One of the most highly anticipated Metal releases of the year is given a review by Ben Byrne.

 

Return Of The Metal Gods

This is one of the most eagerly awaited albums in a long time & I'm glad to say it's been worth the wait.
Following Ram It Down & Painkiller which I thought were disappointing I was looking for the return of Rob Halford to bring back the magic. This album is a real return to form & contains every element of classic Priest that I love.
They now seem content to just be Judas Priest, one of THE metal bands & set about giving us a great album.

Here's a quick run down on the tracks themselves.

Judas Rising - Great track to open the album & announces that the Priest are back!
Judas is rising indeed…
Real power on show right away & it's only track 1.

Deal With The Devil - More riffs galore .You might say it's typical Priest in style but it's a good 'un.

Revolution - The single. The video for this has been getting a bit of play on scuzz channel. Big powerful song built on a big drum track combined with another big riff.
This is catchy stuff that sticks in the mind once heard.

Worth Fighting For - I love this song. Great riffs over a thumping bass.
Simple yet effective.

Demonizer - They take things up a gear. The start reminds me of Slayer until Rob starts singing but the music does sound like a cross between the 2 bands.
Very powerful.

Wheels Of Fire - Has one of those riffs that you've heard on other Priest albums & yet they still get it to sound fresh.

Angel - A slow song. For a man who can really scream Rob Halford is really good at this type of stuff as well. The sign of a great vocalist I suppose….

Hellrider - Didn't like this song. A bit aimless for me. All the bits were there but the final product pales next to the songs that came before it.

Eulogy - Very atmospheric. I'd guess they'll use it just before a big rocking track in their live show at some point.
Would sound good through the PA just before the encore as well to get the crowd going.

Lochness - The Scottish song. The now infamous last track on the album.
Unfortunately due to the reviews of this album before release it's hard to listen to the track with an unbiased view. You hope it's better than the reviews have said but unfortunately it's not very good at all. Maybe I had it stuck in my head that it was going to be bad but whenever I listen to it I feel it shouldn't have been released. Some parts of the song are ok but a lot of it is very poor. I agree with those who've said that this would have been a killer album with this track removed.

Try setting your CD player to only play tracks 1-9 & it sounds fantastic.

Overall thoughts are that this is a great album & will be one of the albums of the year.
Now roll on March so we can get to see them do it live.

BEN BYRNE

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