RIOT – Born In America [Remastered Digipak 2015]

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There was a landmark year for the rapidly progressing heavy metal genre in the US: 1983. Artists such as Ronnie James Dio with his debut solo album Holy Diver, Def Leppard put a foothold on the seen with Pyromania and Quiet Riot had a huge number one. Motley Crue also won a fair share of fans over with their second studio album Shout at the Devil.
But 1983 produced another rockin’ album that didn’t quite make the cut on the US charts but largely deserved it: “Born In America” by RIOT. This was the band’s second studio album with frontman vocalist Rhett Forrester, now reissued 2015, remastered, by Metal Blade Records.

This ’80s hidden gem catapults the band into the realms of fierce vocals, galloping guitar riffs and aggressive smoking leads on songs like ‘Heavy Metal Machine’ and the slamming ‘Vigilante Killer’. Forrester’s vocals on the album are more strong than the bluesy approach of the previous, along the lines of a Kevin Dubrow / Blackie Lawless style.
This time around Riot’s “Born In America” is a harder and faster venture into the band’s metal stylings, and that was a goal that many acts were striving for at that period in time. Riot pulled it off with this one.
The title track is also up to par with the anthemic standards of the era, a genuine bang-your-head song through and through, right along with some of the hot following tracks.

This album in my opinion is one that any fan of ’80s US metal should not be deprived of. As far as musical ability and creativity, this record carries Riot up into greater heavy metal heights joining arms with Quiet Riot and Judas Priest although never gaining that kind of recognition or notoriety.
The songs are tight and well-arranged, and most songs fit like a glove into the genre with hard driving rhythms bearing that essential Eighties metal feel. In a time where guitars were being fueled with a much higher octane (thanks to Eddie Van Halen) Riot filled the tanks on this one.

In a lot of ways, the polished hard rock on “Born In America” was the prelude to what bands like WASP and Dokken would soon do in the Californian explosion. Rhett Forrester even sounds a bit like Blackie Lawless when he’s belting out songs like ‘Devil Woman’ (a heavy Cliff Richards cover) and ‘Gunfighter’.
This reissue is not freshly remastered, it was done in the ’90s, but sounds great nonetheless.

Even though the album is not a stand out among other ’80s metal acts, I still put “Born In America” up on a pedestal. For one the nostalgia it brings me, and the good old fashion metal energy that I so love.
It’s an album that you can turn up and rock hard to start to finish. If you never heard about it and you’re a fan of the era, you gotta grab it soon as possible.
Highly Recommended.

01 – Born In America
02 – You Burn In Me
03 – Vigilante Killer
04 – Heavy Metal Machine
05 – Devil Woman
06 – Wings Of Fire
07 – Running From The Law
08 – Where Soldiers Rule
09 – Gunfighter
10 – Promised Land

Rhett Forrester – vocals
Mark Reale – guitars
Rick Ventura – guitars
Kip Leming – bass
Sandy Slavin – drums

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