(Rated this album with 6 out of 10) Reviewed by
holy_handgrenade
from USA
First off, I LIKE Tim "Ripper" Owens and his performance. He's got a powerful voice and not too shabby of a Rob impersonation (though of course it's not entirely Halford quality). As far as "replacement" singers go, I believe Judas Priest fared much better, and made a better choice, than Iron Maiden did a few years back. At least JP realized that they needed to acquire someone who was somewhat similar to his predecessor. Jugulator was an interesting album, showing Priest making an attempt at borderline death metal. I don't believe it was the musical failure that some do, but I can understand how some may not have appreciated it. As far as Demolition goes, I found all of the...most of the...a few of the songs to be quite strong, but I got the feeling that some of them were leftovers from Glenn's solo album. Speaking of Glenn's solo album (of which this appears to be Part 2), he has also taken that horrible digitally processed guitar sound to new heights. That tone has dominated their sound since perhaps Ram It Down, but sounds even more like a microchip here. The "Defenders of the Faith" guitar muscle was the best they ever achieved and they would do well to find it again. Songwise this record isn't too bad, aside from some of the frighteningly "techno" sound effects. "Subterfuge" is a great grooving headbanger, as is the bizarre "Metal Messiah"--though both suffer from those aforementioned techno flourishes. I also noticed some very bad editting in some songs, most notably in "Subterfuge", where there is an audible patch job done. I can't tell if they were linking riffs together or digitally repeating a couple bars, but at any rate it's pathetic to see on a major band's product. Glenn has stated on countless occasions that Priest is always trying to be in step with the times and attempts to consistently update their sound by integrating new musical styles into the Priest's metallic melting pot. The problem there is that they tend to choose the wrong styles to borrow from, which are typically from fly-by-night bands that are outdated before their first album is even released. Hopefully Rob will be able to talk Glenn out of continuing in this current direction. The ballad-ish "Hell Is Home" is a great anthem for heavy metal outcasts, while "Jekyll and Hyde" has some great metal riffing. Songs like "Devil Digger" and "Machine Man" could have come from Glenn's solo album, and the dark "Bloodsuckers" features some great Halfordian screaming from Tim in the chorus. There is very little that can be compared to past classics from Priest, but it's still a strong batch of neo-metal (NOT "nu-metal") as Glenn continues to extend the boundaries of the genre (with dubious results). I recommend it far higher than anything Iron Maiden has released in the past decade, that's for sure.
