Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Judas Priest
Label: Columbia Records
Release: 2005
Running time: 52:37
Rating: 3/5
“The Priest is back!!!” Really? Well, on paper, yeah, with Halford back in the band and a new record out. Of course, a much-praised reunion and the band back in action in the golden “Painkiller” lineup. And you really do get wings when the record kicks off with Judas Rising. The band has always loved writing anthemic songs throughout its career. Be it Take On The World (“Killing Machine”, 1978), United (British Steel, 1980), Rock You All Around The World (“Turbo”, 1986) or Heavy Duty/Defenders Of The Faith (“Defenders Of The Faith”, 1984). Not in style, but in message and vibe, it delivers! Stylistically, Judas Rising is a convincing intravenous attack from the very first second. Steel-sharp guitars, that signature clang pushed through a devastatingly red-hot compressor, so you say right away: “Well, of course, that’s Downing/Tipton!” Then the “Painkiller” rhythm drive of Scott Travis’s wound-up-to-the-max double bass pedal. The solos are back! On “Demolition” (2001), one of the finest Judas Priest trademarks (writing outstanding solos) got castrated. This time Judas Rising offers even more than a solo. It has multi-part, polished solos, a masterpiece that Tipton and Downing have completely mastered. Next up is Deal With The Devil, which carries the “Resurrection” rhythm drive and vocal lines, so it smells of Rob Halford’s solo debut. The song is a fluid attack that, with its catchy melodies, diligently breathes in the legacy of the eighties. Halford roars through the lines with plenty of variety and devastating screams, just as you’d expect from him.
With “Demolition”, Judas Priest carried the full measure of the obscurity of their darkest thoughts onto a new album. The record is, in other words, dressed in black.
From there on, the record completely loses its initial charge. Revolution, even released as a single, ranks among the more boring creations of Judas Priest’s career. A mix of unfortunate meowing, where the vocal lines and guitar riffs are more than obviously forced together and don’t flow. The track is rhythmically choppy, and that only hurts the band. Worth Fighting For tries to bring in a shift in dynamics, as Priest try to be sophisticated. But this is not a song of the magical atmospheric half-ballads from the band’s sparkling history, a la Blood Red Skies (“Ram It Down”, 1988) or Out In The Cold (“Turbo”, 1986). This time around they simply aren’t Priest anymore, because there’s no crafted riff and no heartfelt singing. Instead we get one or two strings of U2-style wandering through distortion, and the one-dimensional, rasping vocals from Rob Halford’s throat are just the cherry on top of the soullessness and unoriginality, which is best forgotten as soon as possible. Judas Priest are not a band that writes limp songs like Worth Fighting For.
The high point of the album is the ballad Angel, which can be compared to Prisoner Of Your Eyes, that excellent ballad that wasn’t destined to make it onto “Screaming For Vengeance” (1983). It starts out completely innocent, but then, when the rhythm line kicks in and the guitars start grinding metallically, the famous unique Judas Priest magic is born again. Halford, too, shines emotionally across the board. This song is truly completely convincing. The mood builds and peaks right in the closing section. Eulogy serves the function of Epitaph before Genocide on “Sad Wings Of Destiny” (1976), and its vocal lines are done in the style of something like Close To You (“Demolition”, 2001). Nothing earth-shattering. After that intro comes the 13-minute epic Lochness, the longest song in Judas Priest history. The main riff is set up in a sly, doomy way, and the rhythm foundation is lifted straight from Monsters Of Rock (“Ram It Down”, 1988). The sad part is that the rhythm drive is exactly the same for all 13 minutes. Strange that Travis didn’t doze off next to it. Were Priest trying to sound scary, evil, or what? None of it manages to conjure up the “feel” of the song. The song is a plain drone that could have said everything in three minutes, and then some, and it suffers from the creative “emptiness” that was obviously echoing in the artists’ heads while writing the material for the new record.
Priest do pick themselves up enviably with the aggressively possessed Demonizer and Hellrider. They’re aggressive firecrackers, but I simply can’t shake the feeling that this time they composed the material “by force” and that Halford simply doesn’t find the right connection with the band anymore, since his well-known “high screaming” melodic vocal lines have become fairly rare on “Angel Of Retribution” and he seems to be saving his voice. Low singing in semitone turns is simply not for him. That was the domain of Tim “Ripper” Owens (ex-Judas Priest, Iced Earth). To compare these two songs with, say, what Judas Priest gave us on “Painkiller” would be disrespectful to the metal gem that is “Painkiller”. They don’t convince, because they simply don’t give the feeling of being composed “from the heart”, the way every last track on “Painkiller” (1990) was, if we compare the state of mind of that very same lineup 15 years ago. There’s simply no spark. The solos are also tossed off in a hurry, like you shake out a fistful of notes and say “ciao bye”, and the solo ends up as nothing more than a throwaway filler. Priest are getting calculating. Of course, calculation in the music industry is unavoidable, but besides the financial arithmetic, “Angel Of Retribution” brings none of that special musical enthusiasm for creating something new and trying out the unknown, which always adorned the name Judas Priest. Judas Priest have in fact served up an awfully boring record, without any special ideas.
So in the end I can come to the conclusion that “Angel Of Retribution” really has almost not a single parallel with “Painkiller”. It does carry aggression, but this time it’s forced. As for the spontaneous feelings of rage, pain and agony that “Painkiller” is saturated with, there’s no talk of that this time. In fact, Halford’s “Resurrection” is the real “Painkiller” successor, if we’re looking for one at all. The guys lack imagination even in picking song titles. Does the title Wheels Of Steel remind you of anything? Freewheel Burning (“Defenders Of The Faith”), of course. “Angel Of Retribution” is the first album in the band’s history that clearly shows that Judas Priest’s evolution has stopped. Priest have always shocked positively with constant change forward. Even “Demoliton” (2001) doesn’t hide the explorative fire that always adorned the band and gave it that great trait of fearlessness and defiance toward trendy genres or copying themselves. Well, the years obviously take their toll. But there’s one thing. Despite my moaning, we got classic Judas Priest back.
Lineup
Rob Halford – vocals
K.K. Downing – guitar
Glenn Tipton – guitar
Ian Hill – bass guitar
Scott Travis – drums
Track list
1.Judas Rising
2.Deal With The Devil
3.Revolution
4.Worth Fighting For
5.Demonizer
6.Wheels Of Fire
7.Angel
8.Hellrider
9.Eulogy
10.Lochness
Album running time: 52:04
