Search - Quiet Riot :: Metal Health

Killed by Commerce

Stonechild13 | 03/16/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When Metal Health was released, "Cum On Feel The Noize" was immediately presented as a single for radio play. It attracted attention from a broad cross-spectrum of listeners: it was hard enough for a lot of Metal-Heads, but safe for the Preps to "Rock-Out" to when they were overcome by the heady mixture of beer and hormones at the high school dance.



That meant it wasn't hard enough for ME. I was into stuff like Maiden, Priest, Krokus and WASP, and if the PREPS could bang their heads to it, well, I just avoided it all on principle.



Fast forward 20 years, and, in my first foray into the Internet, I stumble across "Metal Health" on a heavy metal Internet radio station. Maybe it was the 5th of Jim Beam I had downrange at the time, or the Hi-Grade pot I had for dessert, but something clicked then, and hasn't lost it's hold since.



Instrumentally, though over-produced within an inch of it's life, the songs' crashing guitars and hammering drums are still loud and sparse enough to catch your attention and start the inevitable nod of the head that leads to an all-out whipping of the top 12 vertebrae in your neck.



Kevin Dubrows' near-screaming vocals take this one over the top. He must have scalded his lungs, the way he snarled and spat his way through the entire song.



Every time I get the opportunity to crank this one up to 11, I do. and it never fails to get my heart-rate up in the danger zone and send cold shivers down my spine.



Too bad the rest of the album is so limpid and banal. But that's what happens when you try to write for the radio."