Firepower:
So, let's put things simple from the get go ok? With 45 years in their shoes being able to pull an album with such quality is almost impossible. And nevertheless Priest pulled it. So, as you all can easily predict I simply love this thing. All bands have late career great albums but something like this is such an anomaly in Heavy Metal history (and rock in general) it should remembered. Man... roughly two thirds of this adrenaline filled beast was made by two near septuagenarians.
The title track comes destroying absolutely everything in its way: a Painkilleresque opener that wouldn't sound slightly below quality level on Painkiller intself. Simply put: heavy as hell pedal to the metal headbanger. And how's Rob's high pitch voice? Man.. it sounds so much better tan in the last album! I don't care if Andy Sneap pulled out lots of rabbits from his hat while producing this thing or not... fact is the voice sounds superb. And what's next? Ah! Lightning Strikes: a 100% epic display of heavy metal perfection, strength and pomp, once again in line with Halford's heaviest recordings with the band. Speaking about heavy... Evil Never Dies keeps the quality absurdly high and the riffing here is tremendous. And while the pre-chorus kinda eludes us into a more radio friendly direction, the ensuing refrain comes crashing down with the force of a thousand anvils while doing justice to the track's name. Never The Heroes is much more melodic but damn! What a perfect song! The level of these first four tracks is absurdly high! What a mind blowing sequence to open the album with! Will the band be able to keep this absolutely relentless pace? Well, Necromancer comes stomping like a brute and although I'm less into it than its predecessors it's still a great tune. Aggressive and sharp as knives this thing takes no prisoners.
Children Of The Sun is a clearly an early Sabbath influenced mid paced tune, with a strongly marked cadence. Good track but my least favorite so far. The Guardians/ Rising From Ruins combo is also interesting but by now it seems Priest are trying to dig way back into their vaults in search of their 70's flavor. And if the initial songs worked out perfectly (based in a much more recent Priest typology) these 3 are a bit less achieved since 70's Priest has such a unique magic. Nevertheless they're all truly well composed and enjoyable tunes. Flame Thrower follows, a ok-ish heavy song and by now, although not compromising the album's quality the slightest, it seems like this thing started to lose a little bit of momento. Well there's a good remedy for that. Just throw in a pair of almost perfect tunes in the forms of a vicious as snakes song in Spectre and another utterly epic hymn in Traitors Gate. As a result, Firepower regains its relentless pace in a stellar way and the really addictive sing along hard rocker No Surrender closes this sequence in a hugely high note.
And I truly think this should be the last song on the album. Why? Because Lone Wolf is an absolute filler and Sea Of Red is merely ok (once again a evocation of the 70's). And while being by no means bad quality material it elongates an already lengthy array of songs without any need (Damn! 14 songs is a lot!) and kind of breaks the almost pristine overall quality of its predecessors. If the band cut 3 or 4 songs from the record I think this would be easily one of Priest's top 5 records. Nevertheless this is still a spectacular soon-to-become-classic album. Especially when you take in account how late on priest's career it was released, solidifying them as one of the greater (if not the best) veteran metal bands still DEFENDING THE FAITH!
What's next to come? I don't know... but taking in account the number of times Priest surprised me I won't even dare guessing.
Highs: The first four song sequence (absolutely perfect) and overall top tier quality of the following 8 tracks (with perhaps the exception of Flame Thrower - merely enjoyable).
Lows: Too much songs being that the last two are way bellow the album's overall excellent quality.
Rating: 8.25/10
