A quick recap: the legendary Rob Halford fronted Judas Priest
\nfrom the band’s debut album in 1974 until about 1991 or 1992, at
\nwhich point he left for reasons that are not clear to me at this
\npoint. For the rest of the ’90s and into the early 21st century he
\nfronted three different projects (Fight, Two, and Halford), while
\nthe rest of Judas Priest spent several years in limbo before
\nfinding a replacement singer and releasing two studio albums
\nbetween 1997 and 2001. In 2003 Halford collaborated with his old
\nbandmates on selecting the tracks and writing the liner notes for
\nan extensive Judas Priest box set, which inevitably sparked a
\nreunion of the classic lineup, which was publicly confirmed in
\n2004, at which point they embarked on a hugely successful
\nappearance on Ozzfest and began writing their first new album
\ntogether since 1990’s seminal
\nPainkiller<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The fruit of their labour is
\nAngel Of Retribution<\/i>, released in March 2005. Before you
\neven hear a note of the music, you are greeted with darkly gorgeous
\ncover art in the classic Judas Priest style of old, as well as the
\nreassuring return of the band logo that adorned the albums of their
\npeak years. The presentation alone indicates the band has every
\nintention of reclaiming the throne of metal that they possessed for
\nso long in the 1970s and ’80s, and believe me, the music backs it
\nup strongly.<\/p>\n
Ace axe-men Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing whip out their pointy
\nguitars and come blasting out of the gate on “Judas Rising” with
\nthe return of the thunderous roar that fans have been salivating to
\nhear once more for the excruciatingly long gap of the last decade
\nand a half, accompanied by the unmistakable stratospheric vocals of
\nRob Halford. His presence underscores just how much he was missed
\non the last two albums, and he sounds right at home.<\/p>\n
This album is not about trying to modernize their style by
\ncatering to fleeting trends of the present — it is a celebration
\nand embrace of the classic Judas Priest sound that made them metal
\nsuperstars in the days before Metallica even released their first
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
That being said, it’s important to mention that fans expecting a
\ndirect continuation of the relentlessly intense and brutal attack
\nof
\nPainkiller<\/i> might be disappointed. Make no mistake,
\nAngel Of Retribution<\/i> has plenty of superbly aggressive songs
\nsuch as the evil sounding “Demonizer,” complete with Scott Travis’
\ndouble bass drum blasts, Slayer-type riffs, and Rob Halford’s
\namazingly still intact glass-shattering dentist-drill vocals, but
\nthe album is one of the most diverse ones they’ve ever released
\nfrom a songwriting standpoint.<\/p>\n
I suspect that before the recording sessions began, the band
\nmembers all sat down and meticulously dug through their lengthy
\nback catalogue of albums in order to distill the essence of classic
\nJudas Priest, hence the fact that
\nAngel Of Retribution<\/i> has a historical, introspective feel to
\nit due to the inclusion of songs that echo various points of their
\ncareer.<\/p>\n
As mentioned before, “Demonizer,” along with “Judas Rising” and
\n“Hellrider,” are obvious nods to the metalfest of
\nPainkille<\/i>r. The awesome “Deal With The Devil,” which I
\nbelieve to be one of their best songs ever, is a fist-pumping,
\nheadbanging, barnstormer in the catchier vein of
\nBritish Steel<\/i>-era Priest. Rife with catchy riffs, great
\nvocals, and extremely melodic and memorable solos, this is Judas
\nPriest in their element, and at their finest. “Wheels Of Fire” is
\nanother infectious number perfect for the road, and serves as an
\nappropriate companion piece to their 1984 classic “Freewheel
\nBurning. There’s even a sad acoustic ballad with exquisite guitar
\nplaying called “Angel,” though it’s basically a rehash of a song
\nthey did in the ’80s whose name escapes me at the moment.<\/p>\n
The first single, “Revolution,” is a valiant attempt at a
\nstadium anthem, but while the song isn’t bad, the chorus seems to
\nfall a bit flat. I think it was a very poor choice to be the
\nleadoff song for radio and video play, as it just doesn’t really
\ncapture the energy of the band and is not an accurate indicator of
\nthe overall sound of the album. It sounds like a bit of a
\ncompromise to try to lure in a modern audience, on an album that is
\notherwise very traditional metal.<\/p>\n
A curious left turn is to be found in “Worth Fighting For,” an
\nexcellent mid-tempo song that reminds me a bit of Collective Soul.
\nI know some of you are cringing at the thought of that, but the
\nmighty Priest pull it off with ease, showcasing their ability to
\nwrite music that’s a bit more mature and sophisticated than what
\nwe’re used to seeing. And how about those beautiful dual guitar
\nharmonies?! I’m a real sucker for that stuff.<\/p>\n
The album closer is sure to generate a lot of controversy.
\n“Lochness” sees the band plunge head first into Spinal Tap
\nterritory with a 13-minute epic about the infamous monster. Now I’m
\ncertainly not going to dispute the fact that we’re faced with a
\nmountain of cheese on this track, but I find the music quite
\ninteresting. The first minute is an eerie intro that reminds me of
\nTool, and the rest of the song sounds basically like what you’d get
\nif you tossed Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Giuseppe Verdi into a
\nblender. No doubt a lot of people will point to “Lochness” as the
\nabsolute low point for Judas Priest, but I think there are enough
\nthings to like about it. At the worst, it could be described as an
\nambitious failure that’s nonetheless something different. They
\ncould have replaced it with maybe two or three regular songs, but
\nwhat would be the point of that?<\/p>\n
\nAngel Of Retribution<\/i> may not be an instant classic like
\nBritish Steel<\/i>, but it comes very close. I would probably
\nplace it among the top five Judas Priest albums of all time
\nhowever, and I think that’s an impressive achievement for a band
\nthat was away for such a long time. It’s great to have the Priest
\nback in such fine form, and I’m sure we’ll receive many more
\nquality releases such as
\nAngel Of Retribution<\/i> from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":26992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5855],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38310","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-judas-priest","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38310","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38310"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}