Halford
«I tried to look too far ahead, and saw the road go to my past instead»
REVIEWS
- Crucible
RESURRECTION, (2000)
Rating: 8
Best Songs- Resurrection
Worst Song- Twist
What a fitting title!
Written by Ratko Hribar
As you might have known originally Rob Halford, usually credited as the Metal God, was the lead singer of a quintessential British heavy metal band, Judas Priest. Sometime in the early 90's he left Priest and formed Fight, a very thrash-metal influenced project. After releasing two studio albums Fight was disbanded and Halford started dabbling with electronic music in another new act, the infamous Two. Finally facing an almost complete loss of fans Halford had retraced his steps trying to figure out where he went wrong, not surprisingly, he came to realize that there's only one thing his fans want to hear from him – Priest-style heavy metal. In the grand tradition of Dio and Bruce Dickinson, Halford decided that his new band will bare his name, which should, hopefully, boost their popularity a little. However, well aware of the fact he has lost a lot of the credit he had with the metal audience Halford hooked up with the new, leading metal producer of the day, Roy Z (known for his work with Bruce Dickinson, Helloween and Rob Rock), who was to re-instate his image. Some were worried about the prospect of Halford trying to dabble with thrash-metal some more, but instead what we get here is prime, shredding Judas Priest, awesome two guitar attack by Mike Chlasciak and Patrick Lachman, furious drumming by Bobby Jarzombek, steady bass licks supplied by Ray Riendeau, and last, but not least, Rob's trademark high-pitched screaming.
The band is off with a blazing start on the fast & furious "Painkiller"-styled title track which immediately explains Halford's new philosophy - "I walked alone into a fight, no longer standing in satanic light, I tried to look too far ahead, and saw the road go to my past instead." Let's see... the first line could be an allusion to Fight, and the second line probably explains him leaving Priest (obviously on good terms, judging by that "satanic light" comment). The third line could be about that dumb miss-step he had with Two and the last line is about him embracing his heavy metal past again. Pretty good, he managed to squeeze in a whole decade of turmoil in just four lines. Gotta love that chorus too - "holy angel lift me from this burning hell, resurrection make me whole, son of Judas bring the saints to my revenge, resurrection bring me home". Replace that "saints" with "priest" and add "to the top" after "bring me home" and you might be on to something. This whole album, in fact, sounds like a strong statement from Rob to his old band. The sound is very Priest-like, wailing guitars that instantly remind me of Tipton & Downing and the approach to songwriting is just the same - short up-to-the-point songs with catchy chorus lines and sizzling solos. Generally speaking this record sounds like a heavier and slightly more modern take on "Painkiller" mixed with 80's Priest, although the previously mentioned producer & co-songwriter Roy Z gives his best to keep the material sounding as old-school as possible. And of course the band members are obviously all talented, spotless professional players and their contributions really makes this album come alive. However, Rob is right here too, screaming like "Painkiller" was recorded yesterday. I swear, he didn't lost any of his old magic - he can still raise the dead with his higher-than-thou shrieks. Excellent stuff, particularly on the title track..
Okay, it's time for a brief run-down of the album. The speed-metal title track annihilates right from the start and 'Made In Hell' and 'Cyberworld' both follow suite with the latter being slightly weaker – not bad, though - just somewhat less exciting. Elsewhere the rockers are mostly mid tempo where the band drops low for some nasty churning like on 'Locked And Loaded', 'Slow Down' and a couple of others, with these two songs being noticeably superior to the rest. 'Locked And Loaded' in particular is a nice dumb treat with Halford grunting in his low-register voice "I'm gonna shoot it, I'm gonna shoot it" for so many times that you can't resist to sing-along with him. Like I said, pretty dumb, but effective. Of course what metal album could possibly be complete without at least one power ballad? So to keep the rules of the genre satisfied Halford includes a seven minute epic 'Silent Screams' that accidentally includes, apart from the screams, an acoustic intro which faithfully follows the power ballad formula. First you get some gentle acoustics then the mega-power riff kicks in, and after that we're back to the acoustic stuff. That goes on for some four or five minutes accompanied with Rob's quite emotional singing and then the song finally evolves to a fast speed metal symphony which represents the "climax" part. Predictably enough, the track ends with a moody acoustic outro. Another thing worth mentioning is that this song was actually written a few years before the band existed and Rob had the demo version up on his site, available for downloading, for a long time. Truth be told, I've downloaded it and it really doesn't sound much different from this "polished" version - although the demo does seem to be a wee bit more atmospheric. When you've had enough of 'Silent Screams' you're still left with no less than two further highlights, the commercial-flavoured 'Nightfall' and another fast 'n' heavy number, 'The One You Love To Hate'. The first of the two is a lot like 80's Priest and from what I hear it did get some radio play in America, and the second track just happens to have Bruce Dickinson doing guest vocals – which can't be bad by definition.
Anyway, while the album does slip after the first half the remaining songs aren't bad at all, just unremarkable. However, if you're lucky enough to get the Japanese edition you'll be treated to three bonus tracks, all of them being aggressive speed monsters. But even if you can't get that version, don't sweat it, just buy "Live Insurrection" and you'll get all of them presented in live form. Since what I'm reviewing here is the Japanese version I'll make mention of the fact that my rating of the regular release would be more along the lines of 7.5, than an 8. It may seem like I'm nitpicking, but in reality songs like 'Sad Wings' and 'Hell's Last Survivor' are much better than some of the tracks off the regular release. Overall, what you get here is eight or nine highlights and a few decent tracks thrown in for good measure - nothing special, but it should keep Priest fans satisfied.
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LIVE INSURRECTION, 2001
Overall Rating: 9.5
Best Song: pretty much everything
Worst Song: oh, come on!
I'm no fan of live albums, but all I have to say here is – WOOOHOO!!!
Written by Ratko Hribar
Admittedly, I've never cared for live albums much - sure, 70's bands like Deep Purple and Rainbow MUST be heard live - but, in general, live albums are just a way for an artist to buy some time before releasing a new studio album. However, in this case, there's more to it than that. Halford's last live record with Judas Priest, «Priest... Live!», was released hot on the heels of the notorious «Turbo» album way back in 1987 and much like its studio predecessor it remained passionately hated by most Priest fans. Except for that, the new lineup of Judas Priest had already recorded a new double live album in 1998, so it was high time for Rob to do the same. Following the success of his fresh «Resurrection» disc Halford embarked on a highly successful North American tour with Iron Maiden and Queensryche, played the «Rock In Rio» festival and also toured the U.S. as a headliner in his own right. With the audience response being better than he expected Halford decided to seize the moment and as a result this album was born. Packed with a remarkable set of songs «Live Insurrection» contains 26 tracks, with three of them being new studio offerings. As far as the song selection goes it's not exactly a fully crowd-pleasing set since it omits a lot of important Priest staples - in return, however, you'll get some frequently overlooked gems such as 'Running Wild', 'Stained Class', 'Jawbreaker', 'Riding On The Wind', 'Genocide' and 'Tyrant'. They're all performed in the old-school Priest vein, maybe a tad heavier, but still completely recognizable. 'Stained Class' in particular is a truly grand experience. I remember that for a long time I wasn't sure if I liked the original 1978 studio cut, or not. I liked the chorus, but the riffage just seemed a bit pale. This time around, however, I'm more than willing to proclaim it an absolute winner! Kudos to Rob for digging it out of his back catalogue - after so many years have passed I never thought I'll ever hear it performed live, not by Priest or anyone else. I'm glad to see I was wrong.
Otherwise, the rest of the Priest choices are pretty much the same staples you're bound to hear on any of their shows with Ripper Owens, 'Breaking The Law', 'Metal Gods', 'The Hellion/Electric Eye' and even 'Beyond The Realms Of Death'. I'm kinda fed up with the first three songs just because I've heard them so many times, but that last one.... woohoo! I simply adore 'Beyond The Realms Of Death'! I guess the lyrics are a bit too gloomy and doomy, but that mighty riff! It's great! Especially in this new, a bit heavier version. Unfortunately, there's too much echo used on that song so it somewhat diminishes my listening pleasure. That would about cover all of the Priest songs, but I have to slap Rob for not including 'Painkiller'. I mean, it's 'Painkiller'! This is where Rob used to get his best screams out, so why doesn't he play it live anymore? Because he can't hit the high notes? I think he could, he has no problems singing 'Resurrection' or 'Into The Pit' or 'Betrayal' off the next album. And another thing, where's 'You've Got Another Thing Comin''? It's a definitive Priest staple so you'd have thought it would be included here, and yet, it's not. From what I hear they didn't even play it on the tour, which is, again, weird. Oh well... I guess Rob's grown tired of it as well.
Elsewhere, except for the Priest tunes, there's a bunch of Fight tracks included as well, some of them are quite thrash-influenced, such as 'Into The Pit' or 'Nailed To The Gun', while 'Life In Black' is a slower offering. Another surprise - more like a shock, really - is 'Light Comes Out Of Black', a slower, evil as hell, pre-Fight track. It was recorded after Rob left Judas Priest, I think, and it was included on the «Buffy The Vampire Slayer» movie soundtrack. Another unexpected move, but a great way to allow the fans to catch a breath after the hold-no-prisoners killing spree on the first four tracks of the album. A very welcome change of pace, indeed. I think I forgot to mention that this isn't a «concert» album, but rather a compilation of live tracks recorded on the Resurrection World Tour. Between other things that means that 'Light Comes Out Of Black' has not been performed live at all. According to the liner notes it was just slipped into the live setting with help of some studio magic, cause they figured people would want to get as much songs on the album as possible. That's fine by me, I say. I've never heard that song before, but I'm sure glad that I got to hear it now! Also, 'Life In Black' as well as Rob's duet with Bruce Dickinson' on 'The One You Love To Hate' were recorded at sound-checks. Regardless of the studio wizardry the whole albums flows nicely so I'm more than happy with it. Since this is not a true «concert» experience, so to speak, there's close to no stage banter - just a great intro to 'Stained Class' and some moronic crowd sing-along section. Back to the songs, again. If I'm not mistaken, except for the songs I've already listed, the rest of the album consists purely of Halford's material from «Resurrection» with the addition of that album's three Japanese bonus tracks. There's plenty of shining moments presented here, with my personal favourites being 'Resurrection' (which totally annihilates the original version), 'Made In Hell' (great crowd participation), 'Silent Screams', 'Sad Wings' and 'Hell's Last Survivor'.
Oh boy, that's a lot of songs, but it's not over yet! Tackled at the end of the live portion of the second disc you get those three new studio cuts I've mentioned earlier. Starting things off with a rapid thrash-like shredfest, 'Screaming In The Dark', the band had me in for a surprise. I expected something a bit different, but instead, this sounded a lot like Halford's first post-Priest band, Fight. It's a dark, fuelled ride with Rob screaming his lungs out like there's no tomorrow, but, however, it does seem to be somewhat out of place. If it was a live song it would have fit perfectly in between the intense material that opened the first disc. Here, it feels kinda odd rammed between 'Tyrant' and the following studio number, 'Heart Of A Lion'. Speaking of which, 'Heart Of A Lion' was written during Judas Priest's mid-eighties reign, but was never issued on any Priest album that I'm aware of, although the band Racer X had covered it with the writing credits given to the band. How exactly did Racer X got a hold of it remains unclear. In any case, 'Heart Of A Lion' is without a doubt my favourite of the studio songs. It's just plain excellent - masterful musicianship, exciting guitar work, a gorgeous vocal melody and chorus... everything I'd expect to hear from Halford. Finally, the second disc wraps up with the melancholic power ballad 'Prisoner Of Your Eyes', which was presumably an old, half-finished Priest outtake since it was written by both K. Downing and Halford's guitarist Patrick Lachman.
So this is it, a truly great, memorable experience. Even though I was never a fan of live albums I do think this one is essential for any of Rob Halford's fans, past or present. With material spanning through four different decades of Halford's career this splendid double disc package remains a quintessential release for all lovers of heavy metal.
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CRUCIBLE, 2002
Overall Rating: 8.5
Best Song: Handing Out Bullets
Worst Song: they're all solid
Darker, heavier and a lot less accessible.
Written by Ratko Hribar
Not nearly as popular as «Resurrection» but better all the same. It was a disappointing release for a lot of people, mostly due to the fact it sounds considerably different in style from the previous album. For one thing the songwriting on «Crucible» is noticeably more modern, experimental, exciting and just plain fresh. Halford still screams mercilessly on a number of tracks, but somewhat less than before – usually he just remains in the low register. I've got to say one thing though, Bobby Jarzombek is being pretty darn creative on his drum kit. Since I don't know too much about drumming I can't really say what he's doing, but I especially enjoy his work on the title track – it's just unique. Opening with the short noise build-up instrumental 'Park Manor' the band rips into the title track, but much slower than I'd expect. In fact, although the track has a dark and powerful grinding feel, it's not rapid at all, just standard mid-tempo. In a way this reminds me more of the «Demolition»-era Priest, modern and more doomy than ever before. For Halford, on the other hand - in terms of this cold atmosphere of the song - it's more of a return to his Fight days. Except for the slight «the weapon of stigmaaaata» shrieks Rob doesn't scream like he usually does, however, the chorus is catchy and creepy and some memorable, intense riffing is tackled at the end of this track so in no way it is a letdown. Just a bit different. Even if Halford wanted to remove all traces of the more commercial material from the record - the following, noticeably lighter rocker, 'One Will', certainly fits the bill if you want a Priest-type anthemic number. It's really catchy, mostly driven by a great dumb-but-you-never-notice-it chorus «one will live tonight, one will die tonight, one will stand and one will fall» and some typically solid guitar work. If anything from this album could be elevated to a status of a radio staple this would be it.
Some more aggressive and rapid (finally!) material shows up in form of 'Betrayal' and 'Handing Out Bullets'. The first of those is a standard «Painkiller»-styled scorcher, not any worse than 'Resurrection' from the previous album. Excellent lyrics and a totally infectious melody, not to mention the fact that Rob's got some killer screams going on. Awesome! 'Handing Out Bullets' is probably even better as Rob remains in his screamy voice throughout and the song goes off like a rocket. Weird lyrics though, very dark. I must admit I was heavily surprised to hear 'Heart Of Darkness', with its generic title and impressive, slow, robotic riffing. It sounds a lot like the heaviest material from the last Priest album, but more unique and less conventional. Riffage is powerful like on Priest's 'One On One', but it's a better song cause it has some amazing Ayreon/Star One-like guitar lines and solos (think of «Flight Of The Migrator» and «Space Metal). In all, another winner for the guys! 'Crystal' is similar, with an instantly memorable gargantuan riff, slightly disturbing atmosphere and some odd lyrics – another stellar chorus too, but how could I expect any less from Rob? However, at this point the songs don't quite stop being top quality but they do start out sounding very samey. As a result, although there's plenty of angry, but mid-tempo material (with some upbeat sections, I admit), it's far from spectacular. 'Wrath Of God' on the other hand, sounds better, there's more of the innovative drumming by Jarzombek, and the song's pretty darn fast too! Not that I'm surprised either, but Rob's screamy voice makes an appearance again - it seems he decided to save it for the speedy stuff only. A shame, I'd say, but thankfully at least we do get some more of the screaming in the fast-to-slow rocker 'Weaving Sorrow' – some mighty fine solos too, and the riffing goes in a speedy chunka-chunka rhythm the whole way through.
Nevertheless, the main highlight of this side of the disc is not any of the «evil» rockers, instead, I'm far more impressed by the mysterious Eastern-styled half-ballad, 'Sun'. It contains both heavy riffing and exotic mellow section (where some nice bluesy soloing makes an appearance as well), but the main hook is the gorgeous vocal melody. I don't know why but hearing the melancholic opening lines «I want to steer for the sun, for the day has begun, it's saying, it's saying...» gets me every time. You see, aside from the exotic arrangements and the bluesy solo parts, it's actually not such a stunning song, especially in the riff department, but the vocals make it come alive. That said, it's one of my favourites here. Overall, the only problem I do have with this album is that while all of the songs are solid, some of them sound too much alike. On a side note, and I think I haven't mentioned it yet, there's also a «limited edition» version of this disc available which includes two more songs, 'She' and 'Fugitive'. Since I haven't heard them I can't really say if I'd give this offering a lower or higher rating if they were included here, but I thought I should point it out it anyway. In the end, whether or not you should get this or «Resurrection», just depends on your preference. If you like screamy, but generally more commercial Priest-metal, you should get the debut. But if you want something more modern and dark then definitely get this. I'd recommend you to get both, but that's your call.
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