Judas Priest's Reviews

Demolition

Not as bad as I thought it would be...just mediocre

There are a few things about it that I like.
"Metal Messiah" has a wicked sense of humor. The lyrics about one entity coming along to rule heaven and hell amuse me greatly. The rap-like verses work in this song because of the humor, similarly to when Rush used rap in "Roll the Bones". The chorus is excellent, very melodic with a feeling of propulsive drive at the beginning. Then a pointless ending, drawn out for over 60 seconds, ruins the song.

"Bloodsuckers", complete with a backwards "Subliminal criminals" at the beginning, overall has quite good riffs and melody. The lyrics (about the trial) are decent, except the part following the chorus seems awkward and as if they were just put in to have something rhyme.

"Hell is Home" has a good vocal melody, but there's just not enough going on musically, and it kind of chugs along and seems to fall flat. The scream Ripper unleashes at the end of each verse is compelling, but it needs to be louder in the mix. The whole album needs more screaming, wailing, and screeching to liven it up. The lyrics to this one are fair to good. I think they are about the mindset of a person who felt so persecuted that he would commit a school shooting or some such crime. I give Glenn credit for attempting to write about such a topic, but he really should go to a songwriters workshop or something to be able to carry out his ideas.

The heavy and melodic "Feed on Me" is also pretty good. As mentioned by other reviewers, in parts Ripper sounds like Dio and in other parts Marilyn Manson. Part of this song seems to be about victims of terrorist bombings, and I'm not sure what the rest is.

"Subterfuge" and "One on One" both achieve a big, bold, juggernaut guitar sound. I like it, but it's probably too distorted and dirty to sustain an entire album. It's enjoyable in small doses, but overall I prefer the beautiful yet heavy tones of something like Screaming for Vengeance. The production is very clear on Demolition, but a lot of the arrangements have too many layers of fuzzy, rackety, processed guitar. It's clear fuzziness, so to speak.

Subterfuge is short, punchy, and has the kind of anthemic lyrics I like. One on One, on the other hand, has poor lyrics, an annoying beeping, squawking guitar effect that punctuates every line starting in the second verse, and a stupid, inappropriate-sounding rap in the mid-section. Like many songs on the album, it just drags on and on. When Ripper gets to the line "Like a condemned man, who just won't die..." I think to myself that this is the song that just won't die.

I quite like "Devil Digger" and "In Between", not because they're good, but just because they resonate with me. I'm sure most listeners would not be impressed.

So much of this album is just mediocre. I think it had the potential to be a good 45-minute album if they could have somehow combined the good riff and snatches of melody from several songs into a couple of shorter songs with more musical variety, instead of long songs that chug along repetitively.
"Jeckyl and Hyde" has a good intro, but the rest is boring. "Cyberface" starts out well, but the chorus sounds like a parody done to mock heavy metal. "Machine Man" has some good melody, and a section where Ripper really seems to get into it and be enthused, but the intro is too long and tedious, and some of the lyrics are really bad. I don't like either of the ballards. "Close To You" is generic, and "Lost and Found" is lame, weak, and pathetic. The semi-acoustic guitar at the beginning of the latter sounds awful. Glenn should have gone for the cleaner, warmer sound like the intro to "Extinct" on his (excellent) solo album.

In the end, I had to carry out a surgical strike with Toast and SndSampler and burn "Demolition Lite" to make this album into an enjoyable listening experience.

Buy this album on Amazon at $17.98