It is amazing how the entire mainstream career of Quiet Riot is based on a cover song – “Cum on Feel the Noize”, originally by the band Slade. Sure, for most of the 20^th century, it seemed that many great artists launched their careers on songs other people wrote, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it just feels different when a rock band does so in the contemporary environment - such as it is for Quiet Riot with their 1983 mainstream phenomenon Metal Health; a wildly successful “heavy metal” album that launched the somewhat stagnant careers of the band into the stratosphere. Quiet Riot had already been making a few records back in the late 1970s (two of them released in Japan), but finally in 1983, they got their moment in the sun.

        Unfortunately for Quiet Riot, this is as far as the band got. While they had been recording regularly until 2006 with their last album Rehab, the mainstream rock scene has totally forgotten about this hair-metal act. This would be the first and last album of theirs to come even close to selling six million records, and of course even topping the Billboard Top 200 charts. It was a very impressive display for the fairly obscure band, as they embodied many of the elements of “rock star excess” and flaunted it with a carefree attitude. And that is one of the strengths of Metal Health, it has plenty of attitude - it is a rock solid (no pun intended) record.

        Since the release of Metal Health, Quiet Riot have been reduced to being “one-hit wonders”, with that one hit being the aforementioned “Cum on Feel The Noize”, which is, I must say, a great, great rock song, with tons of energy and a terrific carefree demeanor. However, I have always felt that Quiet Riot was much better than the record sales showed, especially in their later works. They, as musicians, are far better and much more captivating than that of their contemporaries like Poison, Ratt, Tesla, Dokken, or Twisted Sister. Quiet Riot is not a perfect band by any stretch, but boy do they have some rockin’ tunes! Looking at Metal Health alone, it has plenty of memorable songs. Aside from the hit-single that I mentioned, the title track is also a heavy metal classic, as well as the sweet ballad “Don’t Wanna Let You Go”, one of the band’s best efforts. “Love’s A Bitch” is actually a great song, with a terrific vocal performance by lead singer Kevin DuBrow and some thrilling guitar work by Carlos Cavazo. Some songs, like “Slick Black Cadillac”, are just kind of dull and uninspiring filler. However, there’s a pretty solid bunch of songs, albeit some of the tracks have some corny lyrics, but overall, it’s actually fairly strong.

        Quiet Riot never had a follow-up album that was nearly as successful, but musically, they did improve, while still stumbling a bit here and there. The band features a core of talented musicians, I’ve already mentioned DuBrow and Cavazo, but also, Frankie Banali, the band’s drummer, is one of the best rock ‘n roll drummers out there.

        Metal Health is indeed a 1980s heavy metal, arena rock, hair metal classic that embodies the time perfectly, and is still a lot of fun to listen to today. I would hope that in the annals of rock history, they will be given a little more credit because they did, down the line, make some pretty darn good albums, but, I know that they will forever be remembered for this one. If you’re a fan of the genre, then Metal Health is for you, but considering how popular it was, you may have heard it already, and maybe you even owned it once before.

TRACK HIGHLIGHTS:

“Cum on Feel the Noize”
“Don’t Wanna Let You Go”
“Metal Health”

“Love’s A Bitch”
“Battle Axe”

“Breathless”

-Kurt L.

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