It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t closely follow Rob
\nHalford’s solo career since he left Judas Priest in the
\nmid-’90s.<\/p>\n
It’s not that I was harboring some ill will against Halford for
\nhis decision; I just didn’t find myself instantly drawn to projects
\nlike Fight and Two. Besides, Halford got enough people’s undies in
\na twist when he moved towards industrial and declared metal
\ndead.<\/p>\n
Had I followed Halford through all of those trends, I probably
\nwould have been tainted by doubt when I heard he was back, rocking
\nat full throttle. I probably wouldn’t have given his “comeback”
\nalbum,
\nResurrection<\/i>, a fair shake.<\/p>\n
At times like this, it pays to be ignorant, as Halford proves
\nonce and for all he is a heavy metal god when it comes to singing,
\nand his vocal powers haven’t diminished in the least.<\/p>\n
An intensely personal disc, Halford pours the story of his life
\ninto these 12 tracks, daring anyone to come in and accept
\neverything – both the man and his music – on Halford’s terms. Me? I
\nhave no problem with that, especially when everything sounds so
\ngood<\/i>!<\/p>\n
You know that Halford has been through a self-discovery process,
\njust from this line in the title track (which opens the album): “I
\nrid the demons from my heart \/ And found the truth was with me from
\nthe start.” Ka-pow. Take this track, the mini-“career
\nretrospective” “Made In Hell” and even a track like “Silent
\nScreams,” and you’ll quickly understand this is a new man who is
\nintensely dedicated to his craft.<\/p>\n
And the voice? Simply put, Halford has never sounded better.
\nSure, he doesn’t use the falsetto screams a lot over the course of
\nResurrection<\/i>, but in a sense, the music doesn’t call for
\nthat kind of screeching. It’s always good to hear Halford hit the
\ntop of his vocal range, but in many ways, taking on more of a vocal
\nsneer conveys more emotion along the way on this disc.<\/p>\n
Halford even joins up with another vocal legend from the New
\nWave of British Heavy Metal – namely, Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson
\non “The One You Love To Hate”. At times, it’s hard to tell which
\nman is singing on this track – and I mean this as the ultimate
\ncompliment for both Dickinson and Halford, since they mesh so well
\ntogether.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, it’s the one song that Halford had no
\nwriting credit on – “Twist” – that I found to be the most
\nintriguing. I don’t know why; maybe it’s because it has a sound
\nsimilar to older Priest material. Maybe it’s just the way that
\nHalford delivers the goods on this one. In any case, it smokes.<\/p>\n
Special mention should be given to Halford’s backing band; it
\ntakes a lot of skill to crank out solid metal without being
\ncompared to Halford’s old band often, and they do this well. Also,
\nproducer Roy Z. (formerly of Dickinson’s solo band) captures the
\nessence of Halford perfectly, and is a natural pairing. (He also
\nhad a hand in much of the songwriting.)<\/p>\n
\nResurrection<\/i> is aptly named, but it’s hardly an idle dream.
\nFor Halford, it is a return to form that many people have been
\nsecretly praying for. I don’t think this is a sign he’ll be
\nreturning to Priest any time soon (contrary to rumors I hear almost
\nevery day); if anything, he’s now ready to give his former
\nbandmates a real run for their money.<\/p>\n
Halford wasn’t dead; he was merely resting.
\nResurrection<\/i> is ample proof of that, and is a rare
\n“must-own” album of this age of metal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6402],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36742","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-halford","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36742"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36742"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}