I'm finally getting to Riot and beyond. Vic Anesini has done the impossible with Riot: he's taken the murky fog and brought it right out into the open and into your face so that you have no choice but to face it head-on. I'd always imagined that a cleaned-up Riot would be a let-down, because it was never supposed to sound clean, slick, or commercialized. The new remaster is none of those things; what it is is a full technicolor nightmare with the wounds still fresh, but even rawer than before. Nowhere is this more evident than on "Africa Talks To You (The Asphalt Jungle)." The only way I'd ever heard this was on the old CD version, which was muddy, hissy, and distant. Well, the remaster is still muddy, although much more organic; it's all together, man! The hiss is still there, showing the countless overdubs. But it is so IN YOUR FACE that not only is Africa talking to you, you damn well better listen! Timber, all fall down indeed!