Hard Riot - Living On A Fast Lane

OK, a show of hands please!  How many remember these lyrics - “Get cha motor runnin’.  Head out on the highway!  Lookin’ for adventure.  And whatever comes our way…”  If you guessed Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons you’re wrong, as bad ass as they were.  But if that image of a custom chopper roaring down a backroad is stuck in your cranium then you’re in the right place.  First there was Riot.  Then along came Quiet Riot.  And RiotGod!  Now there’s Hard Riot.  None of them have much to do with each other but it sounds pretty fuckin’ cool for an intro anyway… eh?  Like I’ve done my homework.

Here’s the straight goods with German rock’n’roll outfit Hard Riot on the Pitch Black label.  They’re not going to find a cure for cancer or solve world hunger anytime soon, but like many hard rockin’, straight shootin’ rock’n’roll bands before them they are making an impact.  People eat this fundamental shit up!  You heard it here first.  To start with, they’re redefining life on the road with their debut album by “Living On A Fast Lane”.   I’ve heard of living IN the fast lane, but never ON.  I commend them for their machismo and bravery but you have to admit, it must be difficult dodging traffic.  Especially with a full compliment of furniture and dishware.  And I’m guessing they actually came up with a way cool German name for the band, but Hard Riot was the genius that Google translator spat out.

Nevertheless, this fearless Teutonic  four piece kicks it into gear, pulls the throttle back and thrusts the rock’n’roll carburetors wide open on this release.  It’s essentially a collection of infectious, high octane rockers and “hoist your lighters (and/or mobile devices) in the air” anthems.  If you like the big crunchy riffs and searing vox all underscored by a thundering rhythm section, you’ve come to the right place.  Buckle up!
The lads kick off the top of the disc with a straight up, no bullshit, balls out rocker called GET READY.  Like I said, they’re not reinventing the wheel here but the song still boasts gritty, in your face vocals, a solid bridge and chorus.  Get ready?  Get ready for what?  HELLFIRE ROCK, that’s what!  This smokin’ little ditty has a “call to arms” style verse along the same lines as what you often hear from Ireland’s The Answer.  The 60 watt incandescent over your melon will flicker on when the AC/DC  “Whole Lotta Rosie” scent wafts in on the stop riff during the reprieve.  The ghost of “Riff Raff” also haunts some of the chord choices.  They offer up a solid, but not surprising chorus, and studied guitarist Andreas Rockrohr (Rock Roar?!... cool name) peels off the first of many tight, tidy solos on the album!  Good, hard edged guitar tones abound on this number.

Just when you thought you were in like flint staring down a backstage laminate, the boys come roaring (Rockrohr-ing?) back with the lumbering, gutsy rock anthem DON’T NEED YOU!  Is that so?  Well, guess what guys?  I don’t need you… oh, wait – the boys seem to attract an uber abundance of Claudia Schiffer/Heidi Klum-like supermodels to their electric live shows (could it be the Hai Karate aftershave?!...).  I take it back!  I DO need you guys.  And all your contagious, up front, fist pumping vocals backed by heart wrenching harmonies that genetically perfect women quiver over.

The ol’ stylus then hops over to the powerful NO SURRENDER complete with duel leads at the beginning distantly reminiscent of the infamous Iron Maiden sonic attack.  It houses another “call to action” chorus soaked in a beer blasted, blue collar sensibility and garnished with yet another tasteful solo that fits nicely within the framework of the song.

TEARS IN THE RAIN is one of my favourite tunes on the entire album.  It’s houses a simple but great, plodding, memorable riff.  The song is ripe with smokin’, pulverant guitar tones, up front primal vocals and fist pumping crowd participation.  When I initially saw the song title my first thought was it was going to be a sappy ballad, but it was anything but!  The Scorpions influence is abundant here, but the Hard Riot boys draw it out, open it up and make it their own.  They do what many bands are afraid to do nowadays.  They give the almighty riff some breathing room and allow it to resonate.  There’s a reflective reprieve in the middle instrumentally, but the guttural vocals don’t quit.  Vocalist Michael Gildner simply refuses to back down.  And like true blue, bonafide rockers, they liberate the rock’n’roll carburetors once again near the end, drop it down a gear and throw the throttle wide open!

TURN ON THE LIGHTS (I dropped the KY) is a solid, chugging rocker with lots of meat on the bone.  More kick ass solos abound, pooled with a nice reflective reprieve in the middle.

NOTHING BUT YOU is a well constructed acoustic ballad.  Definitely one for the mass of Bic lighters at a live show.  The Germanic linguistic influence leaks through here and there in the vocals but not to the point where it’s distracting.  There’s also some pleasant vocal harmonies in this number.  Essentially, it’s a great song to seal that illusive first date with, if ya know what I mean (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

TAKE ME DOWN boasts a great dirty riff!  And yet another SA-WEET solo!  Tasty chord transition too.  HARD WAY DOWN is a no bullshit, straight shootin’ rocker.  BLACK WIDOW offers up a delectable drawn out, crunching riff tied to a great bridge.  What’s this?  ANOTHER crisp solo in a long line of them from Mr. Rockrohr!  This beast is a total live, in unison fist pumper.  The finisher ROCK’N’ROLL OUTLAW is a peppy little rocker that captures a Four Horsemen/Ramones-esque (odd combo, I know) flavour along the lines of my favourite band’s killer tune “Can’t Stop Rockin’”.

I have to tip my hat to Producer Vagelis Maranis at Maranis Studios in Backnang, Germany for doing a solid job on the recording, production and mix.  The vocals and guitar sit way out front through most of the tracks, but there’s still some nice instrumental separation.  It feels very clean despite all the brash guitar and vocal tones.  

Hard Riot are the kind of band that would get everybody’s attention if they played the side stage at Wacken.  Folks would haul ass to find out who’s tearing it up.  As a good buddy of mine once said, “AC/DC is the small block Chevy of kick ass rock’n’roll”.  If that’s true, then Hard Riot is the dual piston V-Twin of rock’n’roll!  Hard Riot is Michael Gildner on vocals, Andreas Rockrohr on guitars, Mario Kleindienst on bass and Carmine Jaucci on drums.

--Teeder

Free track download at http://www.pitchblackrecords.com

Running Wild – Branded and Exiled

During one of our recent phone conversations, Racer made mention that he played Armored Saint’s Delirious Nomad and was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t steer him wrong with said recommendation. As the conversation progressed, he asked me about Running Wild and all the jolly pirate shenanigans that were encapsulated within their swarthy and swaggering tunes, to which I had to plead the fifth . . . for, I hadn’t spent much time aboard that musical sailing vessel bearing plundered goods from across the Seven Seas. However, I was aware of Running Wild just prior to them embarking on this journey through the ruffled shirt realms of metaldom. So, with the little reminder from my writing mate, I practically fell over myself to dig Branded and Exiled out of my collection for a long deserved spinning.

Running Wild through Branded and Exiled was a power metal/thrash group from Germany that played a darker version of Accept-styled metal or Destruction. This album came along just before Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, et al made thrash metal the popular movement that it became. Once again, we have a fringe band that really didn’t achieve any success away from the underground during that pivotal mid to late 80’s time period. The production on this album is great in that the recording captured sounds raw and aggressive, maybe on par with the early Venom recordings. The mix is a little crazy . . . the guitars are way up front, the drums sound huge and the echo is turned heavily to the right, and the vocals have been baked in a casserole of reverb and garnished with distortion, which gives them a heavier, more menacing tone to them. It’s like Running Wild was flirting with the demonic spectrum of heavy metal, kinda’ like they were peering into the abyss of early death metal, intrigued long enough to put their thoughts to tape, and then ran away screaming in the opposite direction. It was all of these great little elements that made Branded and Exiled one of my cherished childhood memories.

Branded and Exiled opens with a monstrous guitar riff akin to Judas Priest and then with the sound of a gong, the whole band drops in and rolls into a classic anthemic metal, quasi-thrash, headbanging beast. The speed of the tune is mid tempo by today’s standards, but back in the day, this had an immediacy to it that definitely got the listeners attention. The little double bass drum flourishes are nice pieces of added texture, and the heaviness of the guitars, the palm muted chug-a-lug of power chords, creates a welcome sense of brutality to an otherwise potentially cheesy riff. The lyrics are all about the hordes of metalheads banded together, unified by their cause and alienated from society’s norms. Yeah, the kind of lyrics that the teenage kids at that time ate up like those special brownies passed around that one dude’s party.

“Realm of Shades” is actually a proto-thrash tune that stands up remarkably well twenty five years later. Remember, in 1985, thrash hadn’t quite become what it would, and the power chord was the most powerful chord of them all. Running Wild captured a great sense of dark and dastardly emotion on this one. As the song opens, that guitar riff is accented nicely by the cymbal crashes and short burst of distorted guitars. The song has a good flow to it, from verse to bridge to chorus and back again, the band did a great job of keeping the song moving. It has that terrific emotional build up in the music and the tension breaks at the perfect moments, getting a physical reaction from the listener to start rocking out with flailed arms and upraised knees. It has a mosh-able quality to it though there is no drastic tempo shift or disconnected riff to power the song in that way.

The second side of the album gets really anthemic with songs like “Fight the Oppression” and “Chains & Leather.” The former is straight up speed metal made popular by Motorhead. In fact, listen real close and you’ll hear the influence of “Ace of Spades” littered throughout this track. The speed of the tempo, for certain, harkens back to the godfathers, but the guitar riff sounds like it came from the hands of Fast Eddie himself. Despite these similar characteristics, the song has a great palm muted, hyper picked break before dropping into the guitar solo, and the guitar harmonies with the double bass flourishes coming out of the solo are an excellent NWOBHM touch. Throw in the high pitched vocal screams and you’ve got a heavy metal classic!

“Evil Spirit” is a slow, chugging, doom laden beast that may have been an early catalyst to Running Wild becoming the champions of buccaneers young and old. The riff has that early metal galloping quality, and oddly enough, it sounds detuned to embrace the darker, heavier tones and the guitar solo isn’t flashy or all that technically brilliant, but the tones and string bends are tasteful and make the piece shine. The lyrics have something to do with a gnome riding a sailing ship or something, though the subject matter may be lost in translation. In all the song is freaking awesome!

The final track, “Chains & Leather” is . . . really silly, but I can’t help but love this track! Running Wild is just singing the praises of metal garb and there’s nothing wrong with that. Good for them! The blue ribbon winning line from this track is, “Even Satan wears leather, our souls to it forever!”  C’mon! How good is that!?!?!?! The song is a pretty steady mid-tempo number and doesn’t deviate its pace . . . it just cruises along as the ode to all metalheads around the world. Chains and leather forever, indeed!

After Branded and Exiled, Running Wild simply got too campy for me, not that all of the music was bad . . . I just wasn’t interested in hearing about pirates buried booty in my metal. Branded and Exiled was one of those albums that I stumbled on and picked up without ever hearing a note, a completely blind purchase, and remarkably, the album has remained in my collection for all of this time. I like this album because of its darkened qualities and overall unpolished and rough sound . . . any cleaner sounding and there’s no way that it could be taken serious, any rougher and it becomes unlistenable. I would never call this a perfect album, but it’s a good example of the fringe, proto-thrash underground that was clamoring for fresh ears to assail. Now, I gotta’ dig through my collection and see what other mid-80’s gems are lingering around here . . .

Pope

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