ALBUM REVIEW: Quiet Riot – Hollywood Cowboys

Frontiers Music s.r.l. - 8th November 2019

11 November 2019 Mark Diggins

Quiet Riot do keep making albums unlike some of their contemporaries who packed it all in years ago, and for that you have to commend them. Whatever your thoughts on the legitimacy of a band bereft of original members though is a constant bone of contention for some, though I have to add normally for those who don’t give the new music a chance anyway. On the other hand I don’t thing I’ve ever read a press release that hasn’t name-checked ‘Metal Health’ in the first sentence.

So 11 albums in and with James Durbin the man who only just stepped in at the last minute to record vocals for last outing ‘Road Rage’ already out of the band you might be forgiven for thinning ‘Hollywood Cowboys’ was doomed, but you’d be wrong. What we get is a band that sound like they’ve hit their groove and and album made up of 12 hard rockers with an early 80’s vibe and a sound, like opener ‘Don’t Call It Love,’ with a nice rough edge. Whatever you take on Durbin’s voice, he uses his range and higher register here to good effect, and it’s a style that does suit the sound of ‘Hollywood Cowboys.’

Our highlights include the drum-led ‘In The Blood’ that has a hypnotic groove and a huge chorus that might even make it the best here. Then there’s the incredible ‘Insanity’ that kicks out a beat like early Van Halen. And you can add to those the nicely melodic ‘Wild Horses’ that I’m sure back in the day could have bothered the radio.

I quite like this one, and it does build on ‘Road Rage’ for me, it’s just a shame that the revolving door of Quiet Riot’s vocalists keeps on revolving with the newly re-appointed Jizzy Pearl the sixth singer since 2010.

At the time of release our thoughts and prayers are of course with Frankie Banali as he battles the ‘Big C’.