The official lyric video for “Victory”, a brand new song from RIOT V, the band featuring members of legendary metal pioneers RIOT, can be seen below. The track is taken from the band’s upcoming album, “Armor Of Light”, which will be released on April 27 via Nuclear Blast. The disc was produced by Chris “The Wizard” Collier (METAL CHURCH, FLOTSAM & JETSAM, SLIPKNOT, KORN), while the cover artwork was created by Mariusz Gandzel (CRYSTAL VIPER).

The new songs promise to please fans of the “Thundersteel” era of RIOT, as longtime Mark Reale music collaborator Donnie Van Stavern undertakes a lot of the writing as he did on “Thundersteel”, “The Privilege Of Power” and the latest offering, “Unleash The Fire”.

Van Stavern states: “‘Victory’ is the first song on the new album, ‘Armor Of Light’, and the first song I wrote for it. I’m taking it back to my writing roots of ‘Thundersteel’/‘Privilege Of Power’ style, a fast, no-holds-barred face-melting assault on your ears! Although it is about a victorious battle of Thunder Bay, it also means a victory of sorts for us and the fans for keeping the torch burning! Rise up your voices strong and scream along cry out…Victory!”

Hardly any other metal act has such a long and absorbing history behind it. Since the quintet formed in 1975, they have been hit by several severe strokes of fate during their long career. Three deceased members — Rhett Forester (R.I.P. 1994), Guy Speranza (R.I.P. 2003) and Mark Reale (R.I.P. 2012) — have left their mark on the four decades of RIOT‘s band history.

Since their legendary debut album, “Rock City” (1977), RIOT has released numerous heavy metal classics, including “Fire Down Under” (with classics like “Swords And Tequila”), their masterpiece “Thundersteel” (1988) and the unforgotten “The Privilege Of Power” (1990).

After the death of Mark Reale and the departure of Tony Moore, Todd Michael Hall (from Michigan), completed the lineup of RIOT, which changed its name to RIOT V and moved forward under the auspices of the two long-term members and main songwriters Donnie Van Stavern (bass) and Mike Flyntz (guitar). With the critically acclaimed “Unleash The Fire” (2014), a pure power metal jewel once again underlined the musical importance and influence of the quintet.

Many artists name-check RIOT as an important influence of their musical career and have paid tribute to the power metal godfathers on multiple occasions. The list is long and includes several well-known acts such as HAMMERFALL (“Flight Of The Warrior”), Luca Turilli’s RHAPSODY (“Thundersteel”), AXEL RUDI PELL (“Warrior”) and newcomers such as NIGHT DEMON (“Road Racin'”), ALPHA TIGER (“Flight Of The Warrior”), SAVAGE MASTER (“Swords And Tequila”) and STALLION (“Rock City”).

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