Judas Priest's Reviews

Demolition

(Average Rating: 6.22 out of 10)

A step up from Jugulator, but no return to normalcy

(Rated this album with 6 out of 10)
Reviewed by Der Kommissar from america

...In 1997 when Judas Priest released their first album in seven years (Jugulator), Their long time fans were stunned. Instead of their classic onslaught of heavy metal, they were now trying to fuse that style with modern alternative and grunge elements. Also there was Rob Halford's replacement vocalist, Tim "Ripper" Owens, who came from a Judas Priest tribute band. After that awful experiment, most of the band's fans were gone forever. Would their 2001 effort, Demolition, be the album that would bring back those lost fans?

In a word, no.

This is IN ALL WAYS a step up from Jugulator, but the style hasn't changed all that much. Ripper is still lead vocalist, the musical stylings are still the metal-alternative-grunge fusion type. This is better than Jugulator, no question, but nowhere near as good as Halford-era Priest (Okay, it's better than Rocka Rolla, but what isn't?) Now I will tell you about what I feel are the album's three stand-out tracks:

-Hell Is Home: A slow-paced grunge-inspired track, which manages to be a pretty heavy one too. Of the two Ripper albums, no other track's lyrics come close to matching the awesome ones found here (who can forget the classic line "cause down here in Hell everybody loves me"?)

-Close To You: Another slow and hard track, but here the band also uses melodic elements, something you don't see a lot of in modern heavy metal.

-Bloodsuckers: This is a mid-fast tempo hard rocker, and the reason it is a stand-out track is because it is the closest thing on the album to Halford-era Priest.

If you're one of those old Judas Priest fans and British Steel and Screaming For Vengeance are your albums, you may want to think twice before you buy this. I can't stress enough that this album is NOT a return to normalcy. If you're looking for a good modern heavy metal album, there are none, but this is as close as you can get.

Buy this album on Amazon at $17.98