Hey everyone. There has been some amazing music released this October. Among the many albums from tons of great bands is Riot City‘s album “Electric Elite” which is the much anticipated followup to “Burn The Night” that they released in 2019.
Cale Savy – one of the founding members of Riot City – and I have been friends for the better part of our lives and I wanted to show him some love and support with this week’s blog post and song. The song I wrote is called “Scream” and is based off of the form for “Eye of the Jaguar” which is the opening track on their new album. Here it is in its demo format, completely unedited with first takes for everything.
Here’s the track
I wrote and recorded this track in a few hours after listening through Riot City’s new album. Having grown up playing music together and in bands in our teenage years, I know Cale’s fantastic guitar playing and songwriting styles very well. Let’s look at “Eye of the Jaguar” and go over the form that they used for this track. They play in Eb standard tuning and “Eye of the Jaguar” is in the key of Ab minor.
Form
Intro (chorus)
Band joins (chorus)
Melody
Verse
Prechorus – guitars
Verse – same
Prechorus – vocals
Chorus – intro
Melody
Little open break/bridge
Solo 1 – chorus chords
Solo 2 – no change
Solo 3 – chord change to 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, 5 of 6
Harmony section on one chord and a riff
Bridge – vocals
Chorus
Last section is a run from the intro/chorus riff.
I listened to their song, wrote down the form, then wrote a song of my own that you heard at the top of this post (“Scream”) with the same form and same general elements to keep it in the respective theme and style of Riot City. They are definitely traditional heavy metal in the speed metal realm. This means they generally have fast tempos and fast riffs/solos/melodies, trading solos, harmonized solos and melodies, etc. which all take superb skill and practice to lock in at their masterful level.
Their vocals and lyrics echo heavily back to Judas Priest’s Painkiller era; soaring high falsettos and lyrics about battle, debauchery, and stories about both and more. I aimed for the same in terms of lyrics and their delivery.
Lyrics
Verse
Hear the cries, deep in the night
Piercing the skies
Feel the heat, that burns hot and white
Run for your lives
The age of the innocent
Brought to its knees
Twisted and insolent
Corrupting dreams
Verse
Skid row alley
Full of their kin
Ever guilty
Living in sin
Quenching their lust at last
Bury their faces
The bloodlines of the past
Ever retraces
Prechorus
The bitter taste of life
Is all that they know
All through the night they
Chorus
Scream
A bloody murder
Scream
Into the void
Scream
A bloody murder
Scream
Into the void
Bridge
Now the time has come
Forget your soul
Left beneath the ground
The deepest of holes
Unwanted unloved
Never thought of
Until once again
You hear the
Chorus
Scream
A bloody murder
Scream
Into the void
Scream
A bloody murder
Scream
Into the void
Thoughts on the album
They delivered the perfect follow up to “Burn the Night” with their latest release. If you play them back to back it sounds like a continuation with a little more focus on both guitars and vocals because of Cale Savy deciding to step down from his excellent roll as lead vocalist and focus more just on guitars with Roldan Reimer while Jordan Jacobs picks up the torch and breathes his own breath of fire into the falsetto majesty that is the trademark of Riot City.
With most of the album being a rapid series of flurries of intense speed and musicianship they close off the album with nearly a 10 minute epic titled “Severed Ties” which showcases their ability to change gears at will and deliver melody after melody in a song that shows every side of what they can do, culminating their sound, style, and constant dedication to honing their craft.
The members of Riot City on “Electric Elite” are:
- Cale Savy: Guitars and backing vocals
- Roldan Reimer: Guitars and backing vocals
- Dustin Smith: Bass and backing vocals
- Chad Vallier: Drums
- Jordan Jacobs: Lead vocals
Make sure to take the time to give them a listen and try writing a track of your own using their form that I wrote out above. Check out all of their links by clicking here.
Parting words
This song was a blast to write. Cale’s a dear friend of mine and I couldn’t be more proud of him and his hard work with his amazing band. On top of his band having an amazing release this October, my band Inner Urge just released our debut album “Consume and Waste” on 27 October. I’m going to do a live playthrough of the whole album coming up soon and I’ll be sure to link to that on here one way or another.
You can check out our album by clicking here. I actually wrote a lot of the music for this album way back when Cale and I were in Uninvited Sons together over 10 years ago. I wrote the lyrics, solos, and vocal melodies (as well as a few tracks) over the last year or two during the heat of the pandemic. We’ve received a few offers from some labels already and are still gearing up to try to get a full band together as, currently, the whole band is performed by myself on everything with Berzan Önen’s masterful work on vocals.
Thank you for your time listening to the song(s) and reading this article. If you’re wondering how you can improve your chops to be able to play music like this then, as always, feel free to contact me through my website or email me at [email protected] and we can get going with lessons or a package of lessons at your leisure to help you reach your goals.
Remember to practice every day, write a little every day, be kind to yourself, and most of all, try to enjoy the process and be grateful that you get to make music.
All the best and have a great week,
– Matt