Riot - Army Of One

*=Staff's pick	Army Of One* Knockin At My Door* Blinded One More Alibi It All Falls Down* Helping Hand The Mystic* Still Alive Alive In The City Shine* Stained Mirrors Dark Side Of Light*

Genre	Melodic Heavy Metal	Mike DiMeo	Vocals
Tracks	12	Mark Reale	Guitar
Runningtime	66 Min.	Mike Flyntz	Guitar
Label	Metal Heaven	Pete Perez	Bass
Release	27 Oct. 2006	Frank Gilchrist	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Sword, Fifth Angel

Riot is a band that has been around since the mid 70's and many are they who say they had their glory days up to 1984's Born In America album. I on the other hand say that they have their glory days from 1988's Thundersteel album up until today. They have released quality album after quality album since then and the new one, Army Of One, is no exception to that. Riot are the masters of great midtempo songs with excellent choruses. Mike DiMeao is one of the best singers out there in metal land and Mark Reale is an underrated guitarist and songwriter. I'd say that Riot as a whole is very underrated and worthy of much more success than they've had through the years. On this album drummer Frank Gilchrist (Virgin Steele) joins the band.

The best song on the album is The Mystic which is a true classic, a little faster Riot piece. Think Thundersteel and you know what I mean. Other standout songs are Knockin' At My Door with a chorus that got stuck in my head since I heard it the first time and the closer Darker Side Of Light that is a typical midtempo trademark Riot song. Shine is another of the faster ones that really stand out. This album is filled with excellent guitarplaying, great vocals and catchy choruses that make you want to hear the songs over and over again. The only letdowns are Alive In The City that I for some unknown reason don't like as much as the other songs and the instrumental bit Stained Mirror. I rarely like instrumental songs for some even more unknown reason...

The more I listen to this album I realise how much I really enjoy Riot's music. It's too bad that a lot of people out there have missed out on this great band. The Japan verison that has been out for a while has a bonustrack in a live version from 1998 of the song Road Racin'.