"You've got another thing coming... up your ass!"
- TURBO
Like many other bands that have reached the "metal gods"
status Judas Priest started out quite early in the seventies relying on their
blues heritage as well as on the past successes of bigger acts. Their influence
on heavy metal is enormous as they practically shaped it with their aggressive
barbaric approach and that particularly goes for the trash and speed metal genre.
Being one of the first bands to use dual guitar attack Judas Priest played hard
rock in a different faster way than other bands, musically taking their clue
from the flashiest that Deep Purple had to offer, and in the same time basing
their ferocious image on evil imagery thusly following in the footsteps of ominous
masters like Black Sabbath.
The huge names of eighties trash like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax
as well as British power metal bands like Iron Maiden owed a great deal to Judas
Priest, and they still do. It was the skull-crushing Judas Priest that set the
stage for the NWOBHM explosion just as it was Priest who finally redefined the
genre by their quite unorthodox image, especially when other contemporary bands
bathed in cock rock lyricism and tepid mid-tempo numbers. They hailed from England's
central industrial area of Birmingham where blues was deeply rooted and many
mighty hard rock bands had emerged already. At first they started out like a
blues-based band like every other contemporary act at the scene but right after
the release of their debut album Rocka Rolla in 1974 they shifted the
focus to angrier, flashier and even somewhat more complex songwriting. From
then on they've released a string of influential groundbreaking records as well
as a bunch of overrated generic ones.
A diverse band they were not. Their entire back catalog consists of marvelous
compositions of epic length, extremely nasty violent rockers and a power ballad
or two. Obviously, the rocking part was their forte but even the medieval ballads
were rather beautiful at times and mostly tremendously effective ("Last
Rose Of Summer"). Musically, the overall sound of the band simply wasn't
heavy or crunchy enough, especially when compared to the lightning fast but
still thunderously brutal rockers of Deep Purple or even the highly distorted
grittiness of Thin Lizzy.
All that aside, there was one major thing that differed Judas Priest from other
proto-metal bands because there really wasn't a lot of groups except for Deep
Purple that had such an unusual, but brilliant high-pitched screamer as a frontman.
Technically perfect, always on note, Rob Halford is considered by many as the
Metal God. Quite frankly, I'm not one of those people simply because his wailing
performance often irritated me, and I've always felt more at home with the vocalists
like Dio and Bruce Dickinson who's approach to singing was low and grumbling,
contrary to Halford's or Gillan's high needle-like screaming.
Priest had an obscene amount of records released over the years so it will be
a real pain in the ass to review all of them, and since I don't expect it to
be worth the hassle I feel quite pissed off in advance. In the meantime, while
I'll be cooling my ass, you should probably check out this lineup info I've
put together. If you're new to the band, that is, but if you're a fan then don't
bother with it. After all, I'm too lazy to make mention of every single drummer
they hired and fired over the years, and that's the only thing that could be
of interest to an average Priest fan anyway.
The lineup: Rob Halford - vocals; Glenn Tipton - guitar; K.K. Downing - guitar;
Ian Hill – bass. Of course, the band featured an endless onslaught of drummers
which I wont mention now, but they'll be given credit when I review the albums
they played on. Other than that, the lineup was stabile until Rob Halford was
replaced by Ripper Owens in 1997.
Truthfully, it's kinda hard for me to understand what the
fuck they wanted to achieve with this album. Obviously this isn't their standard
sound and I honestly don't see how it managed to evolve from the stuff they've
played here. Without a doubt this is the weirdest anomaly in the whole Priest
catalog. Perhaps it wasn't any different from other contemporary efforts by
bigger bands like, you know, Sabbath and Purple, but it seems kind of unusual
because there are almost none classic Priest trademarks presented here. For
starters, this is blues-oriented and driven with quite slow to mid-tempo riffs
with respectable formulaic songwriting, but it's also filled with desperately
dumb cock rock lyricism worthy of Kiss or Aerosmith. Also, to my surprise, there's
not much bone-crushing speed here and you really couldn't guess those guys will
be the first major shakers of trash metal a few years later. Sure, they do let
it rip in a few quite rare occasions, but even then it sounds much too restrained
than one would like. I guess that the most painful comparison I can draw with
this album is the one with ridiculous fodder the likes of Uriah Heep vomited
a year or two earlier, namely, The Magician's Birthday. However, all
this strange effects and good, as well as bad, influences didn't stop Priest
from becoming a huge success very soon. The lineup is your typical top notch
Priest with your average rotating drummer, in this case John Hinch, who was
sacked after the unfortunate demise of this record upon its release on some
obscure, small label.
Well, the production values are solid, but it bugs me that the guitar work sounds
so overly light. That's not the production's fault, but I dunno, Priest was
always kinda light when compared to eighties trash bands like Metallica and
Megadeth. The mixing is pretty clear and the whole experimenting shebang comes
across relatively effective. The tunes are moody in the vein of Sabbath but
the riffs aren't strong enough, they're solidly written, but not heavy enough.
Obviously, you wont be able to headbang along this record as you'd want to,
but don't worry about that right now, this is still very pleasant riff-driven
blues shuffle all in all. Of course, the band is downright ashamed of it today,
and I can't blame them though, after all, this is totally unlike their later
albums (especially Painkiller or Jugulator). Apparently they want
to put it behind them, but I firmly believe this isn't much weaker than most
albums that Sabbath squeezed out from their dry pipes in the late seventies
or early eighties. Nothing particularly shit-filled, that is.
It looks fine to me, I gotta admit. "One For The Road" is a decent memorable
riff-driven opener with some quite heavy guitar chops displayed. Bluesy chops,
of course, but why should I mind that? It's not more offensive or hookless than
the dark pointless jamming on Sabbath's debut. The high point is Rob's vocal
delivery since the man gives a very restrained performance and doesn't indulge
in any annoying high-pitched wailing. Anthemic hard rocking title track is pretty
dumb, but for such an arena-rock number it's still highly recommendable. The
lyricism makes me cringe naturally, but the catchy riff and the harmonica are
kinda nifty and backed by fine musicianship and arranging so I feel quite satisfied
with it. And it's surprisingly brief, just slightly over three minutes which
is about half as long as something Uriah Heep would make of it if they ever
stumbled upon such an effective riff, or riffage. They never did, but it's an
interesting example nevertheless.
The laughable Heep-ish concept suite consist of two extremely short ditties
"Winter" and "Deep Freeze", and the longer three minute bit
called "Winter Retreat". I suppose they had an opportunity to make a
decent consistent song from these bizarre pieces of highly unsuccessful experimentation
(read, massively overblown garbage) but they weren't particularly interested
in something like that. The fist two parts do respectably well with some intriguing
(but quite dated) instrumental tricks which somehow managed to sound, well...
atmospheric and rather descriptive, if you wish. The third part is a real stinker,
then. "Winter Retreat" is a downright haunting jam filled with cacophony,
or whatever it is, and I already can imagine the guys phoning Frank Zappa to
give them some pointers how to do it right. Zappa's answer was probably "yeah
guys, just turn the amplifiers to the maximum and start screeching! By the way,
be sure to add loads and loads of brontosauric psychedelic noise, will ya?".
Thusly, this really slumps in intolerable lows as the band took Zappa's advice
and presented us with a thoroughly violent act of senseless ear-bleeding noodling.
In order to give this a chance you really need to have a HIGH level of tolerance,
or at least be interested to hear the earliest example of Halford's somewhat
annoying, but hard-hitting and admittedly unmatched screaming.
"Cheater" is somewhat of a more classic Priest staple, not there yet,
but darn close. The attractive guitar work is more in the soon-to-be Priest
mold, but the riffage is still very much blues-based and the harmonica is back,
thusly solidifying the connection with the title track. And since the title
song is perhaps the best one too, it's easy to see that this one follows suite
in terms of sheer quality. The lengthier numbers occupy the rest of the record
and "Never Satisfied" is the shortest, and simply the best of the whole
uninspired lot. Fine guitar work abounds that bluesy track as well as simple
catchy riffage. The echoic production is somewhat inappropriate and clumsy,
and the soloing is expendable for the most part, but it hardly distracts you
from the fact it's actually a good accomplished composition. Not something astonishing,
and certainly not unique, even if it sounds more intriguing than the dumb-ish
title track. Unfortunately, it's really not more effective, even if it is different.
"Run Of The Mill" is a centerpiece of sorts. It opens on a hopeful chugging
note but it soon presents itself in its true light, a detestable semi-ballad
with a mighty clocking time of almost nine minutes which is rather tiresome,
particularly because it really doesn't offer much, just a few neat solos, a
rather forgettable melody and a pitiful over-the-top vocal performance which
further convinces me that Halford is in fact hopelessly overrated. "Dying
To Meet You" corrects matters somewhat as it's based on a more or less catchy
blues-based riff and melody, but it also suffers from its horrendous six minute
length and some very "inspired" wailing by yours truly, Rob Halford.
I had an immensely bad feeling when I saw the weird title of the closing instrumental
piece "Caviar And Meths" and I wasn't disappointed one bit as the guys
indulged in a mini-jamming session or whatever it is.
Pointless it is, but at least it ain't dumber than your ordinary generic cock
rock. And speaking of the whole album, get it or not, but just remember it's
not really Priest yet.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Full-tilt classic. Indeed, it was this album here that began
the trio of proto-trash albums that would reshape history and create new metal
genres. As it is, it's obviously one of the most important metal releases of
the time although it's quite underrated even today, but, sure enough, many of
eighties metal bands point to this album when asked about their musical influences.
Also, Priest's second record was probably their first record that anyone, including
themselves, gave a flying shit for. Of course, this record shows more progress
in the "we play to kill" section as some songs are, well, a bit more
primitive than before, but this is still somewhat blues based. Musically the
band didn't evolve too much as they still rely upon bigger bands for inspiration,
thusly, they took Sabbath's rumbling riffs as well as Purple's sheer speed (which
was an innovative move, you gotta admit). Besides, there's rarely a better way
to start off your next album than to sack your drummer. Don't believe me? Well,
just ask Priest, the only band I know that managed to sack one on yearly basis
(at least in the seventies). The latest addition to the bashing kit is Alan
Moore, and as for what later happened with John Hinch, I wouldn't know. The
history books say nothing about that. Interesting thing is that Moore was the
band's first drummer way back when they had a different singer (!) but both
were either sacked or left, whichever comes first. That's the way with these
artistic metal bands, I guess, loads of creative differences so they just have
to keep changing the lineup. Of course, Priest ain't artistic, but let us pretend.
I really don't think I've heard such a building eight-minute opener before,
on any album, in fact. "Victim Of Changes" is the ultimate mesmerizing metal
stomper, and most probably my all-time favorite classic Priest track. Starting
things off violently with a bizarre screaming line from Halford the band runs
through some unbelievably bone-crushing heavy riffage, right out of the Iommi
handbook. Oh, and that chunky bass and the immortal pounding drums that lead
the way into the Rocka Rolla styled bluesy jam as Halford's delivers
high-pitched but enjoyable screaming.... are awesome. Simply great, the grandest
composition of theirs which is majestic, but still not bowed down under piles
and piles of self-indulgent pomposity that certain bands wouldn't restrained
from. The short but blatantly simplistic "The Ripper" surely has that
killer instinct better developed than tracks on the debut since its deadly sting
ensured it a place in the metal pantheon, and likewise, it's a fan favorite.
The infernal screaming shreds my speakers as the song easily prowls its way
towards me and it goes on with a steady menacing pace, which is just an excuse
for Halford to open his bag of tricks and goes over the top with his performance,
somewhat. The atmosphere is just like George Starostin said, it just screams
"BLOOD AND DESTRUCTION!!!" at you. I actually kinda like the song, but
my problem with Priest is that no matter how they tried they were rarely frightening
or heavy enough to send chills down my spine, and the same thing applies for
Halford as well. I was never impressed by his glass-shattering performances
and rather preferred the low deadly growl of Dio.
Gigantic quantities of shit started to pile up as "Dream Deceiver" was getting
near cause it was obvious they'll attempt to record another pointless ballad
of epic length, but I found it hard to believe since they were bound to notice
just how suckish their last effort "Run Of The Mill" was. It's hardly
surprising, but they obviously didn't noticed it, so since their previous debacle
had somehow slipped their mind they were ready to have another go with the power
ballad ideas, and strangely enough, there really isn't a single element here
that I'd call an improvement. Either massive or obscure, there's simply not
a single one. All in all, the mellow "Dream Deceiver" ain't really promising.
How could it be? It has that steady conventional pace of the rhythm section,
shitloads of detestable screaming, usual lack of imaginative or even relatively
interesting riffs, and to top it off, the melody is derivative at best. Plus,
the soloing becomes more and more similar to a rotting mess, the acoustic bits
aren't that innovative or pleasant anyway and the whole badly-structured composition
plainly slumps along in an increasingly generic mood. It's quite creepy, come
to think of it, how hard rock or heavy metal bands like recording ballads but
they rarely have any success with them (artistic success, that is, I'm not talking
about your average lighters-inducing Aerosmith radio fodder that sells in millions
of copies).
The rocking follow up of the similar name, "Deceiver", at least rolls satisfactory
well and it's professionally played. Apart from that, it ain't even too good
as it consists from a neat melody backed by stupid lyrics and chorus, barely
noticeable riffs and way too much of Halford's yelping. Then there's the two
minute long piano-based instrumental "Prelude" which is, well, aptly
titled as it is just a prelude to the rolling aggression of "Tyrant".
No doubt, that one is classic Priest with typical laughable pocketbook lyrics,
frantically violent playing and some passable solo lines. Also, as you might
have guessed, I don't like guitar solos that much and it has to be a darn fine
solo for me to stand up and notice it, and this one doesn't fit the bill at
all. The lengthy, almost six-minute rocker "Genocide" is riff-driven
and cheesy as well, but somewhat slower and more stomping. Some blues influences
of Rocka Rolla are preserved on it, but it's far away from being a blues-based
song. The screaming and the solo are both technically quite good, but somehow
mediocre or plainly unimpressive as far as the atmosphere is concerned.
Well, since they've learned nothing, the band indulges in yet another corny
ballad. This time it's entitled "Epitaph" (quite bizarre as far as titles
go) and it's much shorter, more laid back, and get this, it's even neatly piano-driven!
Halford is restraining himself to the point of agony thusly making the vocal
melody more enjoyable and refreshing, and the tune benefits from it in spades.
It's well worth of hearing, I think, even if it's hardly the most original composition
you've ever heard. The final Rocka Rolla styled number "Island Of
Domination" made me cringe as soon as I saw the cheesy title. Domination,
you don't say? And like I needed more proof, the lyrics are hilarious (I don't
know if it's in the good or bad way, as I suspect it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek,
but I'm not completely convinced) and the music is mostly bluesy growling with
some cute guitar leads here and there, but one thing is certain, this is not
a standout track.
Huh, that's about it. I suppose I should especially headline the fact that Halford's
vocals are extremely solid this time, technically speaking, but his "I'm
butchered like a pig" squeals are less to be desired, at least for me. I
don't believe he sounded this inventive on Rocka Rolla, but then again,
with the way it was produced it was hard to say anyway. In the end, the only
serious gripe I have with this album isn't necessarily connected to the material
as the most irritating difficulty is its pure datedness. Yes, there's no way
to go around that, it does sound horrendously dated, but the production is fairly
good for the time and superior to the one on the debut.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
The follow-up to their first relative success Sad Wings
Of Destiny, this outing here went gold in the U.S. even though it's not
what the fans really wanted since the focus was much too widely ranged and the
songs diverse, so much so that it even featured two ballads, one gorgeously
mind-blowing and the other massively overdramatic and crapful. Also of note
was the fact that the overall brutality level of this offering was quite low
and thusly unacceptable for your average evil rock lovers. Besides, there is
a certain influence of Rocka Rolla popping up in places as Priest still
ignites with some blues-based rock. Elsewhere, the band's lyricism presents
their cartoonish monsters in a big way and by doing that they probably influenced
future artists like Iron Maiden and, you know, other eighties metallers. Except
for that, the lyrics are consistently weird and either senseless or blatantly
stupid. For the lineup part, the things remained stabile even though the band
got a new drummer again, this time the session drummer Simon Phillips who wasn't
officially in the group... but then again, Priest's drummers were mostly session
workers anyway, considering the speed they were traded at.
The first track "Sinner" is a pure proto-trash classic displaying some
marvelous arrangements and the riff of Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love"
which I wouldn't noticed myself but since George Starostin mentioned it, well,
it's hardly surprising I've also seen the light. In fact, it's rarely the case
that only one song made such a big difference in a certain musical genre, not
like this one did. It's a rather solid listen throughout its almost seven minutes
of clocking time as it is a speedy aggressive rocker which was immensely groundbreaking
since it opened the way for an endless stream of similar bands. It's one of
Priest's most highly revered tracks and as far as I know, it's a fan favorite.
Deservedly so, naturally. Rob Halford's screams are quite chilling and precise
even though in general his performance often leaves me cold, but this time it's
pretty catchy to hear him frequently screaming "SINNER!". Anyway, I
guess he's popular because he can yelp in such a manner but to me it's mostly
kinda annoying. On the other hand, when he bothers to actually sing without
these "my legs are stuck in a lawnmower" type of screams I respect his
vocals very much. By the way, the guitar solos are professionally played although
they're not especially ominous or anything. Kinda average and very dated nowadays,
that's all.
The next track had me in suspense since I've never heard it before, even though
I knew it's a really famous one. The cover of Joan Baez's "Diamonds And
Rust" unexpectedly cooks with vengeance since it's a really cool rendition
but a helluva different from the original recording (well, obviously, since
Joan wasn't a heavy metaller). It's quite epic and climatic, I guess, with a
speedy tempo, but its main virtue is that the guys never crossed the thin line
between overblown pomposity and adequate dramatic effects. That says a lot.
Not many bands can resist to step over that line and wonder deep into the forbidden
territory of self-indulgence.
"Starbreaker" is one of my personal favorites even though it's often
overlooked in their repertoire. It's a mighty fine cut telling a story about
a traveler from a distant galaxy who snatches people and takes them on the tour
around the universe, or something of that order. Corny shim it is, but how can
you deny the greatness of the title? It's a damn cool one, almost as Purple's
"Stormbringer". Be that as it may, it's pretty long, hitting just under
five minutes of length. The riffs are powerful and engaging and the tune flows
perfectly, it's not as heavy as I'd like but these Priest guys are sure intelligent
arrangers. Oh, and this is the number I was referring to when I've mentioned
Rocka Rolla influences, as this is somewhat bluesy.
Finally, the ballad! And what a graceful ballad this is. "Last Rose Of Summer"
is excellently balanced since it doesn't get a trifle tiresome or overly lengthy
and Halford's performance is tasteful and restrained, and naturally, everything
is superbly played. Further more, the vocal hooks are dreamy, I've never seen
this band pulling of anything remotely like it before and the harmonies are
incredibly effective so I get the feeling this ain't a metal band at all! The
atmosphere is touching with that gentle melancholic vibe constantly being equally
layered across the composition with care, up until the fading chanting in the
coda. Oh, and even though guitar interplay, duels and that stuff never were
my coup of tea, the stuff that K.K. and Glenn are doing here is heartfelt indeed.
Cool guitar work, as well as interesting effects throughout. My only minor (and
I do mean MINOR) quibble with this otherwise magnificent song is in its slight
datedness, but even that fades away from my mind rather quickly.
The long "Let Us Prey/Call For The Priest" suite is just an overly weak number
stretched too far, and it gets tedious and jaw-droppingly dull in the first
few minutes but the situation improves later on. Okay, the first part is a throwaway
as it offers nothing than a disposable, and it hurts to say this, messy guitar
noodling, with a few pointless Halford's yelps being added as well. However,
after the fading passage the hellish second part arises in full flight and this...
this is the most merciless violent burner on the record. It has it all, from
the psychotic flashy riffage presented with unstoppable speed, to the cruel
but still thoughtful vocals. A must have, especially for the majestic guitar
work and the crunching onslaught of those positively devilish proto-trash riffs.
But the lyrics are pretty dumb, be warned.
"Raw Deal" is somewhat of a underrated classic for reviewers, but I
admit that even though I was fond of it for some time it soon left me empty.
I can't pinpoint the exact moment when I thought to myself it's an expendable
rocker, but that's the painful fact. It wasn't because of the lyrics, cause
they were always quite suckish, and it even wasn't the chorus, cock rockish
as it is. And of course, I've never been mad about that odd uninspired guitar
solo in the first place, but maybe it's just that the song seems so terribly
dated and lame nowadays. It is complex, that's hardly debatable, even if its
progressive edge sounds jagged today and not at all razorblade sharp like it
used to. Things went not only downhill but also underground as Priest's second
ballad "Here Come The Tears" proved to be an wretchedly obnoxious attempt on
power balladeering, but thankfully, a short one. It's a completely predictable
uniformed ballad recorded according to the commonly accepted formula of the
mellow acoustic intro, well-known overused riffs, self-important anthemic chorus
and the climatic guitar solo which ends things in style. Mind you, it was that
way from the beginning of time with every rock band doing the same tunes, but
the problem is that Priest are just particularly bad at it.
Time to wrap it up, said the guys and unleashed "Dissident Aggressor",
hands-down the most bizarre track here in terms of lyricism. The lyrics are
hopelessly incomprehensible and I have no idea what was the point behind the
song, no idea whatsoever. For the musical part I have a pretty good idea what
they wanted to do since it's an energetic and brutal song, quite heavy for the
band, but a lightweight number when compared to Sabbath's unmatched heaviness.
It's not memorable at first listen, I must notice, as the chorus is utterly
forgettable and the melody is, well, kinda inconsistent due to the band's jamming
(and that guitar solo ain't really notable either), but it will grow on you.
Still, Halford's strong charismatic presence on this track is very worthwhile,
especially when he does those chilling background screams during the chorus.
Now, mostly these songs aren't too heavy or fast, but I wouldn't say it's a
bad album by any means, and that is exactly what most Priest fans would say.
I think this might very well be the best they ever got from an artistic standpoint,
but from the pure bash-a-thon position they made a lot of better albums.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Well, it's the real Priest, no doubt about it. No experiments,
no ballads, no artistic value, but it's still impressive enough, from a kick-ass
position. The good news include the production, which is pretty great here,
if taken in prospective that it was a late seventies album. And the obligatory
bad news are that Halford still sounds pretty terrible in places with his overblown
shenanigans, but that aside, this is a very speedy release and the fans were
certainly ecstatic upon hearing this record. After all, they were probably more
than able to enjoy Halford's bag of tricks. Unfortunately, I can't enjoy it
like them, at least not fully. Meanwhile, guess what happened? The band switched
drummers, AGAIN. Well, the latest addition to Priest is the drum kit basher
Les Binks and while that isn't truly relevant, it's a good thing too since the
man supposedly came to the brilliant riff of "Beyond The Realms Of Death"
all on his own. According to the band he just walked in one day, picked up the
guitar and played the riff, and thusly left the other guys completely awed.
Myself, I reckon he heard it somewhere else, but if it was his baby it's only
fitting that the song was such a monstrous highlight, kinda like his swan song
(except that he even managed to survive the album – something rare for Priest
drummers).
The energetic opener "Exciter" could be regarded as somewhat of a real
highlight as well, hardly surprising since it is one of the most intriguing
proto-trash classics with clever speedy riffing, awesome flashy soloing, furious
drums and rather heavy bass, acceptable chorus and harmonies (which would shine
even brighter if Halford gave a bit restrained performance), and finally, it
has that universal "I'll kick your ass" attitude, so yeah, I enjoy it.
The downside is that it's slightly pop-based and that its over-structuring diminishes
the otherwise high doses of memorability. I mean, it would be catchier if they
did it somewhat more simple, cause after all, there's no need for complexity
in heavy metal. Still, if you ignore that and put this cool burner on "repeat"
for five times or so, you'll get hooked, I promise. Ugh, and that ending scream
by Halford is neat as well.
Er... this second number really blows as it is just routine schlock, right from
the music to the vibe, or atmosphere, or whatever. "White Heat, Red Hot"
is really blatantly dumb, and no, I'm no talking dumbish, but truly and comprehensively
DUMB. Where to start? How about the melody? Yeah, I'd start there but since
they didn't bother to come up with one, not even one that's generic... I CAN'T.
Further more, the riffing isn't worth describing at all, and the chorus is,
I must say, rarely moronic. Besides, I know it wasn't expected from Priest to
be overly clever, but I know for a fact they're better songwriters than this
leads me to believe. This is surely made according to a certain formula, but
quite frankly, I have no idea which. I suppose they wanted to make a killer
car song with this, but "Highway Star" this ain't.
"Better By You, Better Than Me" is a strong standout cut with some real arranging
for a change and the cool double-tracked riffs which are even, forgive me for
implying it, catchy. The tune is a fine stomper as far as I'm concerned, kinda
blues-driven (Rocka Rolla, will you ever vanish?) and filled with unexpectedly
pleasant vocal hooks. Halford manages to stay on top of things and not get lost
in endless operatic wailing, so please do count me happy. Er, maybe not fully
happy, but I'm sure in a far more forgiving mood than with that previous lack
of effort. And then we have the title track which is, how should I put this...
pretty darn amazing! Maybe not so much musically, but that evil-sounding creepy
atmosphere is well worth getting into. Okay, so the tired by the book riffs
lack excitement and they seem to broadcast that "jeez-I'm-so-horrifyingly-unoriginal"
vibe too well, but once you get passed them you'll be rewarded with a soaring
chorus and some ecstatic solo lines. Perhaps if I wasn't able to relate to the
vibe I wouldn't like it as much, cause I admit it's pretty hard to ignore that
the tune just seems kinda ineffective and lost, even though the structuring
ain't exactly horrible. I simply don't feel that it has its sense of direction
well-developed, or at least, developed enough.
"Invader" is another decent, relatively heavy stomper with some passable riffing
and one pretty bland melody, but even if it is annoying and throwawayish in
nature it's still capable to beat the living, as well as dead shit out of that
menacing "highway" rocker earlier. Not essential Priest song, all in
all, but it will hardly force you to go around a-pukin'. But the title... oh
my, it's almost as hilarious as the lyricism. "Saints In Hell" is a bit
more epic-like than other songs and the obvious highlight too. Halford's voice
is at its best on this one, doing a brilliant job and delivering several cool
hooks, but like always, he goes too far in the beginning with those nagging
screams. Fine slow nightmarish track with a spooky atmosphere, also featuring
some involving guitar playing. These guys sure knew how to play, cause if nothing
else, they never took the easy way out and churned out some messed up heavily
distorted chords and proclaimed them to be consistent riffs (do you hear that
Mr. Iommi?). Then there's the obscure rocker "Savage" who spots yet another
highly creative title and loads of typically tasty "let the blood flow"
lyrics, so I gotta wonder if it took all five of them to pen this hogwash. Hmm,
well... at least it sounds angry and aggressive so I can go around trashing
stuff, which is GOOD. Not much else to say, really.
I had to endure quite a few of those simplistic violent ditties to get this
far, but I don't mind it one bit, and neither should you, cause now you'll hear
the absolute pinnacle of the Priest catalog. The seven-minute emotional epic
"Beyond The Realms Of Death", which the band members proclaimed to be somewhat
of their "Stairway To Heaven", takes the stage and with a single nasty
stroke annihilates all the other tunes. Now, I don't know about that "Stairway"
bit, but this disturbing gloomy track surely is downright marvelous with tight
performances from the whole band, plus some overblown but not at all offensive
singing by Halford, and a effective memorable solo by... eh, I dunno, flip a
coin... maybe Tipton. The last number here, the five-minute grinder "Heroes
End", presents us with some remarkably appropriate lyricism and a rather steady
but sluggish groove. Also, there's some so-so solo noodling here as well, but
I refuse to take my hat off to it since it seems pretty dated to me. A powerful
track, nevertheless. Overall, it's a fine achievement, although I'm kinda sad
that they didn't include some tender balladry as well, just to balance the outing
a bit... maybe an "Last Rose Of Summer" follow-up. But why bother anyway?
I always have Aerosmith to fill my ears with their interesting approach to balladeering,
no matter how painful it often turns out to be.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Probably their best known record, which is kinda funny cause
it's known under two names. The European version came out in 1978 under the
name Killing Machine but the American release wasn't out until next year
and it was entitled Hell Bent For Leather (and eventually went gold,
by the way). Musically speaking, everything is in place and everything is just
the same. However, this album has a bit more polished sound than the group's
previous offerings, but it still manages to be even more aggressive than before.
The band displays some really tight guitar playing on most of the songs, but
the overall sound isn't too bottom-heavy. Also of note is the interesting inclusion
of even higher doses of Priest's trademark tongue-in-cheek humor as shown in
some songs, notably in "Evil Fantasies".
The opening classic number "Delivering The Goods" is totally drowning
in horse manure and I simply can't imagine why so many people like it. If this
is called delivering the goods than the boys should be hanged by their pathetic
necks until they're DEAD! This is one of the most forgettable Priest tunes I've
ever had the honor to forget! That says a lot! Okay, the only worthwhile element
is the grinding riff and Halford's screeching "delivering the goods!".
Except for that, there isn't a single marginally decent solo here, the pedestrian
mindless melody just barely managed to stay in my mind and the distortion is
almost non-existent. My point is, it's a decent stab at powerful grinding but
not charismatic enough to be noticed. Its chunky head just doesn't stand out
in a pack of equally-sounding growlers. Things get a trifle better with "Rock
Forever" another dumbass tune with a cringe-inducing name, so much so that
I was completely prepared to wrestle with Queen-like anthemic arena rock numbers,
but thank God, it was still just a tepid predictable Priest ditty. Well, even
if its concept makes my intestines work overtime it's somewhat excused by the
sheer speed, so if nothing else, it quickly goes away. And the lyricism is even
more moronic than usual as it almost seems that it was penned by a retard (no
offense to them, but you gotta realize how pissed off I am) .
"Evening Star" is the first semi-success as it is a rather charming
semi-ballad with a cool guitar interplay (oh yeah, the boys are back!) which
gets more like a speedy pop number later on, and that's no bad thing either,
especially considering how wisely it is played with smooth guitar parts and,
er, classical balladeering lyrics. The chorus line is wonderfully fulfilling
with Halford convincingly being on top of things (insert gay oriented jokes
+here+). The following short but frantic tune is a total Priest classic and
one of their most anthemic efforts up to date. The fast-paced "Hell Bent
For Leather" despite its odd lyrics really is one of the, if not the most,
exciting track on the album igniting with that fearsome motorbike engine and
continuing to evolve with the earth-shattering catchy chorus and clever "don't
mind me, I'm just kicking your ass" kind of riffage. Rebellious and merciless
this is one of my favorite Priest ditties.
Immediately after, the hookmasters KISS were called to give their input in the
making of the album so they borrowed Priest one of their previously unreleased
arena rock tracks "Take On The World", since they correctly assumed
it will be a shoe win for the band. Indeed it was, even though Priest rearranged
the song a bit in order to sound more metallic and ass-kicking. Of course, that
part about KISS was just a joke, cause this doesn't sound remotely so dumbish
like a KISS rocker would, but in terms of pure pop hooks this is pretty much
in their vein. I honestly don't know how Halford didn't crumble under the pressure
of singing such a massive mind-trashing HOOK. Luckily, he was a good sport and
survived the hook-fest just in time to spoil the potentially fine chorus of
"Burnin' Up". Not that I'm particularly sad for it since the song is
just your basic mediocre rocker with more cock rockish lyricism than usual.
Elsewhere, the stomping mid-tempo title track is the bone-crusher in its own
right, with mighty Iommi-like riffage (a thing that the band used pretty often,
come to think of it), and it's probably the most effective song as well. Massive
low-end thump throughout and a very chilling vibe overall. Also, the stingingly
nasty guitar solo is well worth mentioning, since it's appropriate and tasteful.
But the track is too short with just three minutes to go which isn't even enough
for me to get warmed up. "Running Wild" is an official filler or at
least it should be since it offers nothing fresh, but when it's playing you
don't feel the obsessive-compulsive need to take it off. The only, pardon the
expression, balls-to-the-wall acoustic ballad is "Before The Dawn" which
emerges at the end of the disc. The vocal melody ain't no big shakes but Halford
still manages with what he's got, even if it's kinda obscure. The other melody,
the ordinary musical one, is pretty bland but soothing and folky so count me
satisfied.
The slow four-minute burner "Evil Fantasies" is the lowest point in
my view since it has loads of that dirty humor and it slumps along rather uncertain
without any satisfying reasons for its existence. Eh, and the vocal harmony
here is certainly just a tasteless joke cause I don't believe they'd want to
torture their listeners in such a cruel way. Plus, the overall vibe is just
as much fun as a weekend in the dentists chair. In my mind, the only remotely
respectable element of the whole glorious misfire is the fact that Halford growls
wonderfully, but apart from that, this abysmal aggregation of shit should have
been deleted from the master tapes at once, in hyper-speed too.
Fairly good overall, but for the true unabashed display of power check out British
Steel. Meanwhile, this is not so artistic like their earlier works so I
suppose it holds the middle ground quite satisfactory. Anyway, no matter what
you think, this is not the kind of an offering that makes me wonder why it was
released, but rather why didn't I gave it a fair chance earlier. You'll probably
loathe it at first, like I did, but it will grow on you with time.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
The band was still quite young at this point so this is indeed
a extremely solid album performed with lots of expected vitality and even more
important, precision. Now, this album even enriches the featured songs and makes
them more compact, tight and raw. The song selection seems mind-blowingly questionable,
even more so when you know that it was recorded during the Killing Machine
tour in Japan but yet it contains just one, and also probably the worst song
from that album, "Running Wild" (sic!). In fact, this release is mostly
based on Sad Wings Of Destiny tunes without a single one from the debut
(not that I was surprised) and only four songs from the other three records,
which gives you a fairly good idea just how badly was their catalog covered.
As far as the technical side of the band's playing is concerned, they sound...
well, kinda normal with a few minor differences in sound, but the vocals hit
an all-time low with Halford reaching out for some funny primitive yelping without
the grandeur or pomposity of his studio singing. You see, he doesn't roar in
a especially involving way, not using those picturesque hellish intonations
that Dio likes (the ghoulish smacking sounds and so on). Here, Halford just
screams as if he's being skinned alive, which is not particularly exciting or
even appropriate.
The ripping opening was achieved with Priest's all-time classic "Exciter"
as the band does a gritty speed-up rendition. And the track is much heavier
this time as well, with a fine low thump and lots of hiiiiigh screaming by Halford.
In fact, this version here sounds much more appealing to me, as it's obviously
a chilling show stomper and deservedly a fan favorite. The only serious misfire
is the inclusion of "Running Wild" a fairly average generic number.
It was rather lame even in the studio setting and this just further annoys me.
This isn't offensive no matter how you look at it, but it is still arranged
quite sloppy, even if it far surpasses the original. Not that it's important,
since both are fillers. Yet another in this soon-to-be-long line of aggressive
performances is the monstrous energetic epic "Sinner" which fits like
a glove in this live "screaming for blood" version. Look, it's not much
different, but it does feature a bit more intriguing, emotion-filled riffage
and soloing. The unexpected (no kidding) high point are Halford's vocals who
handles those, er, relatively catchy hooks with dignity. By the way, the song
was also stretched out a bit, barely noticeable, I admit... but still, I just
figured I should mention it. "The Ripper" is next and it sounds, well...
ripping, obviously. And blatantly simplistic as always.
The only song that is kinda newish is the cover of "The Green Manalishi
(With The Two-Pronged Crown)", which was a previously unreleased cut, but only
on the original Killing Machine version, cause the American Hell Bent
For Leather edition already included it. Since I didn't reviewed that one
here's a few side notes on that particular ditty. More bluesy than anything
on Killing Machine it's still a rather conventional but fluent riff-driven
stomper. Somewhat sluggish as well, but be sure it's done in the fine threatening
Priest tradition with a worthwhile metallic assault from K.K. and Glenn. Elsewhere,
I gotta mention that there's only one thing to do when you don't have enough
of your own material (five albums chock full of it) and that's to play another
cover, this time the live rendition of the already covered "Diamonds And
Rust". It goes off perfectly and with almost nothing in common with the Joan
Baez's original, just like the first time. Then there's the venomous smoking
performance of "Victim Of Changes" with that groovy grinding riffage,
oh, what a dream! It's just as mesmerizing as I expected it to be. The seven-minute
burner "Genocide" rocks mightily, building up the power as it rolls
along, and the ending track, the mini-prowler with the sweet corny title "Tyrant"
is a nifty little rocker.
Anyway, my version obviously sucks (and that's no joke!) since the Japanese
version Priest In The East contains four songs more! Bloody good ones
too! Okay, so "Delivering The Goods" isn't my favorite nor it will ever
be, but regardless, it's a fan favorite. The dumby rock and roll celebration
aptly titled "Rock Fever" was a fine addition as well, and "Starbreaker",
well, it was always cheesy but a solid chunk of shredding seventies metal nevertheless.
I'm quite jealous to see it also included the full-tilt trasher "Hell Bent
For Leather", which is your ultimate stage anthem, of course. Still, I kinda
wonder how come they forgot to include the arena rock number "Take On The
World", cause after all, that song is practically meant to be your basic
"no life 'till metal" show stopper.
Finally, this isn't such a marvelous offering that you can't live without it,
but it does have some small advantages with the biggest virtue being that it
adds multiple layers of raw heaviness which was lacking, or was subdued in the
studio. Of course, perhaps this is not essential for an average Priest fan,
but, I dunno, as a pure transitional offering to their more vicious metallic
phase it serves its purpose solidly.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Another lineup change marked this release as drummer Les Binks
left and was replaced by Dave Holland. Truthfully, I don't give a shit who's
handling the drum kit now, because it sounds just the same. Apart from that,
the music has changed a bit as well (not to say evolved) since this shim here
sounds much more commercial than anything they had in their bag of tricks before.
I probably shouldn't be surprised that it went platinum, but I am, cause the
songs really suck for the most part. The songwriting is wretchedly banal, with
a few relatively memorable lameass riffs being the only thing that holds these
tunes together. So yes, they're still kinda riff-based, but the band simply
forgot to place anything worthwhile around these primitive power chords so the
songs seem empty and bland. There's really not much material for headbangers
presented here, if you want to hear my opinion. Anyway, several tracks are filled
with catchiness but only because of the neat vocal melodies and gorgeous hooks,
but I gotta say that without Halford's input this would be sickeningly bad.
For the most part the songs follow that arena rock sing-along formula of the
eighties, much in the vein of Queen or KISS, with the most glowing examples
being "Breaking The Law" and "Living After Midnight". They're
acceptable numbers, mind you, but nowhere near as inspired like Priest's glory
days on Sad Wings Of Destiny or Sin After Sin, and if they weren't
so effective this offering would be really sad overall. Also, another enormous
misfire of this outing was clearly the immensely dated flat production with
plodding drums and messy guitars so it makes me wonder how come they were to
cheap to invest in a more elegant production, especially since they had their
fair share of success already.
Like always, it starts filled with hope as the cute little riff-driven rocker
"Breaking The Law" takes the stage. Nice stinging groove throughout
with the steady thump of the rhythm section. It has a few setbacks as well since
it's too repetitive and kinda short, not to mention dumbish, but that's nothing
that some neat memorable riffing, fine melodies (both vocal and otherwise) wouldn't
be able to correct, and luckily we get that in spades. Halford growls nicely,
without any operatic intonations and an effective guitar assault by the guys
is being delivered as well. Also, I gotta mention it's one of my favorite "rebellious"
tunes ever, right up there with Maiden's "Running Wild" and "Sanctuary".
A deserved classic and major radio hit. The first true venomous track is "Rapid
Fire" which is aptly titled as it is speedy paced and pretty brutal in places.
Again, the onslaught of clever riffs is overwhelming with fine guitar leads
also being of note, but it wouldn't hurt if it was a tad heavier. Halford is
restrained like he should be and the number just rocks without too many questions
asked. Elsewhere, the storming "Metal Gods" features loads of snarling
riffage at a mid-tempo rate and it's set to a fine moderately heavy marching
beat. Pretty crunchy and threatening but not exactly instantly memorable, and
what's up with the sing-along chorus? They forgot to include one! I mean, the
vibe just demands from you to sing, but there's not a decent vocal hook in sight
that you can grab a hold of. But that didn't stop the band from making it their
live favorite, now did it?
"Grinder" is somewhat heavy but not enough to justify its pretentious name,
even though the guitar work is impeccable as usual. Halford ain't doing much
on this one as I can't dig out a single well-developed hook, but the chorus
line did stuck in my mind after a six or so spins in the deck. But frankly,
I doubt if a song is really solid if you have to force yourself to like it,
like I did with this one. Another riff-based hogwashy rocker with your classic
anthemic chorus, addictive vibe, and, er, a passable melody, comes next. Interestingly
titled "United" (and I'd really like to know who exactly writes these
dumb song titles) it bashes along in a highly average generic mood, but I can't
deny it's kinda happy-sounding as well, so that kinda makes up for the shortcomings.
Overall, just a low quality ditty with a few blatantly ineffective hooks, nothing
truly offensive. Well, the radio staple "Living After Midnight" obviously rocks!
Cool super-catchy vocal melody, fine infectious sing-along chorus and well-organized
and executed guitar work. Neat bass thump and... er, okayish simplistic drumming,
I guess. Not that I'm not happy with it, it's just a rather simple tune but
it still beats most of the unmemorable trash here by horse lengths.
Ugh, and here's where this album died a miserable death with "You Don't Have
To Be Old To Be Wise". Priest finally hits an all-time low. In fact, there's
literally nothing interesting for me to report about this atrocious dumber,
er, number. Hmm... dumber-number, it seems right to the point for me. Regardless,
what really is painful to hear is that many reviewers think that this particular
batch of uninspired bland riffs, rote solo lines and routine vocal efforts is
somewhat of a strong track. Talk about disillusionment. I for one would only
be able to tolerate this shim as background music or something of that order.
"The Rage" is awfully sluggish with not a single respectable vocal hook (theoretically
the line "we begin to shake with RAGE!!!" should be effective, but it's
really not) although it does offer a solid metallic punch, but the guitars aren't
nearly as killing as I'd like them to be, and the solo is quite messy. Still,
the beginning is superb with that cool bassline intro and crunchy marching beat
that follows. And what about "Steeler" then? Classic simple title, classic
proto-eighties muzak (not music) and classic operatic Halford. How could you
possibly go wrong with that? Sheez, you'd be surprised... it does have a decent
onslaught of riffs so you wont get offended, but it's not at all catchy.
If you keep in mind what I said about this record it's odd that it's regarded
as such an influential outing, but that can be explained. Fortunately for Priest,
this sucker came out in the dawn of the NWOBHM movement and because of that
it managed to get loads success it didn't really deserved, except if you want
to think of this as a reward for their previous work, but I seriously doubt
that the audience knew any of their earlier albums as they purchased this fodder.
So basically, smartly riding on the new metal wave Judas Priest succeeded in
their attempts to be proclaimed as the leaders of the movement, along with the
newly resurrected Black Sabbath and the freshly constituted Iron Maiden (which
actually opened for Priest on the British Steel tour). And this album...
well, it's a decent enough try, but nothing that you can't live without.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Ugh, the follow-up. I guess you must be pretty pathetic to
attempt making a decent follow-up of a poorly-written junk that was yours last
album, especially so if you're name is Judas Priest. After all, they didn't
have much room for further disappointments but they managed to sink even lower
nevertheless. Priest was getting big around the world so they obviously needed
another album out soon and since there wasn't time for trivial things like clever
arranging, this blows even more than their previous lack of effort. Now, there
is one redeeming factor, I must admit, since the songs aren't so blatantly commercial
and some of their old songwriting skills are back as well, but this still tends
to suck even worse than British Steel. Apparently, the public wasn't
exactly charmed by this so it only reached gold status (which is way too much
anyway) and was justly forgotten soon after, and the people that actually bought
it, flushed it down the drain. The wisest decision they've ever made in their
life, and in fact, I'll flush my copy too as soon as I'm done writing this review.
The straightforward opener "Heading Out To The Highway" is simply too
slow with atrocious operatic wailing by Halford. It does feature a neat batch
of opening riffs, but they vanish soon enough and are replaced by a grotesque
distorted mess which thankfully disappears when K.K. and Glenn ignite with a
new series of dramatic riffage in the middle of the song. It was a single of
course since it sounded radio-friendly enough, but truthfully, the vocal hooks
are just barely noticeable. For the most part the rumbling riffage is just too
weak for this low-energy lengthy number so it gets tedious rapidly. And the
routine guitar soloing doesn't help matters at all so it's pretty expendable,
but I suppose that the track probably works better in a live setting anyway.
Ah well, at least the following ditty "Don't Go" rocks a bit more, even
though it does sound stupider. Again, an firm enjoyable groove is achieved but
the guitar assault is only so-so, the solo is just a trifle better than on the
opener and Halford tackles the catchy chorus with considerable success. Ugh,
and the lyricism is banal as always. "Hot Rockin'", on the other hand, is
one of those songs that makes you cringe even before you've heard it, since
the title is already dubious enough. It was another single as well and luckily
it went down unnoticed for the most part, which is an especially happy circumstance
since it sucks in unbearable ways. Once again, the riffs are of the kind that
you barely notice and forget even faster, and the only remotely interesting
thing about this number are, would you believe it, the dumb lyrics. I mean,
at least you'll have a decent laugh with them which is certainly tons more enjoyable
than listening to the music itself.
"Turning Circles" is bizarre. Nah, just kidding, of course, since this is a
standard smooth emotional track with Halford sounding rather moving (sic!) and
downright brilliant on the chorus bits, but if you put that aside you'll be
left with zero musical value as the band adds nothing intriguing with these
conventional tiresome by-the-book riffing. Forgettable number, all in all. The
following piece "Desert Plains" starts off with a nice slow groove and
continues with a steady thump of the rhythm section, with the guitars from time
to time adding adorable side kick riffs and atmospheric effects. The singing
is no small feet either since Halford is gloriously restrained and nicely emotional
in places, and don't forget that generic solo, uh... but you will, soon enough.
The next tune, the odd mid-tempo "Solar Angels" sounds like a slightly
different take on "Metal Gods" from British Steel with that similar
marching thump, but it's worthwhile anyway and that menacing industro buzz throughout
was a nice touch too. And you know, I guess that it's just this similarity with
"Metal Gods" that makes me think it's probably the most effective track
on this outing, so that kinda explains why I've put it in the "best song"
section.
However, if things sucked up to this point, and they did, it gets purely abysmal
from now on as Priest indulges in an four-song block of remarkably braindead
fillers. Thusly, "You Say Yes" is the biggest embarrassment here where
Priest actually drops so low to record a hilariously DUMB pop-metal number which
even goes as far to partially (or was that completely?) butcher that overly
catchy (and already pretty dumb, I must admit) chorus of the Beatles's "Hello
Goodbye". If the Beatles got away with it just barely like they did, you
can easily imagine just how hard Priest failed in that respect. Almost equally
atrocious is "All The Way" where the band forgot to include the word
"down" in the song title, but luckily delivered massive quantities of
shit just in time to make sure it will be a solid abomination after all. The
guitar chops that Glenn and K.K. packed for this track are performed shockingly
sloppy and the only redeeming factor is that the song is kinda blues-based so
it manages to pass of like a neat parody on their earlier work. Still, I gotta
mention that the vocal melody is fairly good on this one, darn solid, I'd even
say.
"Troubleshooter" failed to spot what's exactly the trouble with this record
and became one more needless aggregation of sorts. Decent musicianship abounds
this clumsy track but it's not any less lousy because of that and by the way,
the chorus positively sucks! I've really felt relieved when "On The Run"
made its appearance since I knew that my brutally painful ordeal was finally
at an end. Imagine my surprise then as I've noticed it's not the most repulsive
batch of, err, musical elements that don't exactly blend together perfectly
(tactful, ain't I?), but it's even somewhat effective as well. Enjoyable speedy
guitars and nice melodies, both vocally and otherwise, make this a surprisingly
painless experience. It's throwaway, I guess, but pretty listenable.
Hmm, they really didn't need such a debacle in their catalog so it would be
better if they just took a year off or toured some more, or basically did anything
other than record this stuff. Anyway, any album that's even worse than British
Steel deserves to be out of print, but of course, even this shitpit was
digitally remastered. That says a lot about this world we're living in, doesn't
it? Still, no matter what, be sure to avoid this at all costs!
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
I don't get it, just one year after the disappointing album
Point Of Entry the band seems to be fully revitalized and bursting with
fresh ideas. Indeed, the intriguing musical phrases here go a long way from
the tired clichés on the previous two albums, filling the songs with gorgeous
vocal hooks, anthemic chorus lines, fluent catchy melodies, blistering memorable
riffage and even tasty solos. The musicianship is impeccable, precise and up
to the point with especially storming assaults by Glenn and K.K., and with Halford's
technically perfected screams too. Besides, this album here is much more riff-driven
and guitar-heavy than usually, and even the production doesn't seems so obnoxiously
dated since it was bigger and better, overall. And except for the certain double
shit right in the middle, it contains a rather small amount of intolerable filler.
Hard to believe, ain't it? Especially since Point Of Entry was filler
almost in its entirety so this is, like, an enormous step forward. Without a
doubt, this is one of the most solid records in Priest's gun and hardly surprising
that both the fans and the critics were enthusiastic upon its release (well,
the critics were content with it, if nothing more) and the album went platinum
in the U.S.
The opening cut, the forty seconds long instrumental "The Hellion" quickly
brings up the tension and is followed by the intense rapid classic "Electric
Eye" with that memorable but dated riff and some okayish soloing. Excellent
vocal work throughout with Halford's singing being distorted in the chorus and
in my opinion that only helps matters so everything seems highly effective.
And that supercool transition from "The Hellion" to "Electric Eye"
is one of the most perfected ones I've ever heard, extremely close to "Toltec
7 Arrival/Starchildren" that Bruce Dickinson had on Accident Of Birth
(even though that one still remains my favorite). Meanwhile, "Riding On
The Wind" is also immensely cool with that more or less trashy speed and
another energetic performance by the whole band, with Halford especially sticking
out with his exciting contribution to the chorus. This particular number ain't
the most involving here but it's worth checking out if you're in a headbanging
mood. Opening with a messily distorted guitar line the slow well-executed "Bloodstone"
proclaims itself to be a top highlight right away, as Halford screams the chorus
line "BLOODSTONE!" as high as he can so it even turns out to be a decent
vocal hook. The tempo is steady and heavy, somewhat grinding throughout and
backed by some, er, Indian sounding riffs. Well, you know what I'm talking about,
the riffage is kinda like the one Iron Maiden employed for "Run To The Hills".
Okay, at this point the disc kinda loses its path with indulging in two low-quality
tunes, "(Take These) Chains" and "Pain And Pleasure". The first
is suspiciously named and of course, it does fulfill its promise as it is just
a generic throwaway with expendable solos, riffs and everything else wrapped
up with a neat red ribbon of blood, destruction and doom (or whatever the lyrics
say, because I frankly don't remember them well). The latter is a filler as
well, perhaps even dumber, but it's so hard to be sure with these guys. And
naturally, the banal lyrics are again hilarious. The rhythm section is doing
its best but since there isn't a worthwhile onslaught of blistering riffage
here, it remains what I expected it to be, an average rip-fest that doesn't
manage to rip. Obviously, all is left to Halford's vocal tricks but since he
was probably treating his syphilis wounds or something, he really doesn't bring
anything useful in. The soloing hits a low as well, maybe even lower than usual,
with a professionally played but routine noodling. Sheez, the title track sucks
ass! I'm even tempted to say it's the very worst shim here, but I can't do that
since the double shit was even lousier. Okay, it goes off hopeful with the fast
beginning and solid guitar assault but the vocals plainly slaughtered me with
its pure shitfulness. So yeah, I'd agree with anyone who's raving that it's
an adrenaline rush, frantic, merciless and whatever else they're ranting about
it, but the singing blows! It's only slightly acceptable when the chorus kicks
in and even then I needed time to remember it. And where the hell was it mixed?
On the junkyard? In a barn? Where??? It's completely messed up and muddy with
those once clear guitars being almost unnoticeable between piles and piles of
noise. I mean, it could be a good track songwriting-wise, but the mixing plainly
raped it!
Elsewhere, I'm certain that everybody knows the next track just as good as the
opener since this mean stomper, "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", features
that commonly-known beginning with the grinding rhythm and that elegant guitar
line. Expectedly, it was a huge hit for the band and since it's highly melodic
I can't believe I actually approve the audience's choice this time! Anyway,
it possesses that nice groovy mid-tempo beat with a few tolerable solos, so
yeah, count me mesmerizingly happy. Then we have your obligatory emotional composition
by the name of "Fever" lined up and ready to go, and although it is
a filler you'd better darn like it! Eh, I dunno about that, but I do know it's
much superior to those tongue-in-cheek shitpits in the middle of the disc. Solid
musicianship from everyone involved, but that's about the only thing to say
since the songwriting is getting slouchy and it ain't refreshing or exciting
in any way. The brutal ending track "Devil's Child" is much better with
a great vocal effort by the bold man in leather, and some relentlessly enjoyable
riffing from these two hairy metallers in spandex.
Overall, this isn't nothing especially original since they were recycling their
past albums for some time now, and with remarkable consistency as well, but
this time they actually bothered to re-write some decent material. Heck, at
least this ain't another lame clone of British Steel like Point Of
Entry was... this is actually going somewhere. Yep, keep on followin' them
cause the guys are heading in the right direction. For the time being.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Er, don't kill me yet, I can explain the rating. You see,
Priest's super-popular record Screaming For Vengeance was just filled
with too much pointless and not particularly exciting filler. This here album
on the other hand contains close to no throwaways, and it's much more consistent
throughout. I'm very well aware that some people weren't exactly ecstatic upon
its release but in my mind this is not just as good, but it's much better than
Screaming For Vengeance. Fine songwriting abounds each track and even
the vocal hooks aren't used sparingly this time. The overall sound is intense
as ever, songs faster than before, melodies more effective and the bottom-thump
is heavier too. So why not a ten then? Er... ugh, well, no matter how fine this
sounds on paper it's still dated, somewhat. As stated before the performances
are tight, guitar assaults mesmerizing and the onslaught of riffs is crunchy
and venomous. I suppose that says about everything you needed to know so I'd
rather carry on with the usual song by song description. No, wait! I forgot
to mention that this record went platinum in the U.S. as well, which only goes
to show that once upon a time the general record buying audience was actually
not a flock of braindead sheeps like today. Nice to know that... especially
when I see Linkin Park's debut high in the U.S. charts almost TWO years after
its release (sic!). Anyhow, it's also of note that Defenders Of The Faith
isn't a particularly radio-friendly outing, which is odd since the songs are
cut down to, let's just say, less than epic length with only one tune clocking
seriously over five minutes.
The fist-pumping opener "Freewheel Burning" was probably the speediest
track Priest have done up until that point with storming riffs, clever songwriting,
senseless lyrics and, er, moderately nice vocal work (as in, mostly over the
top). The guitar solo wasn't as good, but I guess it has to be incorporated
in every song and this was no exception. The rhythm section bashes along energetically
and the guitars just scream in wild relentless fashion with lots of distortion
everywhere. Nice for the beginning, but I gotta admit that the chorus is blatantly
dumb so that "FREEEEWHEEEEL BUURNIIIIIING!!!!!!" line gets very annoying
rather fast. The frenzied "Jawbreaker" gives no signs that Priest plans
to slow down as it goes off like a crazy choo-choo train and demolishes everything
in its path. The band's standard double guitar assault belts out some jaw-droppingly
menacing riffage, a bit more slouchy than on the previous song, but just barely.
Fine heavy stamp is retained and Halford is not as annoying with the chorus
being quite tolerable or even enjoyable if you don't mind that operatic wailing.
The lengthiest track on this outing, "Rock Hard Ride Free" kicks its
fair share of ass too, being pretty rapid and dangerously sounding, but however,
it is overdone with Halford doing... well, I'm sure you'll be able to guess.
Overall, it's a rather nice derivative sing-along in the vein o KISS, but not
as dumb. And this seems to be the right place to bitch a bit about Priest's
overly cheesy cock rock vs. tepid imagery lyrics, since I must admit their lyrics
can often be more offensive than, ugh, Iron Maiden's. And why the hell would
anyone be interested in Halford's sexual adventures? Nobody is interested, but
he rants about it nevertheless.... and frequently goes over the top with it
too. "The Sentinel" is quite famous, a fan favorite of sorts. Opening
with intense spooky guitar lines that make an involving atmosphere it builds
from there on, and becomes a chugging headbanger's delight. The chorus is effective
and powerful, done in the classic Priest tradition and the lyrics are, well...
enjoyable pocketbook fantasy. Right about now the band seriously thinks about
indulging in some slightly romantic-influenced songs so "Love Bites"
opens with a delightfully moody bass line. Still, don't expect to hear a ballad
cause this ain't it, just a neat scary number with rather disturbing lyrical
intonations. A few snarling riffs here and there, some conventional bashing
of the drums and a fine bass work abounds it so don't miss it. It comes across
pretty well when played live as well, I suppose, but they've really blew it
on Priest... Live!.
I admit, the funny rocker "Eat Me Alive" maybe isn't exactly the very
best song here, but one of the most interesting for sure. I guess it remained
my favorite because I've heard it earlier than the rest of the record so I'm
kinda nostalgic about it nowadays. Marvelous shreddingly-fast track that like
most of this album gives a slight nod to the stuff they'll eventually do on
Painkiller. I especially enjoy Halford's distorted vocals in that cool
chorus, belting out those dumber-than-expected lyrics (highly amusing, when
you're listening to them today). Relentless driving speed and aggressive attitude
throughout, the whole shebang works perfectly. The heavy rocker "Some Heads
Are Gonna Roll" is a bit more serious, on the other hand. Classic barbaric approach
by Priest is employed on that one with a major onslaught of effective riffs
and a disposable guitar solo once again... just kidding, it's pretty good actually.
The following song, "Night Comes Down", is a slow gloomy atmospheric semi-ballad
with a convincing emotional vocals, and it's pretty solid and memorable but
just not helluva original. Then there's the straightforward anthem "Heavy
Duty/Defenders Of The Faith" which is the only track (or two, but seeing
that the title track is a minute and a half long it's obvious they're a combo
of sorts) that doesn't do a darn thing for me with its simplistic songwriting
and primitive guitar leads. It's an acceptable vocal effort, though.
In summation, Defenders Of The Faith is one of the best albums in the
Priest catalog and if severe ass-kicking is what you want, than you shouldn't
let this puppy get away. Very strong offering indeed, but be sure to ignore
the atrocious lyrics while you're banging your head... it's for the best, believe
me. Other than that, get it now.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Purely abysmal, much worse than Point Of Entry. Anyhow,
this was the first Priest album in two years and you'd really expect that they
would think of something better or at least passable! Heck, no! They just added
lots of corny synths and released an album chock-full of half-baked generic
numbers. They even had the nerves to proclaim it to be an experimental piece.
More like a GAY SELLOUT, I say! Not undeservedly so since this is their most
blatantly homosexual album with "Turbo Lover" saying everything you
needed to know about that issue. Hell, if you had any doubts that Halford is
gay this should really set the deal straight. Anyway, the reason I plan to be
nasty in this review ain't because of this open gayness but because the tunes
just suck! The songwriting hits some vast unexplored depths of mediocrity and
the band insisted on the radio-friendly muzak once again. And if they didn't
put a few vocal hooks in most songs, this wouldn't even get the rating of ONE
as the tracks are everything but riff-based and painfully cheesy overall. The
production in sterile and faceless in the classic mid-eighties mold of pop-metal
without the low-bottom thump which was pretty weak even before, but it's totally
non-existent now. Okay, so the synths and keyboards aren't so forcefully presented
since they don't go over the top like they would on an Dio album or something,
but heck, when Iron Maiden tackled synths on Somewhere In Time they surely
had some relatively respectful results and nothing nearly so disgraceful like
this. The overall sound goes insanely happy with numerous dumb sing-alongs,
and this looks not unlike a Kiss party record, for example.
So let's see what the rednecky simpletons recorded then, shall we? Well, you
gotta understand that Priest will rarely let you down with the opening number
so even though it aptly shows the new Priest approach to metal, "Turbo Lover"
is still a damn fine song. Nice building piece that gets more and more intense
as it picks up pace with that strong driving beat, and I'd even say it makes
a pretty good car song too. It's sort of a gay epic it seems, with dubious vomit-inducing
lyricism but a very firmly inspired vocal performance as well (hah!). Look,
it still blows, but this whole album blows, so it doesn't mean shit that it's
the second best song on the album. Expectedly, everything went down the shitbowl
from here on. The next fillerish track entitled "Locked In" kinda rocks,
but in an impeccably dumb way, and if you give it a closer look you'll notice
the wretchedly butchered songwriting (under the assumption they even had one)
so you'll feel totally disgusted. There's the intolerably atrocious onslaught
of uninspired riffing from both K.K. and Glenn which was probably a statement
of sorts, something like "God damn! We're the best, we friggin' rock!"
and Halford constantly squeals like a pig in leather. This is way beyond hurtful,
this is purely lethal.
Another messy abomination is presented in the form of "Private Property", which
is hardly surprising just pure low-grade trash that would feel quite comfortable
on some second-rate Poison record. Basic dull fodder with tiresome ineffective
riffs you've heard millions of times before and loads of tepid rotten-to-the-core
songwriting. More recycled old shim comes next with the moronic anthem "Parental
Guidance" which was a hit, of course. Nothing particular to say about it.
Heck, it's just yet another average hair metal number made in the arena rock
mold, quite annoying, but thankfully short. My headache was even stronger as
"Rock You All Around The World" approached, and I wasn't disappointed by any
means. Dumb as always, an pleasantly mindless party ditty with mediocre riffage
and a bit more effective chorus, but nothing truly painful to listen to. However,
the virtually unlistenable SIX-MINUTES LONG power ballad "Out In The Cold"
sucks in every single respect you could ever think of, and imagine that, it
was supposedly a hit of some kind. The tempo drags throughout and the whole
thing quickly slumps in deep sticky mud, completed with the immensely moronic
lyrics penned in about two minutes (give or take one) and with Halford giving
his best hillbilly impersonations. Jeez, this is just your sludgy routine hair
metal ballad with sloppy generic playing, loads of cringe-inducing synths and
bland riffage.
Come on! This is getting ridiculous. "Hot For Love"? That song is one of the
ugliest synth-based tracks in the history of the eighties which quite frankly
says a lot. Even most hair metallers didn't stoop so low to actually create
something like this. If there ever was a remotely similar piece of crap of such
epic proportions, I bet it rolled in its grave as Priest entered the studio
and recorded this massive suckjob. The following mid-tempo stinker dumbly entitled
"Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days" spots a highly addictive chorus and a solid
vocal melody, but besides that it's not really riff-driven so it just kinda
drags along until it dies in unbearable agony. Hooray for Priest! They've created
yet another lame throwaway! Well, the only other remotely good number here is
"Hookless", er, "Reckless"... yeah, I meant "Reckless". Anyway,
that one is a tasty energetic rocker with minimum synth involvement done in
the classic Screaming For Vengeance vein. It certainly rocks harder than
anything else here and the chorus is infectious as well. So screw it, I've managed
to find one track that wasn't an utter waste of tape. Gee, am I lucky....
Finally, the only question that's left unasked is how the hell did Turbo
went platinum? And what the hell happened with all those people who bought it
back then? I mean, I know where the album is, it's either flushed down the drain
or it's waiting in the waste bins for some poor sap to come along, but where
are those naive.... ew, fuck that, I've had enough. I'm gonna flush my copy
now. Ugh, and isn't that cover just hideous? And yet so true...
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Sheeez, riding high on the commercial success of Turbo
(sic!) Priest released a new live album, and not a moment too soon seeing that
Unleashed In The East was out eight years earlier and was kinda obscure
regarding the song selection. Not that this one is any superior in that field
since it has an awful lot of Turbo numbers on it (five, to be more precise),
which is hardly weird since this album was recorded during that tour anyway.
Still, even though the selection is kinda sloppy they didn't forget any of the
eighties classics. In fact, this album obviously carries on where Unleashed
In The East left off as it features only the later period songs so it's
kinda like a sequel to that one, I guess, and not an all-comprehensive Priest
live disc. Eh, and speaking about the choice of the songs I was quite surprised
to see they neglected "Delivering The Goods", which is good since the
song blows worse than a tornado, but since it was an undeserved classic I naturally
expected to hear it on here. By the way, how come the crowd participation is
kept to the minimum? Unlike Unleashed In The East where the audience
chipped in from time to time, there's barely any of their input here except
for that standard cheering.
For some reason completely incomprehensible to mankind, Priest decides to open
the record with "Out In The Cold", which is, in case you forgot, one
of the worst power ballads of all time. Besides, what possible reason do they
have to use a ballad for an opener? Come on! It's commonly known that the show
opener must be fast and relentless and not some pretentious overblown pile of
dog's droppings. Of course, they did make it a tad more tolerable by adding
a certain amount of freshness, but for a such atrocious tune that doesn't mean
much. Matters only got worse as they followed it with "Heading Out To The
Highway" a low energy mid-tempo track which was well performed but still
fairly dull. Luckily, further embarrassments were avoided thank to the fearsome
grinder "Metal Gods", one of Priest's favorite stage numbers. Performed
with style it crunches along adorably and is one of the higher points of the
album (but not unmatched points, though). The likable shredding radio hit "Breaking
The Law" followed and went off perfectly with a high adrenaline rush, and
that tune also remains a live favorite both for Halford's solo band as well
as the new Priest lineup with Ripper Owens.
Anyway, a live rendition of "Love Bites" is on next, and guess what?
It's not very good. I dunno if it's the performance itself or the mixing, or
whatever, but all I hear is five minutes of tuneless messy noise. Still, it's
not the very worst pile of clumsy played riffage here since the opening track
beats it in spades. Another Defenders Of The Faith tune follows and it's
treated with enough respect. In fact, maybe it's just me or does "Some Heads
Are Gonna Roll" really rips a bit harder live? Ugh, I dunno, but it's a brilliant
rocker no matter how you put it. "The Sentinel" on the other hand doesn't
strike me as superior to the studio cut, but hey, as long as I don't have to
listen to those Turbo numbers anything is splendid. And this one was
a gigantic shredder even before, so I'm more than happy, I'm ecstatic really.
Unfortunately, the band indulges in two more Turbo sleaze-fests "Private
Property" and "Rock You All Around The World", and yes, these two
were an excuse enough for Priest to unleash some prime suckage, even if the
versions here are actually pleasant in that "hey it's the dumb eighties
where dumb people with shitty music taste finally got what they wanted"
kind of way. After this low-budget detestable balderdash the band is back to
crowd-pleasing, and is there a better way to do that than to perform a ripping
rendition of "Electric Eye"? I think not, and thankfully Priest agreed
with me. Oooh, what a powerful bone-crunching groove throughout! And it's certainly
one of my personal favorite spots on this outing.
The suitable stinging version of "Turbo Lover" is displayed next, and
man, that song really rocks in a live setting! It moves in a heavy frame slowly
cooking up a storm, a nice, really nice tune. Still, as expected, "Freewheel
Burning" is one of the major highlights here with the nasty assault of the
screaming psychotic guitars and it's followed by an anthemic Turbo track
"Parental Guidance". It doesn't exactly suck but it's no great shakes
either. I'm a bit worried with this somewhat extended version of "Living
After Midnight" as it loses its point too soon, but the riffage and the
chorus were well-performed so I manage not to think about it much. And naturally,
there's the immortal closing track "You've Got Another Thing Comin'"
and as a prelude to the song Halford led the audience in some typical exercises
of screaming and suchlike things. This here take on "You've Got Another
Thing Comin'" rocks as always but they've expanded its clocking time a bit
(not much) and it went off brilliantly as always with lotsa power and credibility.
Okay, so we have all the major hits here and each album is fairly well represented
with only the cream of the crop, so yeah, you might as well get it. It's not
as important like Unleashed In The East, but it's still somewhat better
produced and with more songs! Recommended, but in limited amounts and with the
obligatory use of the trusty old fast-forward button.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Well, well, how low can you fall? Not much lower than Turbo,
so not even Priest succeeded in their attempts to make this the most obscene
pile of disfigured remainings ever. So basically what we have here is a fine
metal band that decided to go back to its heritage and not tamper with those
sonic explorations that just successfully made my ears bleed and not much else,
although... well, I did sneer frequently. This is kinda like a step up, you
might say. The synth connection is dropped for the most part (a.k.a. just enough
for Priest to avoid being stoned to death on the stage), the riffage is a bit
more original and fresher (again, enough to be tolerable), the rhythm backbones
are steady and massive in places and the soloing is shockingly entertaining
with cool flashy lines throughout. Plus, the VOCAL HOOKS are back! And they
manage not to suck like Halford does while he’s getting busy on someone’s...
ugh, I’d better stop right here or else I might get sued or something (but it’s
the truth, ya know?). The production is stunningly decent in the typical “hey
dude, this doesn’t blow like Turbo” way as the pop-metal guidelines of
old are shoved where they rightfully belong... up the producer’s ass. Still,
this is much of the same sound overall, but with several heavier moments and
with the songwriting improving as well, except for the lyricism which is hilariously
dumb as usual (“thousand of cars and a million guitars/ screaming with power
in the air/ we've found the place where the decibels race/ this army of rock
will be there/ to ram it down, ram it down”). By the way, strangely enough,
this stinker sold even worse than Turbo reaching only gold in the U.S.
so I bet that the members of Priest also scratched their heads and wracked their
brains but failed to come up with an plausible answer for that anomaly.
The album kick-starts with one of Halford’s trademark high-pitched screams and
when the rapid gritty double guitar assault steps in followed by a neat solo,
you know that you’re into a treat, and the mighty drummer Holland bashes his
little kit so fast that I suppose he needed a brand new one to record the next
song. Priest doesn’t let up anywhere in the song as they deliver tasty guitar
chops, awesome duels and riffage. Halford’s roar is perfect throughout as he
rushes through the blatantly stupid lyrics and creates an insanely catchy chorus,
but song hits a low when the band suddenly transforms into KISS and goes in
a very odd arena rock section with Halford happily singing “shout it out, we're
all together now; shout it out, we join as one” for no apparent reason. I bet
that the crowd went “huh?” when they played it live. Still, that unfortunate
experiment doesn’t get enough clocking time to become truly irritating so in
the desperate desire to apologize Priest squeezed in a mind-bogglingly speedy
solo near the end. The following slow vicious stomper “Heavy Metal” further
solidified my determination to give this sucker an eight at least. I mean, Priest,
one of the biggest names of metal doing a song “Heavy Metal”? How can you possibly
go wrong? Brutal bottom-heavy thump is completed with jackhammer riffs and piles
of distortion but the band didn’t lose that nifty melody at any point, and instead,
they further underlined it by adding an intriguing atmosphere and killer chorus
lines. Plus, that entertaining solo is no slouch either.
But now everything went dreadfully wrong cause after these two full-tilt heavy
metal classics Priest produced tons and tons of prime suckjobs. “Love Zone”
is the perfect example of this unfortunate incidents. Needless to say, it blows
like a hurricane retaining that cheesy feel of Turbo and adding to it
that classic blatantly dumb Priest stamp. Aw, come on! Like you don’t know what
I’m talking about; tepid lyricism, corny “whips and chains” imagery and that
frequently rednecky performance by Halford. Anyway, it's just a conventionally
braindead number made very much in that usual ugly eighties mold. Then we have
the forgettable sleazy but speedy rocker "Come And Get It" performed awfully
sloppy with zero emotions involved, rendering it intolerable. I guess it’s better
than most crapful filler on Turbo but that doesn’t mean one ugly shit
anyway. And the chorus is positively sickening for my taste too. The aptly titled
“Hard As Iron” (although you and me both know what Rob really meant, now don’t
we?) is another often overlooked upbeat number with some stellar vocals by Halford
and a massively dumb chorus. Fine strong mover with a clever use of double-bass
drums (as in “not thoroughly annoying”) and lots of not so wisely penned distortion.
Plus, Halford makes a decent show too. Well, it’s probably a worthwhile effort
overall, since I kinda enjoyed it, and if you take it in small doses you’ll
have a few kicks with it as well.
“Blood Red Skies” isn’t memorable at all. I was hardly shocked to discover it’s
just a moody boredom-inducing rocker featuring lots of okayish screaming and
some remarkably decent lyrics. It does start emotional with Halford singing
beside a neat acoustic guitar and some silent moody synth lines, but both is
soon dropped in order to get a simple monotonous up-tempo snyth-driven beat
(not too speedy, of course) and there’s just a few nifty solos here and there
to prevent it from being to a total drag. It doesn’t step away from this formula
at all, never in its whole EIGHT minutes of duration... terribly dull overall.
“I’m A Rocker" is even worse since the derivative riffage and melody both suck
completely and the lyrics are truly mind-bogglingly dumb. Plus, on top of all
that, Halford sounds plain annoying and the chorus and vocal hooks are laughably
banal. Not much else to say, just stay far away from it, do we have a deal?
However, the lowest point, the absolutely final nadir is the insipid slowed-down
cover of Chuck Berry’s "Johnny B. Goode" which is a misfire of epic proportions.
Solid driving lead guitars, dumby sluggish beat and mediocre vocal performance
from Halford, and it doesn’t work out at all. It’s just sad to see this once
wonderful song recklessly used as a polygon for a generic eighties metal band
so obviously past its prime. Then there’s "Love You To Death" which is a conventional
up-tempo rocker, this time with hideous love-oriented lyricism and not much
of a melody. Tired old riffs are recycled again and the song sucks, as usual.
The last track (finally!), the lengthy “Monsters Of Rock” blows just as much
since it’s an obvious attempt to plagiarize the first two metal masterpieces,
with some odd jackhammer noise in the beginning and it’s also packing lots of
grittiness as well, but the riffage isn’t well-developed and it doesn’t move
me one bit. The only remotely good thing about this misfortunate accident is
that Halford’s vocals are damn menacing, but even that is wasted by the lack
of smart vocal hooks.
Overall, an useless album. I dunno, at most you’d probably need just three songs
from it and that’s not reason enough to endure all the shit in between. Anyway,
Ram It Down isn’t much of an unabashed demonstration of power by any
means, although it is a step up from Turbo, but then again, any given
Cinderella album would look downright beautiful when compared to that record.
If you see this, ignore it. Eh, and the cover art is downright atrocious.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
It was with much caution that I’ve thrown this puppy into
the deck, not knowing what to expect. I knew, naturally, the gigantic speed
metal title track but from my unpleasant experience with Ram It Down
I wasn’t prepared to endure yet another Priest shenanigan with loads and loads
of dated schlock. But how refreshing! This offering here proved to be an awesome
piece of divine ass-kicking. It was arguably the fastest, heaviest album of
1990, which says quite a lot frankly, and probably the last great metal outing
prior to the grunge explosion. Painkiller also had a special place in
the whole Priest catalog as it was their hands-down heaviest effort ever (until
they de-tuned the guitars when Ripper Owens came in), and also one of the trashiest
and speediest albums in their cannon. Upon its release it was richly rewarded
for its venomous attitude by the audience, so it consequently went gold which
was a decent sale result for a metal album in that soon-to-be grunge time. The
lineup was slightly altered as the band lost Dave Holland and gained Scott Travis,
and when I said gained, I meant it, since this guy is without a doubt much...
well, not more professional, but a much FASTER drummer than Holland was. In
fact, on this high-adrenaline rides here (and this album is practically chock-full
of them) his extremely rapid way of bashing the drum kit is simply awesome.
The production is top notch, not particularly dated, and the loud heavy mixing
is just marvelous with lots of power added to the instruments and especially
to the guitars that are now grittier than ever. Plus, the bass is mixed more
up front than usual (as if Priest took their clue from Iron Maiden) and some
keyboards are still retained in the overall sound, but with increased effectiveness
so they actually serve as an advantage on gloomy numbers like “A Touch Of Evil”.
Priest cracks the album open with the amazingly venomous speed metal masterpiece
that is the title track. Immensely brutal, after some slight warming up by Scott
Travis it rushes towards you with some astonishingly frantic bashing of the
double-bass drums, and an majestic onslaught of heavily distorted riffage that
soon follows and damn near knocks me off the chair! This infernal six-minute
epic has some thoroughly mesmerizing guitar chops all the way through (especially
the brilliant soloing and stunning lead breaks) and Halford’s voice strikes
with vengeance delivering some outstanding nightmarish screaming, and when he
reaches the hellish closing line “DEADLY WHEELS PAINKILLER!!!” I always feel
the chills going down my spine. The following high-energy tune “Hell Patrol”
is fairly weak in the lyricism department but those snarling menacing riffs
just wont go away! Once again, it has those perfect hard-hitting vocals from
Halford and the track just reeks of classic Priest ferociousness. True balls-to-the-wall
heavy metal, and then some. The Priest beast doesn’t let go in their third song
here, the aptly titled “All Guns Blazing” which is basically an awesome grinding
rocker kinda in the Guns ‘N’ Roses style, but still much nastier with extraordinary
powerful vocals. Simply a stellar aggressive combat tune that puts Priest's
old metallic monsters like “Dissident Aggressor” to shame.
The conventionally cheesy “Leather Rebel” is yet another freakin’ fast burner
where the guys threw away the guitars and played with buzz saws or something,
cause you surely can’t get such an ominous sound from ordinary electric guitars,
no matter how loud the mix is. Marvelously rapid number, all in all. The following
metallic speedster, interestingly titled “Metal Meltdown”, lives to its promise
as it is an astonishingly heavy storming cut that easily annihilates everything
in its proximity. It opens with some mighty relentless riffing backed by exciting
super-fast drumming and the expectedly devilish performance from Halford, especially
so in the more silent chorus parts. Also of note is the chilling use of some
slow ultra-heavy jackhammer riffage which is thrown in as the song reaches the
end. And finally comes one of my favorite songs on the disc, the gloomy nightmarish
cut “Night Crawler” which is fast and merciless with one of Halford’s best performances
as he tackles loads of gorgeous vocal hooks. The speedy riffage is damn cool
and that keyboard-driven spoken section is positively chilling as Halford sounds
like Satan himself probably would.
Then there’s the idle "Between The Hammer And The Anvil" which boasts with a
remarkable title (I haven’t decided yet if it’s truly dumb or not), and has
some stinging guitar work and a decent enough melody, but I’ve still never really
cared for it. It’s not bad by any means since it is much stronger than anything
on Ram It Down, if we exclude the title track. No doubt about it, it’s
still a classic Priest staple. The grinding slowed-down cut “A Touch Of Evil”
opens with swirling threatening keyboards which add an infernal feel to the
song and are present throughout. An onslaught of clever riffage follows and
Halford sounds pretty scary in the memorable chorus, and also downright nasty
when he sings the line “you’re possessing me!” near the end. Tight and steady
guitar work is displayed from start to finish with the silent drumless riff-driven
passage in the middle being of particular interest, and which is then followed
by a fantastic guitar solo. Yeah, so the lyrics aren’t exactly top notch since
this is getting painfully corny, but how can anyone deny the song’s greatness?
It’s a top highlight in my mind. The exciting brief instrumental “Battle Hymn”
serves as extraordinary intro for the lengthy, almost seven minutes long fist-pumping
closing track “One Shot At Glory”, which is a glorious slice of riff-driven
mayhem in its own right, containing an effective involving solo. Between other
worthwhile things it also features a superb performance from Halford throughout,
but especially in the mind-blowing chorus. Also, it’s often hailed as the most
underrated song on the disc and while that’s probably true, that doesn’t really
matter seeing that the record doesn’t have a single weak spot anyway.
I suppose that such a masterpiece like this one really doesn’t need me belting
out numerous reasons why you should get it, especially since it’s commonly considered
to be their finest hour. Of course, there is a few reasons here why I can’t
give it the highest rating, baring in mind that no matter how the songwriting
improved from the Turbo era, it still isn’t up par with Sin After
Sin, even though it's much superior to that record if ass-kicking is what
you want. Plus, it does sound somewhat dated in places and the lyricism is mostly
too cheesy to take, but like I said, it’s highly recommended for anyone who
likes speed metal.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
It was a long seven year hiatus that Judas Priest took after
the release of the mighty Painkiller in order to scream back with vengeance
in 1997. When news arose that the Metal Gods have a fresh album in store, no-one
really expected to hear a successful sequel. That became even more obvious when
vocalist Rob Halford quit the band and went on to form his solo group Fight,
and Priest enlisted Tim “Ripper” Owens as his replacement. Everybody thought
that the band couldn’t possibly go strength to strength after loosing such an
charismatic frontman, and technically remarkable singer as Halford, but Owens,
who previously fronted an anonymous Priest cover band, seemed to fit the bill
perfectly. Now, regarding Ripper's voice, when he actually bothers to sing (which
is rare on this particular record, but it still happens) his voice is quite
different than Halford’s, but the high-pitched wailing is completely the same
or even slightly better. The biggest problem with this album, and I’m certain
that everybody would agree, is that Ripper just enjoys that detestable technically-perfected
screaming too much, so it not only reaches, but it also demolishes the point
of annoyance. He’s a damn good screamer, but the thing that always irritated
with Priest were the SCREAMS, and I get a shitload of them here because the
man simply doesn't know the right measure. I’d be far more forgiving if he stopped
doing that, because actually, the music itself ain’t bad.
Frankly, it’s no secret that I basically expected to hear just a poor re-write
of Painkiller, but what I got here was a bit of a shock. It’s almost
as if the band re-invented the steel, so to say, cause this effort sounds much
more like modern day rap-metal than the old classic Priest. In fact, I’m not
afraid to admit I even liked it at first, but after a few more listens it gets
tedious, and several songs just don’t do a damn thing for me anymore. Truth
be told, the songwriting ain’t impressive as it sacrifices Priest’s melodic
side and heavily leans on simplistic, but groovy musical phrases hidden behind
the wall of low-end distortion. The melodies are derivative and poorly-constructed
at best, the cliched lyricism is conventional Priest, but more dumb and less
funny than usual. Musically, it was the heaviest album Priest ever recorded,
even though their latest record Demolition is made much in the same way.
The largest difficulty I have is that those extremely bottom-heavy nasty songs
are just too sluggish for my taste, and they tend to drag without any real sense
of purpose, but however, they’re still pretty effective overall.
The opening title track opens with a neat intro but it immediately serves simply
as a decent excuse for Ripper to start ripping with his usual hiiiiiiiigh screams.
And what a fine brutal growler this track is! Fine riffage and blinding guitar
work, it’s the first standout cut here. The routine rocker “Blood Stained” has
a prominent double-bass and mean gritty guitars as well, since it is a heavy
as hell thumping track, but on the lyrical field it’s total suckage of the highest
order. Neat generic melody, though. “Dead Meat” is chillingly moronic as far
as the lyrics go, but a damn solid aggressive tune nevertheless, and it really
associates me on the classic Priest mold of Painkiller and Defenders
Of The Faith. “Death Row” is somewhat stronger even though the beginning
isn’t really hopeful, but when it turns on the heavy grind to the maximum, it
obviously establishes itself as one of my favorites. The next slumber, er, number
“Decapitate” is really friggin’ shitty and useless cause it simply goes nowhere,
and while it’s on you wont really headbang that much, and when it’s off you’ll
soon forget it completely. Also, that shameful incarnation of a song name surely
belongs on my nifty (and lengthy) list of the stupidest titles ever where Priest
are in the lead as we speak. And what about those intolerable vocals? I know
that Ripper is a solid singer, but he really goes over the top more frequently
than one (that one being ME) would like.
The dull plodder "Burn In Hell" possesses a cool intro but it’s irritatingly
lengthy, clocking well over six minutes and during that time it achieves no
particular effect whatsoever, except for fueling my desire to trash the CD player
in helpless anger. Further more, the vocal performance hits the ultimate low
point, and it’s truly the kind of vomit-friendly sludgy crap that even the totally
deaf person would violently protest against, simply because it spreads piles
and piles of bad vibrations in the surroundings. The following monotonous disgrace
“Brain Dead” completely justifies its name since its main characteristic is
the lack of distinctive melodies or riffage, so it comes across as plain tuneless
fodder, pretty offensive and not at all catchy. The celebration of distastefulness
continues as Priest slumps in a slouchy, pointless “hey, it’s not my fault that
the guy who penned me doesn’t have a sense for melody” mastodon called “Abductors”
which has only one virtue, and that are the laughable lyrics that help you get
through this brutal ordeal laughing, so much so that you’ll exit the beasts
lair in a quite forgiving and cheerful mood thinking “well, this wasn’t so bad,
at least I had an opportunity to sneer a lot”. “Bullet Train” is arguably one
of the fastest moments on the record taking me right back to the Painkiller
era. It’s a relatively flowing riff-based rocker with a mean heavy groove featuring
some okayish, “well, they sure didn’t lose much sleep over us” lyrics. Finally,
the album ends on a unthinkably high note with the lengthy nine-minute opus
"Cathedral Spires" that sounds quite like old-school Priest, but still retains
the modern edge established on this record. I’m happy to see that the band didn’t
forget how to make a interesting moody epic, even more so since I thought they
abandoned that style entirely. I was overwhelmed with joy as I’ve noticed the
acoustic guitars in the beginning and smooth atmospheric singing in the vein
of “Beyond The Realms Of Death”. Much like that song, "Cathedral Spires" also
gets gruesomely heavy later on with endless series of massive riffs generously
layered over the mean mid-tempo rhythm.
To summarize; this album is an obvious depart from the old Priest sound as Tipton
and Downing traded in their trademark guitar tone in favor of the more modern,
drop-down distortion technique, and thusly this new Judas Priest sounds more
like Pantera and other contemporary artists. That aside, this record is still
very decent overall, but it’s also lacking that much needed inspiration that
everyone, including me, hoped for. It's a fine chunk of brutal sluggish metal,
but not your best bet if you're a classic Priest fan.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
If you're not new to this band then you probably already know
that they have certain traditions to uphold, like that obligatory live album
per decade. Well, this album here is actually a collection of various bits and
pieces recorded on numerous shows of the Jugulator tour. Noticeably,
the audience contributed an awful lot to this record giving it a special flavor
that was sadly missed on Priest's previous live efforts with Rob Halford, but
of course, what makes this album such a wonderful listen is the almost perfect
song selection including all the major hits and best Priest's compositions from
the seventies, eighties as well as nineties. As everyone expected Jugulator
was heavily represented with five songs while other albums were fairly well
covered too, but of course, it's almost impossible to squeeze in everything
good that Priest made over the years in a poor double CD such as this. But they
sure as hell did their best! Rocka Rolla and Turbo were completely
ignored like I thought they'll be, and for the good I suppose... not that I'm
complaining or anything.
Anyhow, what really raises this album a few notches above the other two is the
fact that it simply contains more songs and that it truly represents the band
in the right light. Plus, that Ripper character is a decent replacement for
Halford when he tackles the old favorites giving his all throughout. Oh yeah,
he does muffle up "Painkiller" in a big way, totally destroying this
potentially awesome live number (kinda like when Dio sang "Paranoid"
on Live Evil, he simply didn't know HOW to do it). Still, he does well
on the acoustic version of "Diamonds And Rust" so I can't say anything
bad about him. Well, obviously, the strongest point of this record is certainly
the astonishing live energy everyone is putting in, and especially Owens who
probably felt he needs to prove himself worth of the great band who gave him
a fair chance to finally become somebody. Also of note is the monstrous input
of the audience which further solidifies my belief that Priest is not totally
washed up just yet, no matter how their last studio album failed to make an
impact both on the commercial and artistic field. Slick as usual, the production
here leaves nothing to be desired since Priest quite easily repeats the heavy
low-end crunch achieved on Jugulator and as a result many older songs
seem to be heavier as well.
Bursting with desire to show the world they can still cut it the band rages
through the fearsome opener "Electric Eye" aptly introduced by the neat
"The Hellion". From this moment on, I had no doubts that it's gonna
be a great album. Stinging screaming guitars are just as good as they were back
then and Owens leads the audience in a sing-along, well... maybe not exactly
"lead" cause they would sing with him even if he didn't demand it. "Metal
Gods" and "Grinder" are more of the same, hitting their respectable
studio originals in the ass and the crowd still sings along. Further more, the
first of those two is especially ripping even though it ain't the best track
by far. The slightly rehashed "Rapid Fire" speeds up things in style
(with a screeeeeeeeeaming performance from Owens) and the first number off Jugulator
takes the stage in the form of the aggressive "Blood Stained". Fine
performance, and since it was an okay song before I guess this rendition is
even cooler, almost freezing. Next up is "The Sentinel", your average
crowed pleaser deadly suitable for sucking up to the fans, which of course,
DOESN'T mean it ain't good. It's a fine example of by-the-book shredding if
I ever saw one.
Soon after, Priest makes an interesting move slowing down with "A Touch
Of Evil", which was just as unexpected as was wonderful. I've always liked
that track... beautiful vocal work too, maybe not better than Halford's, but
still, Owens ain't no second-rate replacement either. Seriously satisfied with
the way things turned out so far and smartly wrapping the listener in a fake
sense of security Priest slowly started to throw in a couple more of Jugulator
tunes, which are superior to the studio cuts and also they're wisely distributed
between the immortal favorites "The Ripper" and "Beyond The Realms
Of Death". Well, "Burn In Hell" is just as tuneless as before without
a shred of memorability or even dignity to be found anywhere near. Despite that,
it was well received with the audience more or less knowing the lyrics so that
makes up for something, I presume. Then again, how hard can it be to remember
such banal tripe anyway? Okay, if I was slightly unhappy with that tune I surely
had no objections on "Bullet Train", violent and vicious as it is. Not
the high point, but hell, why should it be when we have "Death Row"
that fits the bill perfectly? This one was also one of the stronger tunes off
Jugulator so it ends the first disc impeccably as it is well-executed
and adrenaline-driven.
The only way to open the second disc was with the "title" track "Metal
Meltdown" which storms through the set and doesn't show any mercy until
the cool "Night Crawler" steps in. "Abductors" is just as full
of intolerable shit like it was on Jugulator, and man, is it BORING!
"Victim Of Changes" is worth the wait, though, since the power of this
epic is unbelievable... the crunchy main riff is in place and Ripper does a
wonderful job in Halford's shoes making his screams to sound even stronger.
It certainly doesn't put the rendition on Unleashed In The East to shame,
but it DOES send chills down my spine and that alone already means something.
"Diamonds And Rust" was always a live favorite and over the years it
has truly become one of Priest's essential songs. This version here is quite
different than the original Priest cover since it's performed almost entirely
acoustic with some subtle electric parts, and plus, Ripper's closing scream
is simply blinding.
"Breaking The Law" and "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged
Crown)" follow and both are well-performed and rousing as always, and I simply
must make mention of the passionate crowd since these guys seem like they're
having the time of their lives. It's really nice to hear something like that.
Regardless, the ultimate low-light of the set is certainly Priest's high speed
classic "Painkiller" which musically goes off splendidly, but Ripper
really blows it with his hideous singing. It seems that he did try his best
but he didn't quite figured out how to go about it. Ah well, I guess that the
tribute band he was in didn't cover the Painkiller numbers as thoroughly
as they should... a pity, cause he sure needs lots of practice for this particular
tune. The lengthier version of "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" is
more of the same featuring a confused "gee, I'm out of place here" Ripper
and a superb musical background. Thank goodness that "Hell Bent For Leather"
and the closing "Living After Midnight" are smoothly played, tight and
thoroughly professional with solid vocals.
And here you are... this two-disc set is truly the best buy you can have if
you're interested to hear Judas Priest live and powerful as they should be.
If anything, this incarnation of the band proved they can still compete with
the best of them adding new modernized flavor to the old classics and thusly
making them appropriate for the new era. I probably haven't mentioned yet that
there's a lot of neat stage banter throughout, with Owens constantly interacting
with the crowd, and as you all know, no band can go wrong if they accept that
and take advantage of it. Needless to say, the artwork is just as senseless
and screwed up as always. I mean, just LOOK at it! How they managed to produce
so much butt-ugly covers over the years is well beyond my comprehension. This
genuinely looks like the author scribbled it while he was sitting on the toilet.
Er... it's time to wrap things up before the webmaster tells me to cut down
on the length of my reviews. Just buy it, will ya? That is, if you can find
it.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
After last year's big comeback of Rob Halford with Resurrection
I presume that Priest saw it as somewhat of a challenge to decide who's fit
to bare the name of metal gods. Considering that little fact Demolition
seems to be weaker than it objectively is, cause, despite the boredom-inducing
mid-tempo wankery, there's plenty low-end nastiness here to ensure at least
fifty minutes of metal mayhem. In these terms this record could very well give
Resurrection a run for its money, but in the end it barely does as it
suffers from excessive length. Well, let's plow through the positive part of
the story now, shall we? As I've said, the classic Priest sound has mostly vanished
and the band gives a slight nod towards it only on some tracks, however, on
those rare places you can clearly see it's Priest. If compared to the mighty
wrath of Jugulator we hear much of the same anger and menace here, and
this is nothing if not a groovy album overall. Certain chugging grooves that
the band walks into are strong movers throughout and they're followed by ripping
solos more often than not. It seems to me that one of the biggest gripes I have
with Demolition is the inclusion of meek synthesizer garbage which often
butchers the potentially solid tracks, or totally shits on the already crappier-than-thou
balladeering material like, ugh, "Close To You". Plus, the modernized
stuff here is much more derivative than we're used to expect from Priest. Still,
of note is Ripper Owens's presence on the album seeing that he dropped the Halford-imitating
crap for the most part, and got more of his own modern-sounding input in. Viewed
from my standpoint, the vocals are chilling throughout and although Ripper's
singing style is quite different from Halford's I've grown fond of it. Ripper
has a fine voice and a charismatic presence so I really don't get why rabid
Halford-era fans choose to hate him.
The Painkiller-styled opener "Machine Man" was a huge letdown
for me at first, but it grew in my eyes with each spin. It starts with some
unarticulated silent noise and a brief but savage drum buildup, but then it
continues to some pretty average guitar lines which weren't at all excused by
the iffy riffs and dull rhythm. I have to admit that I first just barely noticed
the speed which is kinda understandable as the song is more drum-based than
guitar-driven. Also, here's where Priest earned themselves that parental advisory
sticker with a pretty pointless use of the word fuck, but that aside the vocals
are positively blinding, mostly somewhat reminiscent of Metallica's James Hetfield
and there's a few neat Halford-styled screams as well. Overall, there's not
much form to this song so it basically crunches around until it's over. Still,
after some time I was able to sniff my way to some hooks but not enough to completely
drag this roller out from the realm of blandness. "One On One" is an
instantly memorable paced grinder with an outstanding power groove going on.
It opens with an odd electronic fuzzy noise (which even sounds kinda like a
solo of sorts) and continues straight to the onslaught of majestically driving
riffage, which is from time to time backed by more weird electronic effects
in the background. And since I'm mentioning the riffs I'd like to add that you'll
easily recognize the trademark guitar tones of the guys as well as the classic
Priest rhythm, even though it's a heavier and more distorted than the earlier
stuff. No doubt, this is still pure Judas Priest at their nastiest.
Okay, now we come to my absolute favorite number here, "Hell Is Home".
Everyone seems to think it's a haunting track but in my mind nothing could be
further from the truth. Granted, perhaps they wanted it to send chills down
your spine but to me it sounds like a silly but highly pleasant ditty which
is only slightly put down by its six-minute length. On songs such as this one
the singer really gets his chance to shine or to fail, but if he does it with
style than you know you have a great performer on board. It was this song that
truly convinced me Ripper was a superb acquisition for the band. Opening very
slowly with creepy synths and some expendable acoustic dribbling it shows us
Ripper in all his glory, especially when he starts to sing in the hilariously
"Indian chanting"-styled tone. This laid-back song hardly picks up later
on since the rhythm is awfully sluggish throughout, but it's somewhat saved
by the groovy riffage and the stingingly infectious chorus. However, I must
bitch about that guitar solo a little since it seems out of place here, and
it's also thoroughly annoying. The following cute rocker "Jekyll And Hyde"
starts pretty rapid, but it soon gets subdued and it just crunches along with
heavy riffage. Its poppy synth-driven atmosphere clearly brings us back to old-school
Priest of the eighties and it sounds dangerously Turbo-styled in places.
Supposedly the spooky goth-sounding keyboards were handled by Don Airey, and
I wouldn't be surprised if that's true seeing that they're more or less just
a remake of the synth intro to Ozzy Osbourne's "Mr. Crowley" from 1980,
even though it all sounds much more restrained here and it's actually pushed
deeper in the background this time. Anyhow, the synths give the chorus a pompous
church-like feel which then nicely reflects on the silent vocally-driven passage
that follows. Also, the vocal work is exquisite all-around, and the chorus is
immensely catchy.
The songwriting hits an all-time low with the utterly melodyless love ballad
"Close To You". Quite frankly, hookless synth-driven ballads don't get
much sleazier and primitive than this, so this one is probably the cream of
the rotten crop, so to speak. Arguably the ugliest pile of simplistic crap I've
ever had the misfortune to stumble upon, this highly commercial-sounding ballad
uses obscene amounts of thudding bass and drum work. As always it opens with
pseudo-threatening noodling keyboard lines and some typical non-imaginative
acoustic strumming which continues throughout, but the song is partially saved
by Ripper's emotional vocal performance and a blistering guitar solo. Once again
a strong riff-based groove is prominent on the next track, the aptly titled
"Devil Digger". Starting off with an odd sounding guitar intro the band
establishes a very slow and heavy rhythm in places decorated with cool industrial
noises in the background of the mighty riffage. It's not a catchy song, but
if you want to stomp your foot I guess it should do nicely. The up-tempo "Bloodsuckers"
is six minutes of classic Priest sound including some high-pitched wailing by
Ripper which is EXTREMELY Halford-esque, but to get to that part we must endure
a lengthy creepy intro consisting of disposable sound effects. After that intense
buildup some fast guitar lines screech in and we enter familiar territory, but
what makes this a very interesting listen are the lyrics which are obviously
referring to that Reno suicide trial in the nineties (I don't plan to speak
about it here so look for the info somewhere else).
"In Between" is one of the better slow tunes here, opening with a mystic
intro that gives way to a heavy stomper, which then constantly shifts from pleasantly
mellow parts with wonderful vocals to much harder industro-metal sounding sections.
Elsewhere, the mid-tempo rocker "Feed On Me" features a Dio-styled vocal
melody (and Ripper says the line "FEED ON ME!" exactly like a nineties-sounding
Dio would), but it's standard Priest when it comes to the riffage, and bass
work is worth mentioning too. "Subterfuge" is another non-stop growler
with a cool groove. There's plenty industro-sounding dirty riffage here to keep
you occupied and this catchy track is one of the most modern sounding on Demolition
since Ripper's going for a more Pantera-styled vocals. Meanwhile, "Lost
And Found" is yet another ballad, but this time an acoustic one and it's
pretty reminiscent of seventies Priest. Truthfully, it's rather bland and forgettable
but I'll acknowledge that the vocal performance sounds emotional and intriguing.
It's followed by "Cyberface", which is lengthy mean rocker with a robotic
rhythm and a somewhat oriental sounding chorus (especially the way Ripper pronounces
the line "cyberface"). Further more, the vocals are really nasty and
growling on this one so I have a feelin' they're going death metal or sumpthin'.
The final track "Metal Messiah" closes the record in style with an exciting
speedy groove and almost "rapped" vocals. The strong and memorable chorus
is set to a heavily distorted beat so you shouldn't have any problems with merciless
headbanging – there'll be a lot of it here, take my word for it.
I hope you don't honestly think that after such a lengthy review I'm gonna bother
with a final word as well? Heck no, I've said all I can about this album. It's
sufficient to say it wouldn't be bad if you picked it up considering we're talking
about seventy minutes of music – after all, something is bound to catch your
ear.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?