Judas Priest's Reviews

Jugulator

Good, but not Judas Priest good

Seven years had passed since Judas Priest's most recent album, Painkiller. Finally, in 1997, they released a new album: Jugulator. Unfortunately, things in the band had taken a massive change. Though Glenn, K.K., Ian, and Scott still had their places in the band, Rob Halford was no longer vocalist. His replacement was Tim "Ripper" Owens (who oddly enough came from a Judas Priest tribute band!) His vocals aren't too different from Rob's. In all truth he's not the problem at all. It's the musical style. The band tries to fuse old-school metal, newer metal, grunge and nineties alternative rock. Unfortunately, this experiment didn't quite work out. Another major problem is that Glenn wrote the vocals. On all past albums Halford wrote them, and apparently Owens just sings, and doesn't write anything. This album is not a terrible one, but it IS something radically different. Don't expect Painkiller Part Two. Expect the unexpected. Though decent overall, this is nowhere near the quality of any other Judas Priest record, not even Rocka Rolla. It's tough to decide whether or not to recommend this album due to its wild differences.

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