Label: Columbia Records
Release date: 09.03.2018
Production: Andy Sneap
Album length: 58:25
Genre: Heavy Metal
This review should have been up on Rockline ages ago. Sometimes you take your time, just long enough for the initial excitement to die down, so you can better weigh the real quality of a release, especially when it has to be measured against a huge discography like Judas Priest’s. I’m talking about personal excitement, of course, since Judas Priest have always been this author’s metal favorite no. 1. “Firepower” has been officially out for a month and three weeks now, and here, finally, comes a new Rockline confession about the Birmingham pioneers of something that changed the musical face of the world forever.
So, “Firepower.” Here comes that annoying “why” again, followed by the answer: “Because they can.” With musical granddads like Judas Priest, who should be home babysitting the grandkids, that sinful suspicion always creeps in that they’re just “riding” on old glory. In this case, though, Judas Priest are a happy exception, because “Firepower” really is a good, make that a very, very high-quality new studio effort from this long-lived band.
It’s better than “Redeemer of Souls” (2014), which means that of all the albums released in the “post-Painkiller” era, recorded with Halford on vocals of course, it’s the band’s best studio achievement. I hope you’re still with me at this point. That last sentence is based on comparing just four studio albums with each other. The point is that Judas Priest aren’t looking back, and that they’re delivering an album that is 100% Judas Priest-y and radiates everything Judas Priest are, both in 2018 and always have been. That means the link to the energy of the pre-Painkiller era is still there. It just shows up differently. Totally unpretentious. The magic is everywhere on “Firepower” too. Judas Priest pulled this off purely with the authentic stamp of their musical charisma for modern times, without a hint of flirting with the past, which could have come off as pathetic and could have undermined Judas Priest’s own credibility. So they delivered exactly what their fans demand of them. Musical timelessness, which is the essence of this kind of artistry. They delivered a different album, one that in terms of arrangement and energy is closest to its predecessor “Redeemer of Souls,” which makes sense, but also an album with its own musical dossier and character. The best thing for a fan of any band is that when you put the band’s new album in the player for the first time, it keeps reminding you of something. Something the band created once before, but you can’t pin down what it might be. The harder you look, the more lost you get. That’s what “Firepower” is like, too: along a natural evolutionary path, it simply carries on that unique musical magic. The one you find in every era of the band, only with Judas Priest, and which settles into each album they release and shows up a little differently each time.
Halford handled his vocal role skillfully. They polished him up nicely in the studio, and where it was needed, they gave his famous “screams” a good dose of color. He doesn’t overdo the high notes (the “Halfordisms”), and luckily the man was given natural vocal charisma in the cradle, so even with normal intonation he gives off that familiar, one-of-a-kind vocal tone that deepens the band’s “gloomy occult” musical expression. Strictly “Halfordian.” Here’s the main engine, and the “culprit” for why Judas Priest still bother, in their old age, not only to play stages but to write new music. The incredible Richie Faulkner. One of the main writers of the new material, who has gradually grown into the band’s main soloist too. Considering that the “offended” K.K. is in retirement and Tipton is battling Parkinson’s, which means that one of the most recognizable tandems among the guitar duos of the metal universe has been buried since 2011, Faulkner’s drive, commitment, enthusiasm and fervor are really the basic fuel keeping alive these legendary musical fossils of pioneering merit, who were announcing a permanent retirement as far back as 2011.
At first glance, there are once again too many tracks on the new Judas Priest album, and too much playing time too, which clocks in at just under an hour. And yet, surprisingly, this time it’s extremely hard to call any of the songs a “time-waster” or a “time thief.” “Redeemer of Souls” wasn’t so immune to that, and it didn’t come with production as excellent as “Firepower”‘s, either. Andy Sneap is Andy Sneap. From the spirit and body of Judas Priest in 2018, he squeezed out the maximum. Judas Priest have always had a remarkable feel and sense for high musical yield in their compositions. Their songs usually consist not just of verse and chorus, but almost as a rule a pre-chorus is tacked on too, which pushes the drama theater up another notch. At the same time, Judas Priest have always been masters of melodic modulation, which they achieved with superb mid-eight passages. They’ve also always known how to season a song with picturesque intros. “Firepower” has all of that too.
The drama of all dramas on the album comes from the excellent mid-tempo mini-epic suite Rising From the Ruins, a composition that honestly deserves flawless praise. You could call it “Blood Red Skies” for 2018. What the overlong Lochness from the album “Angel of Retribution” (2005) didn’t manage, the closing, fiery, solemn half-ballad anthem Sea of Red pulls off in one full-blooded swing. The vocal melody in the verse of Flame Thrower pulls toward the verse of the classic Hot For Love (“Turbo,” 1986). All in all, “Firepower” does want to follow the classic “Painkiller,” but that feeling fades already in the first half of the album. The opening Firepower sets up that feeling, the following Lightning Strikes deepens it with its Hell Patrol-style rhythmic rolling, and then as the album goes on, the feeling slowly dies down. In the second half too, when Spectre, Traitor’s Gate, No Surrender and/or Lonewolf follow each other, Judas Priest don’t stumble into an arrangement dead end. The run of twelve tracks carries remarkable variety in its lead motifs, and the guitar phrases are adorned with a remarkably expressive character.
You expect a good album from musical elders after almost 50 years of activity, a decent album, maybe a solid one. Modest and respectful, in other words: no miracles required. But for an album to be as damn good as “Firepower” is a hefty dose of sweet “shock therapy.” The beast is still bloodthirsty, and it’s waking up. It’ll break its chains and go wild this summer, when the legends stop by the festival in Tolmin, Metaldays. “Firepower” might be the last Judas Priest album. It very well might. We can easily aim at that, but Judas Priest deserve great respect for it. They didn’t betray themselves or their fans, and they proved they haven’t succumbed to the lazy comfort of living off royalties in the trenches of old glory. That’s the nasty, sneaky virus that has hit the crowd of their peers (right, David Gilmour and Roger Waters?), and bands twenty or more years younger too (right, Guns N’ Roses?). The legends deserve a big bow, then, and “Firepower” proves that the tooth enamel is still dangerously sharp, the set of teeth totally complete, with no chips and no gaps, and that it’s quite possible Judas Priwst will, on the wings of the potent Faulkner, extend their run for a few more springs.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
01. Firepower
02. Lightning Strike
03. Evil Never Dies
04. Never The Heroes
05. Necromancer
06. Children of the Sun
07. Guardians
08. Rising From Ruins
09. Flame Thrower
10. Spectre
11. Traitors Gate
12. No Surrender
13. Lone Wolf
14. Sea Of Red
Lineup:
Rob Halford – vocals
Glenn Tipton – guitar
Richie Faulkner – guitar
Ian Hill – bass
Scott Travis – drums
