EP review: Riot:Noise – Fight The People

Hey – are you nostalgic for British hair metal circa 1991? Big fan of Def Leppard, Gun, Stiltskin, Thunder, The Almighty and so forth? Then, boy, do we have a band for you – Bristol’s Riot:Noise are the chaps in question, and the Fight The People EP is, as far as I can tell, their first proper release.

Now, let’s be clear about this: Riot:Noise do what they do well, and they have authenticity on their side – the four songs on this EP are well-produced, competently performed and well-written. Whether you hear a sizzlin’ hot rock’n'roll band or a gang of guys trying to resurrect a sound best left safely buried in the past is entirely a matter of personal perspective… and it’s probably not hard for you to guess that I’m in the latter camp.

My problem with the Fight the People EP is the same as my problem with the bands it pays homage to: it just doesn’t seem to have any unique character of its own. I mean, yeah, sure, all rock music is a game of reconstructed clichés, but the better bands find a way to frame a little slice of their own character within the tropes – I’m thinking of The Wildhearts, here, but there are a few others. My whole beef with the genre is that it rarely steps beyond its traditions, never stretches its potential… and Riot:Noise aren’t going to be the ones to cross that line, I suspect. The tunes are decent enough, but throw them into a few hours of random rock tracks from the last two decades, and you’d be hard pressed to pick them out from the crowd. That’s a mark of quality in some respects – there’s no denying they’ve got the chops – but also a bit of a curse. If a song doesn’t stand out enough for you to ask who sings it… well, you can see where I’m going with that.

But to reiterate: this is a long-term hair-metal hater speaking, and I’m sure that Riot:Noise will make a better impact on their chosen demographic… their current tour supporting Gun should help, as should a video for “Never Wrong” that apparently features “former Playboy model and glamour sensation” Sammie Pennington. I’ll bet you five pounds and a round of drinks that video will have an awful lot of ripped denim and fishnet stockings in it somewhere… and if you’re thinking “well, what’s wrong with that?”, the Fight the People EP will be right up your proverbial alley.