Judas Priest's Reviews
Demolition (Average Rating: 6.22 out of 10)
Not bad, but far from what the Priest can offer (Rated this album with 8 out of 10)
Reviewed by
Eden C.
from Jerusalem, Israel.
I don't know what to say about this one.. I am pretty much disappointed though. Its not that the songs are bad, or that something else sucks, but its just not up to what the Priest can deliver, far from it. Firstly its Ripper Owens, I like this guy but there is no way in the world you can compare him to Halford. Rob is just a much better vocalist. Ripper's screams may sound like Halford's when he wants to, but most of the time he sings in a Phil Anselmo type of way, and that quite sucks, because the Priest never meant to sound like Pantera. Actually besides his screams his voice is nothing special, unlike Halford's beautiful "normal" singing. About the sound, the first thing you notice is that its certainly different from Jugulator. Its VERY heavy, something between Ram it Down and Jugulator. Still, the two albums I mentioned sound more complicated and richer than this one. You really notice the album is too monotonous at times. The songs themselves repeat the choruses just too much, and most songs have a similar feeling to them. Lots of sound effects are added throughout the songs, especially on the intro's, but that doesn't add anything too revolutionary. Indeed getting heavier doesn't mean getting better. The lyrics are shallower than ever (sort of like Jugulator, and perhaps worse), and the solos are not bad but uninspired. Don't get me wrong, its not a bad album at all, it's a decent one, but its quite dull.. you heard 2 or 3 songs and you got the hang of it... The problem is that while the choruses may be pretty catchy, the actual verses are usually boring and way too heavy, simply not melodic. Everybody is talking about Machine Man, the lead single, but in my opinion it is a very uninspired song, nothing comparable to Painkiller (and many people have compared it). There are good songs though, and many of them, for example: One on One, Feed on Me, Subterfuge, Bloodsuckers, Jekyll & Hide, and several more. But none of them stands out as a masterpiece, they are just good heavy metal songs, and that's it. The good thing is that since most songs sound the similar there are no weak songs. There are 13 songs on the album, and I think its too much. The most amount of songs in any Priest album before were 11 if I'm not wrong, in Hell Bent for Leather, but those were short songs, and the diversity was greater. Here you have 70(!!) minutes of songs, and most of them are over 5:30 minutes. That's not too good, as I think they compensated for it (in a negative way) by making them sound too much the same. I'm sure some people may find this a very good album, if you like the style. But I simply think its a bit too dull and monotonous, and without Halford its never the same. All in all, it may be enjoyable to lots of people, but we ALL know that Priest are capable of much much more than that. Anyhow Halford needs to be back! Just take a look at what he's doing alone, almost as good as Priest did in their glory days. About my rating, after you listen to you you'll agree its certainly better than being 3 stars, because its certainly not a bad album, so I think 4 does justice with it.The album is not very recommended for oldschool Priest fans, but I would recommend it for people liking the style of Jugulator, i.e. very heavy Black/Power/Death metal sound. If Judas Priest doesn't mean anything to you, but you like good and HEAVY metal, give it a spin.
Buy this album on Amazon at $17.98
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