(Rated this album with 4 out of 10) Reviewed by
Mattowarrior
from Madison, WI United States
Can the real Judas Priest please stand up? The early nineties loss of Rob Halford was not only a blow to the singer slot in Priest, but to the songwriting as well. Ripper tries hard to sound worthy enough to throne vacated by Halford, but comes up short. He has some of the range, but sounds weak and uncontrolled compared to Halford. Halford just sounds more powerful, and Ripper doesn't seem to be in a stage where he has developed his voice enough to rival the "Metal God". Not that Ripper is a bad singer per se, but he would sound a lot better in an aspiring power metal band of his own, not Judas Priest. And then there is the matter of the songwriting. Judas Priest tries too hard to sound more like the "aggro" pre-nu metal type metal like Pantera or (especially) Machine Head, and there is much of the melody that one associates with Priest missing from this release. In other words, it sounds forced, even in comparison to the similarly style solo project Fight, from Halford. And don't get me started on the lyrics! I don't know how much of a hand Halford had in the lyric writing, but obviously a lot more than I knew since the lyrics here sound like they were written by a ten year old! That said, there are a few (very few) shining moments here. The title track is eerie and has a cool "building up" rhythm which climaxes with Ripper's screams. Also, "Dead Meat" has a cool Carcass meets Priest riff to anchor it. "Bullet Train" almost sounds like an Painkiller outtake, and "Cathedral Spires" is an attempt at a classic Priest ballad that almost (but not quite) succeeds. Get Crucible from Halford's solo band if you want to hear what Priest would sound like with some more "modern" influences, but still had some songwriting talent left in them.
