Riot – Narita (LP)

Riot has always been ahead of their time, both in their earlier incarnation in the 1970s and in their later Speed Metal dominated format in the late 80s up until today. Although their debut “Rock City” contained the first examples of a pioneering speed metal approach to the ever expanding spectrum of harder edged styles, “Narita” shines a bit more in the overall musical department, offering up a good mix of rock and early metal that hasn’t lost any of its punch with the passage of time.

Unlike the sound those who know this band are probably more familiar with, this album is essentially cut more from the Progressive Hard Rock mold than the Heavy Metal approach first pioneered by Black Sabbath. The songs tend to mostly be middle to upper mid tempo with a lot of blues and hard rock hooks. Songs such as “Waiting for the Taking” and “White Rock” are quite similar to what might be heard out of Queen and Blue Oyster Cult. Likewise more riff driven rockers such as “49er” and “Here we come again” take a swinging rhythmic approach that is reminiscent of Kiss classics like “Detroit Rock City”.

The highlights on this rather brilliant early opus are immediately obvious as they are the fastest and less Prog Rock influenced of the bunch. The cover of “Born to be Wild” is a vast improvement over the original, as the tempo has been ratcheted up quite a bit (to the point of early speed metal), the dual guitar attack gives the song a more punch oriented sound rather than the thin high end dominated atmosphere of the Steppenwolf version, and the guitar soloing is miles above it in the technical department. “Road Racing” is another fast one with a very heavy main riff when one considers that this was 1979. The title track “Narita” is the instrumental younger sister of original Riot speed classic “Warrior”, rivaling Motorhead’s “Overkill” in terms of speed and aggressiveness, and dwarfing it in terms of guitar work. If “Warrior” represents the birth of speed metal, then “Narita” clearly represents a giant leap closer to the ideal that gave birth to both Thrash and Power Metal.

To fans of Speed Metal, Power Metal, Thrash Metal, and the old faithful of the NWOBHM, this is an absolute necessity for your collection. It is a major point in the history of each of these genres in every way that the early Motorhead albums were, and also a more enjoyable listen due to Guy Speranza’s superior singing ability and the whole bands greater command of the instruments they play.