for time; we thought the show might run long if we included them. All the Riot V albums are really good!
Kick ass video, Alan! Good to hear your ranks. Thundersteel is my number one as well. My CD copy also has the 'great value' sticker and to this day I still think that's an understatement. Glad the family is safe, the power is on and the power metal is dry!
Yeah man, Mike Flyntz is great. The word underrated gets thrown around a lot on the net, but he really is the epitome under rated/appreciated. “Race with the devil on a Spanish highway” is a cover originally done by Al DiMeola-the great jazz fusion guitarist. This was cool, thanks. It was nice to have an hr long video after missing last week’s. Cheers
Hey Alan. Glad to have you back and to know you’re safe. Great ranking. It was a ton of fun on metallurgy, but just not the same without you. Your ranking and mine is pretty similar. I might like Restless Breed and Nightbreaker more than most, and rate Born in America lower than most. Funny side note: Monday after the metallurgy stream, I found Brethren and Inishmore in a used bin for five bucks each. Score. Glad you’re back. See ya again soon
Awesome! We missed you, so glad to hear you and your family are OK! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the ranking and somehow I suspect we have some differing opinions! We'll watch tonight!
Thanks for checking in last week Sue. I tried messaging you and Marty early Friday but even text messaging was unavailable. You and Marty covered the topic in great fashion. Our lists aren't too different except for Privilege of Power and Immortal Soul.
@@letstalkmetal we watched last night and it was awesome! Thanks for the additional background on Privilege of Power, it makes a little more sense now! Glad to hear we're on the same page with Nightbreaker and pretty close in rankings on most of the others. There was a story I read while prepping for the livestream that I forgot to mention - an issue the label found to be problematic in 1983 was that Quiet Riot had a hit with Metal Health and they thought people would get confused by the two similar band names! What an interesting history they had, and so much great music! Shine On!
Hey Alan glad you and your family are safe and sound and your back on line. Awesome to hear that your community is banding together for support and rebuilding. I own a copy of ThunderSteel on vinyl and I really enjoy it but I haven’t checked out any other albums from Riot.
Glad to see you're all ok, Alan! I'm with you regarding The Privilege of Power - I love it! Even "Maryanne" in all of its cheesy glory (nobody ever mentions this, but that has to be some sort of tribute to Boston, right?). They had such a hard time with the business side of it all, probably aided by the fact their managers were also the ones who produced their albums for quite a long stretch of time. Regarding the difficulties surrounding TPoP, Van Stavern has hinted in an interview I've read, that their management team at the time was connected to the Mafia... Elsewhere in that same interview he claimed that S.A. Slayer helped Reale with Born in America's pre-production, and claimed that he co-wrote 3 of its songs ("Heavy Metal Machine", "Wings of Fire" - can't remember what was the third song). Who knows?
Thanks! I remember seeing the Van Stavern interview where he talks about helping with Born in America, but I didn't know about the alleged Mafia connection, yikes! Their old manager doesn't come across all that well in the Metal Vault documentary.
Great you're back and nothing worse happened. A Riot ranking without you felt like an experience on an alternate timeline. But Marty and Sue were very confident and Marty in particular obviously enjoyed the band a lot more than I had originally assumed. Oh, and of course, set in stone for all time: 01. Fire Down Under 02. Thundersteel ... rest of the catalog, order varies on a regular ...
Glad to hear that you and the family weathered the storm Professor - seven days without power is a rough time! I just did a truncated version of this for a group discussion and we're not too far off on our rankings except for Nightbreaker. Nothing gets below a 7/10 and the cream of the crop is spectacular stuff as you well know. 1. Rock City 2. Fire Down Under 3. Born in America 4. Thundersteel 5. Privilege of Power 6. Inishmore 7. Brethren of the Long House 8. Nightbreaker 9. Narita 10. Restless Breed Huge Rhett fan and wish that Restless Breed was a six track EP of the title track, Hard Lovin' Man, CIA, Loanshark, Showdown, and Violent Crimes.
Glad you and your family are well. That's most important. Prayers to all those recovering and the new one hitting Florida. Anyway Riot awesome underappreciated band!
Heard something from somewhere some one… this was your favorite band. so naturally was shocked that you couldn’t make the stream but. We can’t control the weather, huh? Glad you’re cool though(family, and property too) you’re always cool. I will now watch this because I would love to rank my favorite bands albums 🤘🏾😎
Thanks James. I had tried contacting Marty early Friday to let him know but even text messages couldn't get through b/c so many cell towers were destroyed.
Great to see you back! I was surprised you weren't on the Riot show, knowing how much you love them, your input was greatly missed so it's awesome that you're covering it here. I'm so glad you and your family are okay, your own channel and your contributions to Heavy Metallurgy are immeasurably important in the Metal community. I'm amazed your channel only has 2K subscribers - deserves to have over 100K. I've discovered so much awesome music thanks to you!
Thanks! I tried letting Marty & Sue know I couldn't make it but all communication was down on Friday; even texting was impossible for us :( Nice to be back online; I got to watch the show recently and Marty & Sue did a great job!
I'm glad you're safe. Our basement flooded and we lost power for about a week, but overall we got off lucky. I hate seeing towns like Chimney Rock essentially being wiped off the map. As for Riot, I have only heard Thundersteel and Unleash the Fire. They've been on my list to dive into for a while, but I haven't gotten around to them. I've been trying to get into more USPM lately, but I'm finding it can be hit or miss for me. I'm enjoying Jag Panzer quite a bit
Very thankful to hear that things are getting back to some form of normal in your area. My knowledge of the Riot catalog has been pretty much limited to Thundersteel for decades up until just a few months ago when I downloaded all the other stuff from Rock City through Nightbreaker. I have yet to spend any time listening to them. I have so much other stuff to listen to instead!! LOL Pehaps, it's because for me, Thundersteel is the perfect album, maybe the greatest metal album ever recorded. In the back of my mind, I think perhaps I don't want to tarnish the image and tip the statue off it's pedestal. I would add this...I really liked the socio-political sound clips that were added to "Privilege Of Power", the horns not so much, although they are tastefully done and don't sound out of place. I recall Raven adding horns to a track on one of their albums from around the same time.
Thanks for checking in w me last week Frank. Some day I'll do Top 10 Albums and Thundersteel may very well be on that list. It's a big catalog and they changed styles so much that it can be a hard catalog to navigate.
@@letstalkmetal You and yours were in my thoughts daily. My intuition told me that you were probably simply going through a prolonged power outage, which in the grand scheme of things was the least of things. That said, I'm sure it was tough on your son as he is still pretty young and perhaps not able to fully understand the full scope of the entire situation. It would be hard to NOT include Thundesteel in a Top Ten list, although I could easily completely forget about it as I wouldn't consider them a Top Ten band for me. EDIT: I just finished the video. That was quite a surprise to see the Keep It True bootleg!! It was a stunning set and performance to say the least.
@@Frank_nwobhm Yeah, it was a learning experience for my son but he handled it pretty well. A week with almost no video games probably seemed like a year to him LOL
Welcome back Alan glad all is well with you and your family riot are a band I need to dive into I think my starter pack is going to be Rock City Fire Down Under Born In America and Thunder Steel I always say an album ranking can be a buying guide thanks!
Thanks Robert! If you want a good intro to the different eras of Riot then a starter set would be FIre Down Under, THundersteel, Born in America, and Inishmore. That will give you a good feel for Riot mark I through mark IV.
So you have great taste, nice! I need to re-visit Captain Beyond. I used to have the first album but haven't heard them in ages. I always liked Rod Evans in Deep Purple; I think those early DP albums with him are underrated, though it's been a long time since I heard them too.
Sooooooooo glad to hear all is well Alan. Hazah! I feel for those that were dealt the worst of it. Did you have to evac or just bear down? Now to watch the rest of the vid LOL. Priv Of Power never gets enough love. I love it! RIOT is three bands to me. Three different bands. Not just in Members but in style etc. But I love them all. This video is TIOR approved 🦭🦭🦭🦭
We didn't have to evacuate. In fact a lot of folks in the Carolinas were caught very off-guard. The warnings were there but folks just tuned them out b/c hurricanes aren't supposed to affect the western side of NC & SC. And good point- RIOT really is like three different bands. Makes it really hard to rank 'em. How do you compare Thundersteel vs Inishmore vs Rock CIty? Quite different styles.
Hey, Doc. I'm glad to hear you and fam are okay. I would say that Fire Down Below is a near-perfect album, though I would disagree that "Swords and Tequila" is a great song. I skip it every time. I think that almost every song on the album, save for "Flashbacks," is better. Guy Speranza was such a vocal talent. I know he was offered the vocalist spot in Anthrax but I think he could've found work in another band wherein he could've made a living, but I think I'd read that he missed his family too much to continue in the music business. A real shame. If I'd been Edward Van Halen, I'd have sought him out instead of the loathsome Sammy Hagar. But I digress.
Thanks Ash! I've heard several different versions of why Guy left Riot. Upset about the band's management situation, family pressure, girlfriend pressure, religion, etc. Speranza in VH would have been something to check out! I've never really gotten into Sammy Hagar.
1. Fire Down Under (1981) 2. ThunderSteel (1988) 3. Immortal Soul (2011) 4. The Privilege of Power (1990) 5. Rock City (1977) 6. Mean Streets (2024) 7. Narita (1979) 8. Born in America (1983) 9. Unleash the Fire (2014) 10. Armor of Light (2018) 11. Inishmore (1997) 12. The Brethren of the Long House (1995) 13. Restless Breed (1982) 14. Nightbreaker (1993) 15. Sons of Society (1999) 16. Army of One (2006) 17. Through the Storm (2002)
Thanks! You might be right- Bobby tends to make just about anything sound better. I don't remember exactly which tracks Mark played drums on but I remember thinking the songs with him behind the kit are still really good.
Just starting to watch, but I wanted to say I'm glad you and your family are safe. Doing a Riot stream without you was an outrage, haha. Glad to see you again, Alan!
Thanks Scott! I tried messaging Marty early Friday to let him know I wouldn't be able to join the show but communication was knocked out- even texts weren't sending.
What about the two last ones??? There is another documentary about the band released this year on youtube. By the way, JACK STARR's career and all his projects deserves an episode! Another US pioneer!
Because their discography is so long, we decided ahead of time to not include the RIOT V material. Those albums are quite good. I'll look for that other documentary, thanks for letting me know about it! A Jack Starr deep dive would be interesting. THere's a LOT of his material I'm not familiar with so I have a lot of catching up to do before i could do that topic justice.
Glad to hear that you and your family are ok! Thundersteel has always been my favorite ( my introduction to the band) one that is always in regular rotation, Enjoyed Alan, Take Care
Thanks Overkill! Can never go wrong with THundersteel!
Great list sir. My personal top 5 would have to be 1. Narita 2. Rock City 3. Fire Down Under 4. Thundersteel and 5. Nightbreaker. Born in America was close to making it, it's high points are higher than Nightbreaker's. However Nightbreaker seems to have more quality songs spread equally throughout the album. Restless Breed has to be last place, no doubt. It's not crap, but it can't compete when compared to the rest of the catalogue. If we can remove almost all the dialogue from the beginning of the Privelege of Power tracks, it instantly becomes a more enjoyable album. (Except for maybe the 20 or 30 seconds leading up to the, "Whatever the Goverment Says Happened" part of the intro to On Your Knees. It's too good and explains the theme of the song.
Nice list! Nightbreaker definitely gets overlooked. The band's profile was pretty low through the early 90s but the albums they made then were still quite good.
The intro clips took some getting used to; I wasn't crazy about them when I first got the album. But they grew on me with time.
@@letstalkmetal As you said, coming up with a top 5 is difficult. They all can't be top 5. You can ask randomly and I'd name like 7 or 8 albums off the top of my head as top 5 without realizing how many albums I just named. I wasn't aware that Fire Down Under could have been released in 1980 if history had allowed. It's crazy to think that releasing earlier could have changed Riot's luck, maybe they go in a more successful tour with a different band and had finally gotten paid early enough to keep everyone happy. I heard an interview with their producer or manager at the time where he claims he was happy Guy Speranza left, due to believing he hit a wall in regard to his talent, vocal range, and live front man ability. I can believe the front man reasoning, due to multiple sources saying Guy didn't like being center stage. But to disregard his range is upsetting. The man could hit high notes, change his tone when he felt like it (especially on all the live material), and was developing attitude and a snarl/growl that shows on points of Fire Down Under. The producer is just taking a salty piss at this point, he knows what he let slip away.
@@blackcatslash3314 I wonder if Guy's reluctance to be a front man was always an issue, or if it just became an issue near the end of his tenure.
And you're right that they have so many albums that could be listed as favorites. I think that's what separates the Truly Great bands from the Very Good bands. If you ask 100 fans to name their favorite album and 90 of them name the same 1-2 albums, that's a band that had a very strong high point but didn't necessarily maintain that same level of greatness for very long. But if those 100 fans divide their answers up over 6, 7, 8 different albums, then you've got a band with a high caliber catalog over a long period of time.
Glad you and your family are all safe. I remember i was asking you if you're gonna do a Riot ranking on heavy metallurgy and im glad that you made a follow up on your channel. For me Riot is also my favorite metal band because i really love every album by them. Some are just better than the others.
14. Through the Storm
13. Army of One
12. Restless Breed
11. Narita
10. Immortal Soul
9. Sons of Society
8. Inishmore
7. Rock City
6. The Brethren of the Long House
5. Nightbreaker
4. Fire Down Under
3. Born in America
2. Thundersteel
1. The Privilege of Power
Great list! Always cool to see someone else who loves PoP \m/ And I agree, they don't have any bad albums, just a couple of mediocre ones.
@@letstalkmetal yeah i have honestly given up to find another metal band that have this many albums and that are all great.
Plus Thundersteel and The Privilege of Power are one of the best if not the best power/speed metal albums ever made in my opinion.
@@metalhead7319 Agreed, they are close to the top, especially Thundersteel. Will have to do a Power Metal ranking sometime for fun.
Evening Professor;
Belated sigh of relief. You survived Helene.
Great vid on an awesome band. Nice background info and opinions provided.
I noticed your top five albums almost perfectly mimic Marty’s top five. Also noticed that most of the Mike DiMeo era albums were sandwiched together on Marty’s, Sue’s and your list - same with mine.
My list includes the Riot V albums, hope you don’t mind.
1) Fire Down Under
2) Thunder Steel
3) The Privilege of Power
4) Inishmore
5) Immortal Soul
6) Rock City
7) Armor of Light
8) Sons of Society
9) The Brethren of the Longhouse
10) Unleash the Fire
11) Mean Streets
12) Nightbreaker
13) Through the Storm
14) Born in America
15) Narita
16) Restless Breed
17) Army of One
Take care and keep banging your head 🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼
Cheers! Good list, lots in common with mine.
We left out the RIOT V albums mainly for time; we thought the show might run long if we included them. All the Riot V albums are really good!
Kick ass video, Alan! Good to hear your ranks. Thundersteel is my number one as well. My CD copy also has the 'great value' sticker and to this day I still think that's an understatement. Glad the family is safe, the power is on and the power metal is dry!
Thanks Gregg! Cool that your copy has that same sticker \m/
Welcome back and so glad you and the family are safe. I was hoping, and had a feeling, this would be one of the first videos you would do.
Thanks! LOL I had WAY too many notes ready to not use them :)
Yeah man, Mike Flyntz is great. The word underrated gets thrown around a lot on the net, but he really is the epitome under rated/appreciated. “Race with the devil on a Spanish highway” is a cover originally done by Al DiMeola-the great jazz fusion guitarist. This was cool, thanks. It was nice to have an hr long video after missing last week’s. Cheers
Thanks! Agreed that Mike should get a lot more recognition. And thanks for providing DiMeola's name, I never can remember it.
Hey Alan. Glad to have you back and to know you’re safe. Great ranking. It was a ton of fun on metallurgy, but just not the same without you. Your ranking and mine is pretty similar. I might like Restless Breed and Nightbreaker more than most, and rate Born in America lower than most.
Funny side note: Monday after the metallurgy stream, I found Brethren and Inishmore in a used bin for five bucks each. Score.
Glad you’re back. See ya again soon
Cheers Frosty! Hope you've been doing well. Nice used finds; I never see Riot stuff in the used bins.
Awesome! We missed you, so glad to hear you and your family are OK! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the ranking and somehow I suspect we have some differing opinions! We'll watch tonight!
Thanks for checking in last week Sue. I tried messaging you and Marty early Friday but even text messaging was unavailable. You and Marty covered the topic in great fashion.
Our lists aren't too different except for Privilege of Power and Immortal Soul.
@@letstalkmetal we watched last night and it was awesome! Thanks for the additional background on Privilege of Power, it makes a little more sense now! Glad to hear we're on the same page with Nightbreaker and pretty close in rankings on most of the others. There was a story I read while prepping for the livestream that I forgot to mention - an issue the label found to be problematic in 1983 was that Quiet Riot had a hit with Metal Health and they thought people would get confused by the two similar band names! What an interesting history they had, and so much great music! Shine On!
@@suevnj Cool, I hadn't heard that but it sorta makes sense- people do get band names confused pretty easily. Cheers!
Hey Alan glad you and your family are safe and sound and your back on line. Awesome to hear that your community is banding together for support and rebuilding. I own a copy of ThunderSteel on vinyl and I really enjoy it but I haven’t checked out any other albums from Riot.
Thanks! I do have the Australian Metal video ready to go; I'm planning to upload it for next Tuesday.
@@letstalkmetal wicked mate, looking forward to it
@@bvdaussiemetalhead9338 I've really enjoyed several of the things you sent in that package!
@@letstalkmetal awesome, I’m glad you really liked something and hopefully you can delve deeper into some of those bands
Glad to see you're all ok, Alan!
I'm with you regarding The Privilege of Power - I love it! Even "Maryanne" in all of its cheesy glory (nobody ever mentions this, but that has to be some sort of tribute to Boston, right?).
They had such a hard time with the business side of it all, probably aided by the fact their managers were also the ones who produced their albums for quite a long stretch of time. Regarding the difficulties surrounding TPoP, Van Stavern has hinted in an interview I've read, that their management team at the time was connected to the Mafia...
Elsewhere in that same interview he claimed that S.A. Slayer helped Reale with Born in America's pre-production, and claimed that he co-wrote 3 of its songs ("Heavy Metal Machine", "Wings of Fire" - can't remember what was the third song). Who knows?
Thanks! I remember seeing the Van Stavern interview where he talks about helping with Born in America, but I didn't know about the alleged Mafia connection, yikes! Their old manager doesn't come across all that well in the Metal Vault documentary.
Great you're back and nothing worse happened. A Riot ranking without you felt like an experience on an alternate timeline. But Marty and Sue were very confident and Marty in particular obviously enjoyed the band a lot more than I had originally assumed. Oh, and of course, set in stone for all time:
01. Fire Down Under
02. Thundersteel
... rest of the catalog, order varies on a regular ...
LOL I think those two top the list for many folks Mike :)
@@letstalkmetal Mike and I had same top 3 with me breaking the trend, putting Nightbreaker at 4
@@celticfrosty6696 Nightbreaker is fantastic!
Good to hear that you and your family are ok. That is the most important thing. We missed professor Steele
Thanks Raccoon!
Glad to hear that you and the family weathered the storm Professor - seven days without power is a rough time! I just did a truncated version of this for a group discussion and we're not too far off on our rankings except for Nightbreaker. Nothing gets below a 7/10 and the cream of the crop is spectacular stuff as you well know.
1. Rock City
2. Fire Down Under
3. Born in America
4. Thundersteel
5. Privilege of Power
6. Inishmore
7. Brethren of the Long House
8. Nightbreaker
9. Narita
10. Restless Breed
Huge Rhett fan and wish that Restless Breed was a six track EP of the title track, Hard Lovin' Man, CIA, Loanshark, Showdown, and Violent Crimes.
Thanks! Very good list and I agree; a Restless EP could work well with that track list.
Glad you and your family are well. That's most important. Prayers to all those recovering and the new one hitting Florida. Anyway Riot awesome underappreciated band!
Thanks George! Yes, very awesome and very underappreciated band!
Heard something from somewhere some one… this was your favorite band. so naturally was shocked that you couldn’t make the stream but. We can’t control the weather, huh? Glad you’re cool though(family, and property too) you’re always cool. I will now watch this because I would love to rank my favorite bands albums 🤘🏾😎
Thanks James. I had tried contacting Marty early Friday to let him know but even text messages couldn't get through b/c so many cell towers were destroyed.
Great to see you back! I was surprised you weren't on the Riot show, knowing how much you love them, your input was greatly missed so it's awesome that you're covering it here.
I'm so glad you and your family are okay, your own channel and your contributions to Heavy Metallurgy are immeasurably important in the Metal community. I'm amazed your channel only has 2K subscribers - deserves to have over 100K. I've discovered so much awesome music thanks to you!
Thanks! I tried letting Marty & Sue know I couldn't make it but all communication was down on Friday; even texting was impossible for us :( Nice to be back online; I got to watch the show recently and Marty & Sue did a great job!
Gotta say, I think this might have been your best presentation ever, and that's a very high bar. It was a veritable crash course in Riot.
Thanks Frank! It ran a bit longer than I wanted but with 14 albums I can only go so fast LOL
@@letstalkmetal
A lot of knowledge and a lot of passion for the music made the time pass like nothing.
@@Frank_nwobhm Now if that only applied to work...
I'm glad you're safe. Our basement flooded and we lost power for about a week, but overall we got off lucky. I hate seeing towns like Chimney Rock essentially being wiped off the map. As for Riot, I have only heard Thundersteel and Unleash the Fire. They've been on my list to dive into for a while, but I haven't gotten around to them. I've been trying to get into more USPM lately, but I'm finding it can be hit or miss for me. I'm enjoying Jag Panzer quite a bit
Glad you're ok. Yeah, Chimney Rock was a nice town; have camped around there in the past.
Very thankful to hear that things are getting back to some form of normal in your area.
My knowledge of the Riot catalog has been pretty much limited to Thundersteel for decades up until just a few months ago when I downloaded all the other stuff from Rock City through Nightbreaker. I have yet to spend any time listening to them. I have so much other stuff to listen to instead!! LOL Pehaps, it's because for me, Thundersteel is the perfect album, maybe the greatest metal album ever recorded. In the back of my mind, I think perhaps I don't want to tarnish the image and tip the statue off it's pedestal.
I would add this...I really liked the socio-political sound clips that were added to "Privilege Of Power", the horns not so much, although they are tastefully done and don't sound out of place. I recall Raven adding horns to a track on one of their albums from around the same time.
Thanks for checking in w me last week Frank. Some day I'll do Top 10 Albums and Thundersteel may very well be on that list.
It's a big catalog and they changed styles so much that it can be a hard catalog to navigate.
@@letstalkmetal
You and yours were in my thoughts daily. My intuition told me that you were probably simply going through a prolonged power outage, which in the grand scheme of things was the least of things. That said, I'm sure it was tough on your son as he is still pretty young and perhaps not able to fully understand the full scope of the entire situation.
It would be hard to NOT include Thundesteel in a Top Ten list, although I could easily completely forget about it as I wouldn't consider them a Top Ten band for me.
EDIT: I just finished the video. That was quite a surprise to see the Keep It True bootleg!! It was a stunning set and performance to say the least.
@@Frank_nwobhm Yeah, it was a learning experience for my son but he handled it pretty well. A week with almost no video games probably seemed like a year to him LOL
Good to see you back, Alan!
Thanks William!
Welcome back Alan glad all is well with you and your family riot are a band I need to dive into I think my starter pack is going to be Rock City Fire Down Under Born In America and Thunder Steel I always say an album ranking can be a buying guide thanks!
Thanks Robert! If you want a good intro to the different eras of Riot then a starter set would be FIre Down Under, THundersteel, Born in America, and Inishmore. That will give you a good feel for Riot mark I through mark IV.
We love you Alan.
Thanks! :)
Welcome back, Alan!!
Thanks Tony!
Thank you for Riot rank list enjoyed it I am a fan of Budgie Captain Beyond and the NWOBHM
So you have great taste, nice!
I need to re-visit Captain Beyond. I used to have the first album but haven't heard them in ages. I always liked Rod Evans in Deep Purple; I think those early DP albums with him are underrated, though it's been a long time since I heard them too.
Sooooooooo glad to hear all is well Alan. Hazah! I feel for those that were dealt the worst of it. Did you have to evac or just bear down? Now to watch the rest of the vid LOL. Priv Of Power never gets enough love. I love it! RIOT is three bands to me. Three different bands. Not just in Members but in style etc. But I love them all. This video is TIOR approved 🦭🦭🦭🦭
We didn't have to evacuate. In fact a lot of folks in the Carolinas were caught very off-guard. The warnings were there but folks just tuned them out b/c hurricanes aren't supposed to affect the western side of NC & SC.
And good point- RIOT really is like three different bands. Makes it really hard to rank 'em. How do you compare Thundersteel vs Inishmore vs Rock CIty? Quite different styles.
Hey, Doc. I'm glad to hear you and fam are okay. I would say that Fire Down Below is a near-perfect album, though I would disagree that "Swords and Tequila" is a great song. I skip it every time. I think that almost every song on the album, save for "Flashbacks," is better. Guy Speranza was such a vocal talent. I know he was offered the vocalist spot in Anthrax but I think he could've found work in another band wherein he could've made a living, but I think I'd read that he missed his family too much to continue in the music business. A real shame. If I'd been Edward Van Halen, I'd have sought him out instead of the loathsome Sammy Hagar. But I digress.
Thanks Ash! I've heard several different versions of why Guy left Riot. Upset about the band's management situation, family pressure, girlfriend pressure, religion, etc. Speranza in VH would have been something to check out! I've never really gotten into Sammy Hagar.
Glad all is good to be as expected.
Thanks!
Real quick comment. I love the Rhett Forester years. Only a few i may add.....Some Heavy stuff especially Born in America. My favorite....
Born in America is great! I sometimes mess up and call it Made in America, but never Born in the USA :)
I own Brethren of the Longhouse and have the same reservations. I enjoy it when it's spinning, but I'm never compelled to spin it lol.
Yeah it's good but just not one that says "play me over and over".
1. Fire Down Under (1981)
2. ThunderSteel (1988)
3. Immortal Soul (2011)
4. The Privilege of Power (1990)
5. Rock City (1977)
6. Mean Streets (2024)
7. Narita (1979)
8. Born in America (1983)
9. Unleash the Fire (2014)
10. Armor of Light (2018)
11. Inishmore (1997)
12. The Brethren of the Long House (1995)
13. Restless Breed (1982)
14. Nightbreaker (1993)
15. Sons of Society (1999)
16. Army of One (2006)
17. Through the Storm (2002)
Good list!
I feel Thundersteel would have been way better if Bobby Jarzombek had been drumming on the whole album. Glad you’re alright, Alan!
Thanks! You might be right- Bobby tends to make just about anything sound better. I don't remember exactly which tracks Mark played drums on but I remember thinking the songs with him behind the kit are still really good.
Just starting to watch, but I wanted to say I'm glad you and your family are safe. Doing a Riot stream without you was an outrage, haha. Glad to see you again, Alan!
Thanks Scott! I tried messaging Marty early Friday to let him know I wouldn't be able to join the show but communication was knocked out- even texts weren't sending.
What about the two last ones???
There is another documentary about the band released this year on youtube.
By the way, JACK STARR's career and all his projects deserves an episode! Another US pioneer!
Because their discography is so long, we decided ahead of time to not include the RIOT V material. Those albums are quite good.
I'll look for that other documentary, thanks for letting me know about it!
A Jack Starr deep dive would be interesting. THere's a LOT of his material I'm not familiar with so I have a lot of catching up to do before i could do that topic justice.
It is on the channel NYCROCKSTV
@@lagry1175 thanks!
Great to see you are doing good Alan.
Thanks Ben, cheers!
Glad your not by miltonalso
Glad to see you back, Alan!
Thanks David!