No matter how many bands he puts together or how many years it’s
been since he left the post he became famous for, Rob Halord will
always be tied to his days with Judas Priest. It’s inescapable,
something that Halford learned a few years ago when he tried to
distance himself from the metal scene – and was met with the
commercial equivalent of a rotten vegetable barrage.
Live Insurrection, the latest release from his new band
Halford, is further proof of this duplicity. Besides featuring
music from the band’s debut
Resurrection, Halford and crew pull some nuggets out from
the days of Judas Priest and Fight, much to the delight of the
world-wide crowd.
But if one wanted to continue the illustration of Halford’s
eternal ties with Judas Priest, then
Live Insurrection has something else in common with
Halford’s past. Judas Priest never was able to put out a live album
that was superb throughout, and regrettably, this two-disc set
falls into the same category.
Oh, it’s not that the material on this set is awful – but this
sometimes feels less like a band effort than a retrospective of
what Halford has been up to for the last 20-odd years. Granted,
it’s tough for a band, even one led by a legend in the world of
heavy metal – to tour behind only one album, much less to try and
put a single-disc live album out from the material. But often, it
feels like the rest of the band is forced out of the spotlight, and
Halford alone is left to bask in its sweaty glory.
And it’s not that the band disrespects the traditions of any of
the past. Respectable versions of Judas Priest classics (“Stained
Class,” “Breaking The Law,” “Metal Gods”) are turned in by the
group. Likewise, Halford sounds like he hasn’t aged a day vocally,
and is still able to shred like it was 1980.
But
Live Insurrection does lack something that has been absent
from any live effort Halford himself has been a part of – namely,
an aspect of spontaneousness. Even on the new material (“Made In
Hell,” “Savior,” “Silent Screams”), it sounds like Halford and the
boys are going through the motions, albeit to the pleasure of the
assembled throng. It could well be that the live Halford experience
is something that just cannot translate to platters of aluminum and
plastic – in which case, one would hope a DVD will be hitting the
racks soon.
Even the three studio efforts – “Screaming In The Dark,” “Heart
Of A Lion” and “Prisoner Of Your Eyes” – aren’t able to rekindle
the spark that
Resurrection not only ignited, but nearly burned to a crisp
on the first effort. This just might be a case of overkill, though;
had these tracks been saved for the next Halford studio release,
they’d probably have fit better.
Two minor notes of contention. First, why were some “non-live”
tracks, such as “Light Comes Out Of Day” and “Life In Black,”
included on this? (Kudos to the producers for admitting the studio
trickery in the liner notes.) Second, will someone explain to me
why disc two begins with track two? Track one is four seconds of
crowd noise, and there’s no multimedia section (at least that I can
find).
Live Insurrection is a set that will make long-time fans of
Halford the singer drool with delight – but it might leave more
questions than answers for fans of Halford the group. Maybe it
would have been better for Halford to have gotten one more studio
album under their belts first.
