RIOT V And PRIMAL FEAR To Join Forces For Six-Week European Co-Headlining Tour

RIOT V, the band featuring members of legendary metal pioneers RIOT, will join forces with German power metallers PRIMAL FEAR for a six-week European co-headlining tour in October.

The news of the trek was revealed by Donnie Van Stavern, a longtime collaborator with RIOT founder Mark Reale, who plays bass in RIOT V and is one of its chief songwriters.

Speaking to the "Scars And Guitars"podcast about RIOT V's touring plans for the coming months, Donnie said: "We have some stuff coming up. We got inducted into this [Hall Of Heavy Metal History] back in January, and [SAXON drummer] Nigel [Glockler] was our guest, with his manager, Adam. And we talked about doing an old-school tour like we did way back in the day with RIOT and SAXON — we were talking about doing it again after they get through with the JUDAS PRIEST support. So we have that. Then, of course, Joacim [Cans] and the HAMMERFALL guys, who are very, very big RIOT fans — and they come from the 'Thundersteel' school of RIOT; they're into that more power metal — they're doing something late this year and we're gonna do a tour with them as well. And then, one thing that we've got already being booked right now is a co-headline tour with PRIMAL FEAR. So PRIMAL FEAR and RIOT will be doing a six-week tour of Europe in October. But before that, we have this Japan thing ['Thundersteel 30th Special In Japan' shows] next week, [we're] filming it, and then we have three festivals in three consecutive weekends. The first weekend is the Headbangers Open Air, we headline, then a week off, and the next weekend we do Wacken [Open Air], and then after Wacken a week off, and then we do… the third festival is at Leyendas Del Rock in Spain; it's another big one, with JUDAS PRIEST on it. So instead of going back and forth, we decided that we would have our agent keep us over there. So they're gonna announce these dates probably within the next week or two. So we're gonna do a whole string; we'll be over there for a month. We're starting in, I think, Denmark, and then we do the festival, then we do Scotland, Belgium, then we do another festival, then we do London… So he's gonna keep us over there. In between the festivals each week, we'll fill it in with three or four dates, so it'll be a full-blown tour. That'll be in July. So that's kind of what we've got going on right now."

RIOT V's new album, "Armor Of Light", 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).

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").

PRIMAL FEAR recently entered the studio to begin recording its next album, "Apocalypse". 12 brand new crushing heavy metal songs have been selected, out of 30 newly written tracks, which are being produced by PRIMAL FEAR bassist Mat Sinner and engineered and mixed by Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios in Denmark. The album is tentatively scheduled for release in mid-2018 via Frontiers Music Srl.

New songtitles include "Apocalypse", "New Rise", "The Hounds Of Justice", "King Of Madness", "The Beast", "Blood, Sweat & Fear" and the 10-minute extravaganza "Eye Of The Storm". Stylistically, the new tunes follow the same path that started on the most successful PRIMAL FEAR album so far, "Rulebreaker".