Judas Priest

Surprisingly, the bonus tracks are all just as varied as the album itself, and each one would have been worthy of a place on the album proper. "Snakebite" has more of a hard rock style, rooted in the 80's. The part after the solo reminds me a little of "Devil's Child", which is highlighted all the more by the backing vocals sounding very reminiscent of the "eat my diamonds/vicious talkin" refrains from that song. This one is great! "Tears Of Blood" sounds like it could have been on "Defenders Of The Faith", and sounds almost like a modern update of "The Sentinel". Definitely a powerful track! "Creatures" is a weird one. It reminds me a lot of the Ripper Owens' era Priest, though the guitars aren't as downtuned, and the chorus has a mainstream 80's edge to it. Like a strange meeting of "Demolition" meets "Turbo". lol :p I love the way this one simmers!

"Bring It On" sounds totally like AC/DC, so liking that band will pretty much dictate whether you like this song or not. "Never Forget" is a very sentimental ballad, which it sounds to me like it was written as a love letter to the band's fans. Richie plays a solo very reminiscent of K.K. in this one, which is interesting, as K.K. only ever played a solo on one of the band's previous ballads. It lacks the 70's whimsy of "Beginning Of The End", but it's still a lovely song, and is worthy of a place amongst all the other great ballads in the band's catalogue. :)
 
I'm going to hold off on the reviews until the discography catches up too.
But I am surprised no one has mentioned Sword of Damocles - definitely my early favourite.
It's maiden-esque.
 
Oh yea, that bluesy guitar melody really gets my head bobbing. :D
 
Love Tears of Blood. What a kickass track.

Edit: This track is right on par with the likes of Jawbreaker, Bloodstone etc. Wow.
 
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Dragonaut: OK song.
Redeemer Of Souls: Plodding.
Halls Of Valhalla: What a crap chorus.
Guitar sound is SHIT. Complete and utter turd. I'll never understand why Roy Z wasn't brought back to produce Nostradamus and this album. Also, each of the first 3 songs have one main riff and they overuse each one.
Sword Of Damocles: PLODDING.
March Of The Damned: Catchy chorus. But it's so goddamn plodding.
So far the album sounds like a demo in terms of quality, energy and production.
Down In Flames: Catchy and that's it.
Hell & Back: CROSSES GROW ON ANZIO... no wait. This song sucks. And it made me like Sabaton's song more :p
Cold Blooded: Cool song. Best one so far.
Why are all the songs so slow and plodding? Where's the energy?
Metalizer: It's heavy and all, but the gross production job ruins it completely.
Crossfire: Where's the metal? This is hard rock and it blows.
Secrets Of The Dead: BORING.
Battle Cry: One of the better songs on the album which really doesn't say much.
Beginning Of The End: Pretty cool, finally a rest from all the guitar fuzz. Best song on the album.
Snakebite: More hard rock, more sucking.
Tears Of Blood: Coolest riff on the whole album and it's a bonus song o_O
Creatures: Seriously?
Bring It On: Bleeeeeh.
Never Forget: At least there's no fuzz, but the song is still pretty fucking boring.
 
Listened to the album again tonight. It's addictive and a grower, I keep liking it more and more. The songs are also really memorable which helps a lot. Could probably at least hum parts of each song already, despite only hearing it a few times. Some more thoughts:

Does anyone else hear hints of Halford's older singing style in a couple tracks? I'm thinking 70's and early 80's. I hear it in parts of Crossfire, the outro to Hell & Back, and the ballads. I love it.

Speaking of Halford's voice, I noticed that he sounds better when the music is less heavier. On the heavier songs he struggles a little and it kinda drags down the song. He sounds much better on the more straight rocking and ballad songs. Overall I think I'd give his performance of C+.

The worst song on the album for me is Secrets of the Dead. In nearly 6 minutes it doesn't really do a whole lot for me, it's the only song I don't see myself going back to often. But who knows, it's still early.

I really disliked Crossfire at first, cringed when I heard the sample they uploaded. It's starting to click though. It's like one of the better songs from Rocka Rolla. And one of Halford's best performances on the album I think. It rocks.

The bonus disc is awesome. At first I was wary of it, knowing that usually these bonus discs are just songs taht weren't good enough to make the album, with no flow or coherency. But this is totally not that. It's seriously like a bonus EP, and in terms of quality it really rivals the main disc. I'm not gonna complain about the way they released it, but I think it could've been cool to release it on its own. Maybe sometime after the tour or something. Just so that it could be seen as its own entity, and not just "bonus tracks". Because it's really more than that.

Never Forget is cheesy, but so what! Priest has had its fair share of cheesy moments since the very beginning, why stop now? The song sounds sincere at least, it's pleasant to listen to, and I much prefer it to the closer on the main disc. If this truly turns out to be Priest's final album, I couldn't ask for a better swan song.

Despite largely being a "basic" metal album. This still has a lot going on. There are plenty of things that we really haven't heard from Priest before, or at least in a long time. It takes a classic approach but it still sounds fresh.

This might be the biggest blasphemy uttered in the discussion so far, but I actually really love Richie's guitar playing. I even prefer it to Tipton. I didn't want to like him, as I really didn't like the circumstances that led to him joining and the situation is still frustrating to me, but I'd begrudgingly say he's earned his spot with this album. His soloing is very smooth and fits the songs quite well. I'm not a huge fan of Tipton's more messy approach, to me it just sounds like he has some really great ideas but isn't capable of playing them. He still has great solos, and I respect him as a player, but it's not my style. I still miss KK though and I wish he could've been on this album.

Production is bad. It suffers a lot of the same problems that recent Maiden has, especially with the low end. It seems like one of those albums that is meant to be played loud, which is fine but it loses its power when the volume is turned down. In fact, I think one of the best tests for a well produced metal album is if it doesn't lose its touch when turned down. A great example of this would be Painkiller. Even when played quietly, this album still has a lot of power. Redeemer, unfortunately, just sounds muddy and kinda lifeless.

I'm still not sure how these songs stack up to the rest of the Priest arsenal, but I'm definitely satisfied with this album. It keeps getting better.
 
I'm not really a fan of Judas Priest but my god I love the new album. I have yet to listen to it all, but from what I've heard, it's fantastic!

Dragonaut and the title track are my favourite tracks so far!

I guess I should try and listen to British Steel again!

:)
 
Mosh said:
This might be the biggest blasphemy uttered in the discussion so far, but I actually really love Richie's guitar playing. I even prefer it to Tipton. I didn't want to like him, as I really didn't like the circumstances that led to him joining and the situation is still frustrating to me, but I'd begrudgingly say he's earned his spot with this album. His soloing is very smooth and fits the songs quite well. I'm not a huge fan of Tipton's more messy approach, to me it just sounds like he has some really great ideas but isn't capable of playing them. He still has great solos, and I respect him as a player, but it's not my style. I still miss KK though and I wish he could've been on this album.
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I have never disliked Richie but neither have I been a huge fan of him. My impression of him on Epitaph was that he most certainly can play well but his leads sounded kind of similar and not very inventive. He has that KK style but an inferior version of it. KK put incredible passion into what isn't usually the most impressive style of playing (lots of whammy bar (although let me point out that I love using the whammy bar to do different tricks as well) and wah pedal) and that makes him awesome. I've said it before and I'll say it again (totally a Heading Out... reference) that this live version is one of my favourite examples of his powerful playing (starts at 3:09):
Getting back on topic, Richie's solos on the new album are good (I don't want to say very good) and have enough variation. He doesn't match KK in his prime though (although Richie's best times may yet be ahead), let alone Tipton. It is a bit sad that Tipton can't handle solos as well as he used to, they don't sound as precise but there are still enjoyable bits of his here and there and most of him is still out there, I'd say. If I get to see them live, I hope that Tipton can handle all his past masterpieces as well or nearly as well as he used to.
Overall, Richie is better on this album but mainly because he has more solos, I wouldn't say that his ideas are better. This album focuses more on harmonies/dual guitar parts than solos anyway, so I can't complain much.
 
There definitely has to be a EU leg as well because Faulkner posted something like this on Facebook today: "New dates announced for the USA leg of the RoS tour..." indicating that USA is simply a leg among others. Of course, this could mean that the other legs could be wherever except for USA but EU is the most logical area to follow. I might be the only one who cares here but I felt like pointing it out.
 
If I get to see them, I hope they keep the new songs in the setlist to the minimum. Like 2. Nostradamus only got 2 and it's 1000000 times better.

I think they won't play the harder (vocally) songs like Painkiller or Beyond The Realms anymore.
 
Night Prowler said:
I think they won't play the harder (vocally) songs like Painkiller or Beyond The Realms anymore.
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Now that you mention it, could be true which is really sad because if I saw Tipton play the Painkiller solo with my own eyes, I could rest in peace. It's hard to guess really, if they'll play it or not, but there's one question that I tend to think about: what if Halford just sang Painkiller an octave lower?
 
I saw two shows on the Epitaph tour and Tipton butchered the Painkiller solo both times. Halford couldn't sing it either. Both shows were great and they were on top form (so much better than what was presented on the DVD), but that song was a low point. It's time for them to drop it.

Realms still sounds great, I wouldn't have a problem seeing it again.
 
I saw one show, Tipton butchered the solo, Halford butchered the vocals but it was still awesome to hear it live :D However, I agree they should drop it. If they put it earlier in the set Halford will ruin his voice for the rest of it and if they put it at the end, he'll be too exhausted to sing it properly. Better get rid of it. And yeah, I don't like the DVD either, they sounded much better when I saw them. Though the DVD was the last show of the tour and I saw them in the first month of the tour.
 
Recording the last show of a tour is generally a bad idea. Especially when it's a band that tires out easily like Priest. I saw them early too and they were awesome.
 
I've got the new album 10 days ago and it hasn't left my discman (yeah I am old fashioned ;--) since!

I'd like to do a song-by-song review in about another 10 days or so. Or later, like Mckindog, when the album gets a bigger treat.
 
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Mosh said:
Recording the last show of a tour is generally a bad idea. Especially when it's a band that tires out easily like Priest. I saw them early too and they were awesome.
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Although Sabbath recorded their DVD at the start of their tour last year, and Ozzy sounded like shit.
 
Mosh said:
Recording the last show of a tour is generally a bad idea. Especially when it's a band that tires out easily like Priest. I saw them early too and they were awesome.
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As if Priest ever had problems with correcting their glitches in the studio... ::)
 
Quick thought: The riff from Crossfire on the new album reminds me very strongly of I by Black Sabbath (on Dehumanizer). Anyone else hear that?
 
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