Quiet Riot – 10

When Kevin DuBrow bit the dust at the age of 52 from av cocaine overdose in 2007, everybody and me included thought that Quiet Riot were no more and never to be again. But drummer Frankie Banali wanted differently. Probably totally in denial of the fact that the last time Quiet Riot tried to make a career without any original members, things went down shit creek really fast, despite the fact that the album, Quiet Riot (1988, also under the name QR) was a damn fine record. Then the band consisted of Frankie, guitarist Carlos Cavazo, bassist Sean McNabb and the awesome singer Paul Shortino, today with King Kobra and the band split almost immediately after that album was released and flopped. Now Frankie has recruited singer Jizzy Pearl (ex – Love/Hate, Ratt, L.A. Guns) and the rest of the band are Chuck Wright (ex – House Of Lords) on bass who has been and out of the band several times during the years and Alex Grossi (ex – Bang Tango, Beautiful Creatures, Love/Hate, Adler’s Appetite) on guitar. Alex has been with the band since 2004 and one must admit that he’s really good. When I heard the news that Quiet Riot would continue, I really thought it was a joke. I’m not sure if the reason was the old cliché “because that’s what Kevin would have wanted”, but if it was, I’m not sure Kevin would not have wanted this because in my opinion, this has nothing to do at all with Quiet Riot. Also, the title 10 implies that this is their 10th album, which is also kinda disrespectful to the both the band’s name and Kevin, who started the band. This is the 10th album since Frankie joined for the brilliant Metal Health (1983), but the fact is, Quiet Riot released two albums prior to that, Quiet Riot (1977) and Quiet Riot II (1978), both featured Randy Rhoads who later got the job as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist and song writer. So, there were a lot of negativity surrounding this album – and the band’s being – before it was even released, but that doesn’t mean that there are any reasons at all to pre judge it. This album was listened to with an open mind, because frankly, projects like this has a tendency to surprise you for the better.

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