Greece’s Rockpages caught up with Riot V’s bassist Donnie Von Stavern and guitarist Nick Lee to discuss new album Armor Of Light and other topics.

About the new album:

Donnie Von Stavern: “I think we have a record that is progressive but it's modern sounding you know in the great tradition of riot and then you know nuclear blast they should be able to take this to the next level let's hope...”

Nick Lee: “There's a lot of pressure on both records for different reasons. I mean for Unleash The Fire was the first record with this lineup and you know there's a lot of skeptics to whether or not it would be you know legitimate. So, we had little expectations to the response and then the response was so overwhelmingly good. Νow, the pressure was to make something better. Or, at least as good... But, we think it's better! 

“We're coming from the reunion record Immortal Soul with Tony (Moore, former vocalist) and Bobby (Jarzombek, former drummer) and Mark (Reale, former guitarist), so it was a challenge and we knew that to continue we had to come up with something special and basically see what would happen... if people didn't accept it then we might not be here right now. But, fortunately for us we learned a lot with Mark Reale. Not only was I a member of his band, but I was a fan before I joined in 1984. So, I learned a lot about songwriting with him, so when we create songs I knew how he would wanted things and so that's why we started writing in that tradition.”

About the classic Thundersteel album:

Donnie: “I think at the time we knew it was great material but we didn't know how special... Because you know you're dealing with classics like Fire Down Under, which was basically Riot's staple album and Thundersteel came to be the second and the largest one. When we recorded it... you know I was friends with Mark way before I joined the band in 1984. He knew I was in a metal band from Texas, A.S. Slayer… it was the Texas Slayer and I was into heavy metal and the NWOBHM stuff. So, when Mark would come we would write music and I would write a little bit more aggressive stuff that was really kind of out of the realm of Riot. I was coming from Born In America so, we started writing music and Mark was getting a little more progressive in his approach. He wanted to be aggressive like he was getting in a Judas Priest style and stuff so he looked up to me to write a lot of the stuff. That's why I wrote almost every song on Thundersteel. He trusted me.”

Cult New York heavy metal band and godfathers of power metal, Riot V, have released a lyric video for "Messiah", a track from their upcoming sixteenth album, Armor Of Light, out on April 27th. Watch below.

The album will be available on colored vinyl (black, silver, red) 2-LP in gatefold and as a limited CD-Digipak-Edition, both including the two bonus tracks "Unbelief" as well as a new recorded verison of their classic hymn "Thundersteel".

Mastermind Donnie van Stavern (bass) 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!"

Pre-order Armor Of Light digitally and receive "Victory" instantly.

The album was produced by Chris "The Wizard" Collier (Metal Church, Flotsam And Jetsam), while the cover artwork was created by Mariusz Gandzel (Crytal Viper).

Tracklisting:

"Victory"
"End Of The World"
"Messiah"
"Angel's Thunder, Devil's Reign"
"Burn The Daylight"
"Heart Of A Lion"
"Armor Of Light"
"Set The World Alight"
"San Antonio"
"Caught In The Witches Eye"
"Ready To Shine"
"Raining Fire"
"Unbelief"
"Thundersteel"

"Messiah" lyric video:

"Heart Of A Lion" video:

"Victory" lyric video:

Trailer #1:

Trailer #2:

Trailer #3:

Primal Fear have revealed the first dates for their upcoming headlining tour with special guests Riot V. The current schedule can be found below.

September
28 - Mannheim, Germany - MS Connexion Complex
29 - Memmingen, Germany - Kaminwerk
30 - Budapest, Hungary - Barba Negra

October
2 - Salzburg, Austria - Rockhouse
3 - Milano, Italy - Legend Club
4 - Grenoble, France - L'Llyade
5 - Barcelona, Spain - Salamandra 1
6 - Madrid, Spain - Mon
7 - Bilbao, Spain - Santana 27
10 - Paris, France - Le Petit Bain
11 - London, England - The Dome
12 - Vosselaar, Belgium - Biebob
14 - Bochum, Germany - Zeche
16 - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle
17 - Rostock, Germany - Alte Zuckerfabrik
18 - Berlin, Germany - Lido
19 - Zlin, Czech Republic - Masters Of Rock Cafe
20 - Cham, Germany - La Cham
23 - Graz, Austria - Explosiv
24 - Prague, Czech Republic - Nova Chmelnice
25 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z 7
26 - Stuttgart, Germany - LKA Longhorn
27 - Geiselwind, Germany - Live Music Hall