Latest Release
- 29 MAR 2024
- 1 Song
- Metal Health (Bonus Track Version) · 1983
- Metal Health (Bonus Track Version) · 1983
- QR III · 1986
- Condition Critical · 1984
- Alive and Well · 1996
- Metal Health (Bonus Track Version) · 1983
- Greatest Hits · 1984
- Metal Health (Bonus Track Version) · 1983
- Metal Health (Bonus Track Version) · 1983
- QR · 1988
Essential Albums
- Most people who encountered Quiet Riot’s 1983 hit Metal Health—one of the first heavy metal albums to become a mainstream phenomenon—likely didn’t realise that, by the time the record topped the US charts, the band had already been around for about 10 years. The group’s first two albums—which featured future Ozzy Osbourne guitar hero Randy Rhoads—had only been released in Japan, and by 1981, the band had actually broken up, only to reform with a new line-up a year later. In the meantime, metal had developed from its early years as a bruising, antisocial response to mainstream pop into something that aggregated loud guitars, obnoxious lyrics, a lewd sense of showmanship and a post-Beatles reverence for big, catchy hooks. This was especially true of the scene in Los Angeles, home to Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Ratt, W.A.S.P.—and, of course, Quiet Riot. The fact that the band’s most enduring hit, “Cum On Feel the Noize”, was a cover of a song by 1970s British glam-rock band Slade was telling: Metal Health wasn’t Iron Maiden or even Judas Priest—it was Thin Lizzy with more distortion (“Slick Black Cadillac”), or AC/DC with bigger, better hair (“Metal Health”). The album even offered a prototype for the metal power ballad: “Love’s a Bitch”. In the years after Metal Health’s release, metal branched off in two different directions: The glammy, even more pop-friendly sound of so-called hair metal, and the hardcore-influenced sound of thrash bands like Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth (before Guns N’ Roses managed to split the difference). Both sides sold wildly well, and, like the evolution of hip-hop, your preference of one over the other mostly had to do with genre politics. But none of it could have existed without Metal Health.
Albums
Music Videos
Artist Playlists
- Ear-splitting pop-metal anthems bursting with rebellious fun.
About Quiet Riot
An iconic L.A. band that laid the groundwork for the metal explosion of the ’80s, Quiet Riot has been rocking for nearly 50 years. ∙ Quiet Riot was cofounded in 1973 by legendary guitarist Randy Rhoads, who left the group in 1979 to play with former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne—and revitalized the singer’s career. ∙ Metal Health, the group’s 1983 debut LP in the US, was the first metal album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and eventually went six-times Platinum. ∙ “Cum On Feel the Noize,” a cover of Slade’s 1973 UK hit, was the first metal song to crack the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became Quiet Riot’s signature anthem. ∙ “Metal Health (Bang Your Head),” which helped introduce headbanging into pop culture, was the group’s second Top 40 hit and was later included in VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs. ∙ They scored another Platinum album with 1984’s Condition Critical, which featured the minor hit Mama Weer All Crazee Now"—another Slade cover. ∙ Following a breakup and years of shuffling lineups, the original Metal Health band reunited in 1997 when Quiet Riot was invited to play an aftershow party for Marilyn Manson.
- ORIGIN
- Los Angeles, CA, United States
- FORMED
- 1973
- GENRE
- Hard Rock