Judas Priest's Reviews
Meltdown (Live) (Average Rating: 8.94 out of 10)
Priest can only truly be captured live (Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by
A music fan
from United Kingdom
I don't care what anyone says, what any of the 'purists' think, Ripper Owens has much better vocal range than Rob Halford ever had. Does this make him a better singer ? Thats always gonna be down to the person listenin', but you can't deny that his voice is much more powerful.I've heard many a live album, but the audience participation on this is truly what makes it stand out. Priest get the audience to chant out key words and verses to their songs, it's better than on any other live album I've heard, and believe me; I've heard them all ! Priest made the wise move of recordin this CD not on one night, but over one tour, so you get the proper set list. And what a set list too. Ditching the filler off the Jugulator album, Priest play the best of that album and integrate it with some of their other greats like Living After Midnight. A great version of Diamonds & Rust is also included (listen to Rippers vocal range on that, even Axl Rose couldn't match this guy...). This CD then is better than Jugulator. You also get great stuff of Painkiller here too, unavailable on the previous live albums. But bluntly, like the other British metal bands - Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motorhead; Priest sound much better live than they do in the studio. They create an energy unheard of by many American metal bands. And this isn't two minute long stuff either. The fact that Ripper and the band keep the energy goin so far into the set list is something I find uncanny. Few bands can do that. Minor niggles ? Some of the mastering sucks on one or two songs, you don't hear the guitar solo's as well as you ought to, but Ripper never let's down vocally so you can't really complain. What Priest have done here is highten standards for audience participation on a live disk, and generally raise the standards for live metal in many areas and I think thats a very overlooked thing. This CD is easily the best Priest CD I have in my collection. I'd say if you were just browsin amazon though with an intrigue in the priest, then you're better off goin with this then any studio 'greatist hits' style compilation album as it's pretty much flawless.
Buy this album on Amazon at $19.98
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