Judas Priest album due June 17th. One last shot at glory?
I gave up on Judas Priest a while back. I mean, hell, they were already more or less forgotten by the time I even heard of them. Before Halford came back, they actually showed more vitality than after. Songs like “Cathedral Spires”, “Bullet Train”, and “Machine Man” showed they still had interesting ideas.
Then Halford came back. And they made an album just like in the old days, when their albums had no conceptual unity, and just like the old days when they had limp-wristed production. The production of Angel of Retribution may not pull a Jason Newsted on the bass, but it trades the tinny, poofy sound of Turbo for mud, courtesy of that hack, Roy Z. I mean, jeez, Priest could have hired Andy Sneap (Chimaira, Biomechanical), Colin Richardson (Machine Head, Fear Factory), Neil Kernon (Nevermore, Nile), Terry Date (Pantera, White Zombie), or God Himself (Devin Towsend), given all the money they had, but they chose a two-bit hack who had already ruined the Halford: Resurrection and Crucible albums, and would go on to ruin their long-anticipated comeback.
Except that it wasn’t just the lousy production. The production, and choice of producer were merely the symptom, not the cause. Priest have become lazy. Bands are like stars. When they run out of fuel, they either balloon rapidly in a supernova then leave a black hole in their wake or just die out leaving a white dwarf. Similarly, a band, when it runs out of creativity and ideas either makes a completely misguided attempt to hop on some trendy bandwagon makes a complete ass of self, and is remembered forever henceforth as “those guys who really sucked out”, or it merely starts rehashing its own material ad nauseam. In practice, it may well be a mix of both, as Priest has shown. Other than a few riffs which were clearly leftover from Glenn’s solo album, Angel of Retribution is pure pandering to old farts no longer relevant to metal. Even before the album came out, when Priest played OzzFest 2004, their setlist did not reflect the audience they were playing to. It didn’t even reflect true fans of the band. It played like a greatest hits album, with overplayed bromides like “Livin’ After Midnight”, “Headin’ Out to the Highway”, and “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”.
See, if the band had any creativity left, they would have played a mix of songs by Classic Priest, Fight, Halford solo, Tim Owens Priest, and maybe, just maaaaybe Two. It would look something like this:
Painkiller
Into the Pit
Blood Stained
Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Ram it Down
Victim of Changes
Bullet Train
Nailed to the Gun
Freewheel Burning
Shout
Silent Screams (with Tipton guitar solo added during the slow part, KK solo during the fast part)
Delivering the Goods
Vicious (played to reflect the forgotten “Backstabber Mix”)
Screaming in the Dark
A Touch of Evil
Light Comes Out of Black
Cathedral Spires
Now to anyone who knows the Priest/Halford catalogue, that set just oozes awesome. It would show that the band has their head in the right place (up one’s ass is not the right place). But did they do that? Nope! That would imply creativity; thinking outside of the box, which they no longer do. Because of the played-out setlist at Ozzfest, I already had doubts about the album, and I was correct in having them.
Now, however, Priest have a new album coming out, and it’s showing some signs of thinking out of the box. It’s a double disc, as well as a concept album about Nostradamus – two things they’ve never done. So, on one hand, I have at least some small reason to believe there’s hope that Nostradamus will actually redeem Priest and allow them to retire honorably. But then given Priest’s track record since the early 80s, it’s not unreasonable for someone to be skeptical. Hell, I don’t even know who is producing this. Anyone?
Well anyway, here’s a link to more info: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=95015
01. Dawn of Creation *
02. Prophecy
03. Awakening *
04. Revelations
05. The Four Horsemen *
06. War
07. Sands of Time *
08. Pestilence And Plague
09. Death
10. Peace *
11. Conquest
12. Lost Love
13. Persecution
14. Solitude *
15. Exiled
16. Alone
17. Shadows In the Flame *
18. Visions
19. Hope *
20. New Beginnings
21. Calm Before the Storm *
22. Nostradamus
23. Future Of Mankind
