Betrayal!!! That's the first word came to my mind when I discovered that
Riot was thinking about recording a new album after Mark Reale's death. But then I got a little more information about that and it seems that the band is counting with the blessing of
Mark's father,
Tony Reale.
Although I used to buy
Riot's albums without even listening to them. It was different this time, I wanted more information. I knew that
Don Van Stavern, the bassist, was the main writter together with
Mark in older albums of the band but I want to listen to the album before buying. After looking all around internet, the only thing I got were a couple of fake torrents and, finally, some samples in
Amazon Japanese site. But that was enough for me to buy the album and, now I have listened to it a couple of times, I can confirm it's an amazing record.
The new singer,
ex-Reverence Todd Michael Hall, is perfect for the music of the band. Not only for this album but past records as well, look for Youtube videos and you will see what I'm talking about. The new guitar player,
Nik Lee, is the right partner to
Mike Flyntz, who already had taken great importance after
Reale's illness. The solos of the album are great, not only technically but with great melodies too: powerfull riffs, exciting twin harmonies...
Although the album will be edited with band "new" name,
Riot V, it has been published with the word
Riot on its cover in Japan. This Japanese edition has been published almost two months before the rest of the world and is including a bonus live track. Please, take this album not as betrayal but as tribute to
Mark Reale. Forget this is
Reale's band without him. And you will enjoy an amazing Power/Speed/Heavy Metal record with a sound hard to find nowadays. THE SEALMAN IS BACK!!!