Music of the Day, 12 July 2025
no way back
Not that I want a way back from becoming a fan of hard rock and metal in the ‘80s!
While I didn’t spend yesterday evening immersed in those genres, today’s MotD undoubtedly was excavated because of yesterday’s featured song. I’ve been rewarding myself with various songs today, but in the middle of a task, this track barged in and stole all my focus. I am shocked and embarrassed that neither it nor this band have appeared in this space before.
Quiet Riot (QR) seems to be one of the most polarizing bands1 in rock; I didn’t know about most of that until a decade or so ago. I’m still not sufficiently informed to be offering any thoughts, so I’ll just stick to the music. And what glorious music it is!
The title track of Quiet Riot’s third studio album was released as its second single; it turned out to be their last Billboard top 40 hit, peaking at just #31. But the album—QR’s first worldwide release—struck a nerve with headbangers everywhere, and became the first heavy metal album to top the Billboard 200 chart. It’s currently certified 6x platinum in the US.
My memories of first seeing this video are almost certainly false and/or conflated, but my emotional reaction to “Metal Health” remains clear: it was a great musical gut punch, and I couldn’t get enough. Listening to it today through decent earbuds, I’m struck by how great the music is. I’m not sure I ever really heard Frankie Banali’s powerful drum intro before; and I know I didn’t appreciate Rudy Sarzo’s work on the bass. It’s still more buried in the mix than I’d prefer, but with a shredder like guitarist Carlos Cavazo and Kevin DuBrow’s energetic vocals, it’s forgivable.
I don’t think I ever owned Metal Health, but I’m sure my brother did and it’s likely I heard the whole album at some point. I also knew that the late great Randy Rhoads was in QR before this album, but I didn’t know he cofounded the band. So now I’m conflicted: should I track down the two Randy Rhoads QR albums first, or listen to Metal Health first?
the band’s Wiki page seems to have nearly all the deets, for anyone interested in learning more
Metal health still drives me MAD!