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Riff Raff were among the earliest of Finland's Metal bands, starting some time in 1979 before calling it quits in 1984. There were a couple of reissues of their material back in 2018, but the band never got a whole lot of attention outside of their hometown. This is a shame, because while they weren't doing anything new on Robot Stud, they were doing it pretty damn well.

This album is unsurprisingly an old-fashioned slice of dirty, rocking NWOBHM in the vein of early Accept and Saxon. The songs are simple and direct, with much of it being pretty close to Hard Rock, but it rocks so hard that's not really an issue. The guitar work is simple but infectious, and the vocals are an Udo-styled gargle that have enough swagger and energy to get past their clear limitations most of the time. There are some lost classics on here like the killer opening title track and "Fooling with a .44", but tracks like "(Don't You Think) It's Disgusting" and the cover of The Valentinos' "It's All Over Now" leans more on the rock than I prefer. I can't quite call this a lost classic, but it is a solid little gem that serves as a great time capsule of a time when Metal was meant to be played in bars filled with dudes in denim jackets. Worth tracking down.