Timeless melodic thrash metal with a modern edge - A review of Outrage's Run Riot

Legendary Japanese thrash metal quartet Outrage has been around for thirty-eight years as we speak and has released fourteen studio records so far. Even though the band never went on hiatus and even pulled through the nineties that saw many genre colleagues struggle, this very consistent group has never gotten its international breakthrough and remains rather unknown out of its home country. The group's new release Run Riot would be an appropriate record to finally discover this band. While it was nearly impossible to find the group's albums in the past except than paying exaggerated import prices on a hunch, it's now possible to listen to its records easily, legally and quickly on platforms such as Spotify. As much as such streaming providers might get rightfully criticized for failing to support artists directly and oddly distributing revenues, they certainly offer overlooked bands from exotic countries the opportunity to finally get discovered by fans from all around the world.

Run Riot comes in a quite nice package which starts with a charismatic cover artwork. The quartet honoured the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that inspired it to start playing music. The special edition of this album includes two cover songs by Paralex and Tank as well as a tribute show where the band played tracks by Angel Witch, Saxon, Tygers of Pan Tang, Venom and Warfare. This is one of the few cases when a limited edition is certainly worth the extra cost.

The regular album consists of ten original songs with a running time of forty-four minutes. Highlights include the raw, energetic and anthemic ''The Way We Are'' with its slight punk rock touch that can be described as band anthem without any doubt. ''Cyclops'' starts on a dreamy, eerie and floating note before it evolves into a modern thrash metal monster somewhere between Armored Saint and Testament. Album closer ''Are You Ready'' goes even one step further as it's the longest tune on this output with a length of just over five minutes. The track starts with wonderful guitar harmonies before a heartfelt solo leads to twin guitar leads that recall early Iron Maiden. The track explodes after a minute and a half and evolves into a ferocious thrash metal tune that convinces with traditional trademarks and a modern production at the same time in a very balanced way. This is easily a strong record's shining highlight that ends the album with a bang.

Run Riot doesn't include any fillers and offers melodic thrash metal with a timelessly modern edge recalling groups such as Anthrax, Armored Saint and Testament. Especially the songs with a few quieter parts where the excellent heavy metal guitar play by Abe Yousuke can shine through are absolutely outstanding. Several songs sound slightly interchangeable and the band's songwriting isn't always distinctive enough to compete with the international genre heavyweights. Nevertheless, anyone who likes melodic thrash metal with a modern edge should certainly discover Outrage in general and its fourteenth studio album Run Riot in particular. If you want to discover the gigantic back catalogue of this band, try to find a copy of the excellent 30th Anniversary XXX Box that has been released three years prior to this album and covers the band's entire impressive career with thirty songs and lots of extra material.

Final rating: 80%