The Ripper years (Part 1):
Jugulator: Tim "Ripper" Owens is that story, you know? That kid that grew up thousands of miles away of his favorite mega band and that managed to mimic the voice of his favorite vocalist to a point that he could make a few bucks in a cover band . Then one day, the said frontman leaves the band, the band starts the audition marathon and that kid goes "Hey... why not?" perfectly knowing it's a one in a million shot to say the least. And then it happens. The perfect Cinderella story in leather and spikes (this sounded weird... let's move on). Fact is very few people can fill the dinosaur sized shoes that is replacing THE METAL GOD. Would this kid from Ohio do it? Quite doubtful...
Well Ladies and Gents... fear not. Because after a sombre industrial like intro the display of vocal insanity regarding range, timbr,e attack and technique that the title track offers us is simply mind blowing! This kid's voice is something that comes once in a lifetime and the band nailed it when they gave Tim the job regardless of being a "nobody" (unlike other metal legends during the 90's ... cof cof). The music itself is pure aggression. One can hear the soul of Painkiller on this beast but the guitars are clad all around in much heavier steel resembling bands like Slayer and Pantera. Although being quite different than the 70's sound the song construction is in a considerable number of songs the most complex and anti pop formula since Stained Class and Sin After Sin (although not reaching the Prog like skill of these records). Blood Stained sounds like a brick hitting your eardrums conveyed by a guitar work that could be easily penned either by King or Hanneman. Burn In Hell and Abductors are the same breed of mid tempo and heavy as hell bad Mo Fo's while Death Row and Bullet Train make the metronome tick faster and transpire more Priest like melodies here and there. The grand finale is served by a gorgeous epic monster by the name of Cathedral Spires that mingles masterful composition, brutal guitar riffs, an awesome melodic chorus and a spine chilling outro while that kid from Ohio that wasn't supposed to be in this band shows why he really got picked and dubbed "Ripper" by 4 living metal legends old enough to be his father.
Now it's well known this album is disliked among a considerable portion of Priest fans. Hey... and that's ok if that is for the right reasons. And as far as I'm concerned those can be:
a) "I'm not much into this thrashy Priest sound. I prefer their classic heavy metal sound spanning from Killing Machine to Defenders Of The Faith". Fair enough... It's a matter of taste and that's perfectly fine
b) "The songwritting is too complex, there are too much noise intros and it's not easy listening" True. But be aware of this... When I first listened to Jugulator it was major letdown. I was expecting a 1 listening fall in love record and instead I got this overwhelming acoustic beast that felt like broken glass being pushed down my eardrums. I was almost selling the record when I decided to give it one last chance... and Bang! It hit me. And then I heard it again and it hit me even harder and I got completely hooked in it.
c) "The lyrics and song titles are way too goofy, man. Come on!" Fact. I had the same issue. Although not being the zenith of poetry, Priest always managed to deliver some cool heavy metal imaginarium through its lyrics. And yes...things like Dead Meat, Braindead, Decapitate and other passages are cheesy and basic as crap. But then again I had to see this album in diferent spetacles than the ones I used on the remainder of Priest's discography. In an analogy to video games I would say that prior to this album, regarding lyrical content, Priest normally would deliver something like a Heavy Metal MMORPG. But Jugulator is waaaaaaaaaaaay diferent. Jugulator is a straight to your face ridiculously violent and gory FPS without any real plot: just you trying to survive in an environment of really brutal creatures. And boy when I was younger I sure loved me some Unreal Tournament...
Other reasons are completely acessory... "There's no Halford"? Well deal with it! There's a guy here that sings like very few can sing worldwide and if your problem is the vocal delivery I'm sorry to tell you but your problem is called cult of personality. It's not about who performs it but HOW it is performed. And Tim filled every inch of Priest's footwear in this one (Hey that doesn't mean that he is better than Halford... it simply means he did it 100% perfectly... and then some may I add). This record is amazing. Raw, aggressive, exaggerated, refreshing and a bit corny and juvenile but that's part of its peculiar charm.
The future for this new incarnation of JP had everything to continue to ripp bodies worldwide for a good number of albums and Jugulator's follower was antecipated with great enthusiasm and a solid security it would be good and heavy. But this band is made of surprises... and unfortunatelly some are pretty bad as we would notice 4 years latter. But that's another story. JugulaTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR... yeah!
Highs: cheer aggression in megartons through tracks such as Jugulator, Blood Stained, Bullet Train Burn In Hell, Abductors andclosing with the epic Cathedral Spires.
Lows: some pretty goofy lyrics and titles but that's all
Rating: 8.25/10
