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I've been following this band since the early '80s and the album Narita, a cassette of which I pretty much wore out in my car stereo. They've gone through a number of incarnations, the current under the full name of Riot V. Mean Streets is the third album since the passing of founding guitarist Mark Reale and, like its predecessors, reaches back to the glory days of Thundersteel for much of its inspiration. Where the last album, 2018's Armor of Light, embraced the speedy side of the Thundersteel formula, Mean Streets dials that back a bit and has more mid-paced, though thoroughly Riot, songwriting. There are still plenty of double-kick driven tracks (try not to air drum to "Higher") and the Thundersteel DNA comes through loud and clear in the vocal lines of songs like "Feel the Fire." Singer Todd Michael Hall is about as good a replacement as you could want for Tony Moore, the man behind the band's classic late '80s hits. If I have a beef with Mean Streets, it would be that it is very safe in the songwriting, almost a continuation of Armor of Light. I'm not saying a band should change a successful formula and there are no bad songs on Mean Streets, but I probably couldn't tell one album from the other in a shuffled playlist. Small complaints aside, if you like the soaring heavy/power metal this band is rightfully famous for, Mean Streets makes for another fine addition to the band's catalog.