QUIET RIOT , the LA band that originally featured guitarist Randy Rhoads, as well as frontman Kevin DuBrow, and longtime drummer Frankie Banali. QR were best known for being the first LA metal band to have a number One album with Metal Health, which had been released in March of 1983 and hit #1 on the Billboard charts in November. That success is often regarded as the turning point for the LA metal scene with major record companies rushing to sing numerous other metal bands. The band’s follow up album Conditional Critical was less successful, and the band would never returned to their massive success as they had in ’83. Line up changes would take place over subsequent albums, followed by breaks, reunions, reformations, etc… DuBrow released a fine solo disc of covers titled In For The Kill in 2004, and in 2006 QR released Rehab. Sadly, DuBrow passed away a year later in November of 2007. A few years later Frankie Banali would resurrect the band, going through years of changing singers, while the band also included guitarist Alex Grossi and bass player Chuck Wright, who’d worked with the band before, even played on a few Metal Health tracks (including the title track). QR even recorded a few new albums in more recent years. Banali was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2019, and sadly passed away in August of 2020. The band carried on, and in 2021 Chuck Wright left the band, and Rudy Sarzo returned.

The ‘new’ track was from the Rehab era, written by Dubrow & Grossi. It features DuBrow, Banali, Grossi, and bass from Rudy Sarzo, as well as a few added players, such as Dizzy Reed on keyboards (Reed plays alongside Grossi, current QR drummer Johnny Kelly, and WASP bassist Mike Duda in Hooks & Blow). The song “I Can’t Hold On” is a classic melodic power ballad. I’ve played this track a dozen times and it’s got to be one of the best things the band ever recorded. In another decade “I Can’t Hold On” would’ve been a major hit. But it is something special to hear this now. The accompanying video was directed by Regina Banali (Frankie’s widow), and it is a moving video featuring plenty of photos and film clips of DuBrow and Banali, pesonal clips of Banali in his last days, as well as recent clips of Grossi and company putting the song together, with Sarzo adding bass in the studio. Apparently there are more tracks that were started by Frankie Banali, and the band is looking to release a full album next summer.

Quiet Riot is also reissung Rehab (digitally) at present. The single “I Can’t Hold On” is available on digital platforms (Spotify, Amazon US…).

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/quietriot

https://www.quietriot.band/

https://www.metaledgemag.com/metal-wire/quiet-riot-share-newly-unearthed-kevin-dubrow-and-frankie-banali-era-song-i-cant-hold-on

https://www.facebook.com/HNBMerch

https://www.facebook.com/MissyWhitneyQuietRiotSquad