I am too old to be listening to Judas Priest. Anyway...
(Rated this album with 8 out of 10) Reviewed by
William Meisel
from Oak Park, IL United States
To most people heavy metal music is about guitars. To me, it was always about voices and THE voice to me was Rob Halford. Rob could apparently sing any note on the scale and effortlessly jump around at will, sometimes even sounding "pretty". When he left Judas Priest, I figured, "well, that's it." Meanwhile, enter Ripper Owens, who apparently sang in a Judas Priest cover band. They heard about him, listened to him and poof he was the new lead singer of Judas Priest (a great story.) So, I bought this CD. I wondered what he sounded like. AND-the answer is he sounds great. At times he sounds eerily like Halford (occasionally he sounds like Bruce Dickinson) and he can scream melodically and accurately. The rest of the band--K.K.Downing, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill(hope i got the names right) sounds as good as ever. I will admit to not caring much for the new material from the Jugulator album, the songs being speed metal that doesn't do much for me. But in any case, most of the album consists of classic Priest songs from the entire history of the band. If you are a "new" Judas Priest fan, you probably already have this CD. If like me, you dropped out sometime around the SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE album, I have no choice but to recommend this album. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because it is missing some songs I would have loved to have heard. It's true. The Priest is back.
