Doskonały Heavy Metal w klimacie Judas Priest stan płyt bdb stan okładki bdb

What is it exactly that makes this album so damn fun? That very question has had me scratching my head for years, because honestly I just don't know. I can point out certain aspects that surely contribute; there's Guy Speranza's top-shelf vocals, the unbelievably catchy songwriting, and performances energetic enough to power a fleet of flux capacitors. At some point however the whole somehow becomes far more than the sum of its parts, and what we get is that special kind of magic that I can only call "greatness". And boy did Riot have both the stomach and the appetite for greatness.

As with many great albums, Fire Down Under has quite a story behind it. After Narita and a tour, Capitol Records were done using Riot as a tool to make Sammy Hagar seem hip with the younger generation, and they dropped Riot like a used condom; followup Fire Down Under was apparently commercially unacceptable, but the label didn't want to let Riot out of their contract either, stranding the album in legal limbo. Yet even that wasn't enough to stop Riot. The band told their fans, and the fans got righteously pissed. In the UK they went so far as to engage in noisy, violent public protests (or something) in front of the offices of Capitol's parent EMI, until finally the label buckled and let the band out of the contract, if only to get those annoying British kids off of their lawn. Fire Down Under was promptly released on Elektra Records, even going so far as to break into the Billboard Top 100, quite a feat considering Riot no longer had major label muscle behind their promotion.

Listening to these songs, is it really any wonder the Brits were going apeshit over them in 1981? People characterize this album as "American NWOBHM", and really that hits the nail on the head, if the "American" is understood to refer to character as well as location. Rather than sounding much like Judas Priest or Black Sabbath or punk rock, the name of the game here is bluesy hard rock from bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, and Rainbow (bands from the UK, true, but with roots lying squarely in American blues rock); but unlike Riot's first two albums, for the third the band started playing a whole lot louder and a whole lot faster, making full use of the twin-guitar attack (possible evidence they had noticed Tipton & Downing after all). Even so, Saxon at their most energetic and Raven at their most polished are Fire Down Under's closest cousins, I think. I do not exaggerate when I put Guy Speranza at his best on the same level as true greats like Halford or Dio; the man has the full frontman package, evincing incredible skill and talent while simultaneously dripping with charisma. Speranza reminds me of Glenn Hughes in a lot of ways, with a similar sort of high clear tenor, but with a soulful edge that comes and goes at will. Unlike Hughes however, Speranza's got more youthful energy than ten boys in a bottle, like an Ian Gillan with the rough edges sanded down, and that makes listening to the guy a whole hell of a lot of fun. If you listen to one of the live albums from the time or watch any videos of Speranza's old shows with Riot on Youtube, you can see that he did a fantastic job in a live environment as well.

Fire Down Under is a perfect example of classic pacing done right; right out of the gate we're hit by "Swords and Tequila", a fast number about drinking and playing with weapons that gets you up out of your seat and keeps you there. Next we have the title track, which turns things up another notch. It's even faster than the first, practically speed metal, and it has what might be the catchiest chorus on an album full of catchy choruses. The former clocks in at just over three minutes while the latter lasts just longer than two and a half; Riot know how to keep it short but sweet. Just as you'd expect from the pacing, "Feel the Same" slows things down with a brooding, bluesy feel and Speranza's expert crooning. While the first two songs were about kicking ass and having fun, "Feel the Same" is much more heartfelt, the yearning of a man who desperately wants to establish a meaningful connection with his woman, but seems chronically unable to understand her.

Midpaced rocker "Outlaw" spins a melancholy yarn of a gambler on the run from the law, until finally he is betrayed by a woman and runs out of luck. "Don't Bring Me Down" ooches the pace up another little bit and lightens the mood substantially, as Guy Speranza berates the girl who left him, featuring classy lines like "You call me a wimp, you say I'm a chump/Well your face is bent, and you smell like gorilla dump." Good one, Guy. Luckily, the track is intentionally fun and silly enough that the lyrics don't come off as too out of place. "Don't Hold Back" has us up to full speed again, but ironically it sees Riot holding back, with understated verses and most of the burden of heaviness carried by the rhythm section. Even so, it works quite well and the gang shouts really drive the chorus's point home.

However, none of that has prepared you for "Altar of the King". This is Riot's take on Rainbow's epic style, approaching the transcendence of something like "Stargazer" in only about half the time but with a much more positive color. The song opens with a quiet, vaguely medieval-sounding acoustic guitar piece before slapping you with that main riff that bounces along like a runaway jackhammer. The rest are good as well, with the two guitars splitting into separate but supporting parts on the verses, one repeating a single fast chord while the other lets the same chord ring out, a technique that creates considerable tension which builds toward the chorus. To the altar of the king! Over the top of this Guy Speranza sings his heart out, with lyrics encapsulating the song's theme of striving toward greatness and accomplishment through ambiguous epic pronouncements that would make Dio proud. "Evening's burning skies/Reflect upon my eyes/Out in the distance/Utopia, resistance." Then a fantastic melodic solo that takes its time and bends notes like Thor bends iron bars with his teeth. "Altar of the King" is clearly the strongest track on the album, and one of my favorite hard rock/heavy metal tracks of all time. I liken it to the righteous conviction of the young men who lied about their ages to enlist early during WWII, so eager were they to fight Nazis. If "Altar of the King" were used in a recruitment campaign, I'd join up no matter the cause. War with the Lilliputians, you say? I'm on a boat right now with a pair of stompin' boots.

Unfortunately, the album doesn't ever get back to the greatness of the previous song, but then that's too much to ask. "No Lies" is another song in the vein of "Don't Hold Back", perhaps even a little stronger. "Run for Your Life" on the other hand is a lot like "Swords and Tequila", fast and energetic and a load of fun. "Flashbacks" is a bit of a weird outro, longer than many of the actual songs on the album. It's put together out of snippets from concerts and interviews with a guitar solo screaming over the top, and eventually it starts to turn into a cool song before prematurely fading out. While I have to admit it was probably put in there to pad out the length of an otherwise very short album (33 minutes without the outro), I think it does a good job of cementing the mood and easing us out. The way "Flashbacks" fades just at the apparent beginning of another song implies that Riot never quit, it's only the listener who gets too exhausted to continue. Maybe there's some alternate universe in which Riot play forever?

Though their successes seemed forever tempered by setbacks, between Narita and Fire Down Under Riot was genuinely on the cusp of breaking through and joining the likes of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Unfortunately, Fire Down Under also ended up being the swansong for this incarnation of Riot. Disillusioned after label shenanigans and general mismanagement, the recently married Guy Speranza decided it was time to leave the biz forever. The band picked up new throat Rhett Forrester and soldiered on; while talented, Forrester was apparently a difficult and unreliable guy, and without Speranza the band's chemistry was definitely off. A mediocre followup to Fire Down Under got them dropped from Elektra, and after another mediocre Forrester album on an even smaller label, band leader Mark Reale simply didn't have the energy to continue touring in support of big names while Riot's chances of being a big name themselves, once nearly within reach, now receded ever farther into the distance. I could lament the end of the Speranza-era Riot, but honestly I find it difficult to imagine the band topping Fire Down Under, and if you listen to the handful of tracks that were recorded after this album but before Speranza's departure, they show the band making clear concessions to commercial demands at the expense of quality. These ten tracks right here were unquestionably the culmination of their hard rock efforts up to that point; one of the first emergences of heavy metal proper on this side of the Atlantic, one of the few American answers to NWOBHM that really carried weight. Under the right circumstances Riot might've been able to pull off another good album or two in this style, sure, and it's a shame they didn't; but after listening to Fire Down Under four or five times in a row while writing this review, it's really hard to feel bad about anything.