Satan - Earth Infernal (2022)

If this were any other band, I might say that Cruel Magic would be a tough act to follow, but I was 100% confident that whatever Satan put out following that wouldn't disappoint, for the simple reason that they never have. And would you know it? Earth Infernal is another absolute killer of a record from one of the heavy metal bands on Earth that gives you the most for your money. A smart, scorching effort with all the speed and ambition of their other post-reunion works, and a potent mix that recaptures the roomy clarity and warmth of the three that preceded it. Dave Curle, who had engineered their last batch of albums as well as some of Blitzkrieg's modern output is still on board, so it's in the same wheelhouse even though Dario Mollo doesn't seem to have been involved this time around.

Other differences are that there's a slightly more occult focus on the lyrics here, though just as sharp and interesting as what they'd been writing for a decade before it. Musically it's still in the camp of the slick, rapid-fire rhythm licks contrasted against Brian's soothing and cautionary timbre, leading off with a couple absolute killers in "Ascendancy" and "Burning Portrait", and not taking a breather until the mid-paced rager "Mercury's Shadow" with a psychedelic and acoustic intro, and not for the last time on the album ("Luciferic"). There are no shortage of standout tracks, and some of the favorites are nestled deep in the roster like "Poison Elegy" which has some 70s epic hard rock vibes, or the ritualist crushing finale "Earth We Bequeath". But whether the band are gunning along at a maximum clip or taking their time with some moodier track, it's another album with nothing you'd really want to skip, there are compelling guitars all over the place, epic vocals, and one of the best rhythm duos in the business.

Satan has almost gotten so good that it's frustrating, and if there's any flaw here, it's that Earth Infernal doesn't really advance the sound at all beyond the albums before it. Make no mistake, it's still excellent, performed as well if not better than the other reunion albums, but it does arrive at a junction where you might expect them to branch out a little more, as they did when returning from their decades-old slumber. Not that it's necessary for them to evolve one iota, but you don't want your style to become too monotonous, and while Earth Infernal is too good to fall into that trap, another couple albums in the same vein as these last ones might push them in that direction. There are subtle differences in writing and production, and even a dip or two back towards older hard rock/metal that poke through, but I'd be fully on board with the Brits taking a few more risks to fatten the envelope of what they have to offer. A minor quip, though, because if you've enjoyed the band up to this point, then I'm sure you will find Earth Infernal utterly fucking awesome. Because it is.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

https://www.satanmusic.com/

Satan - Cruel Magic (2018)

Maiden thrives off its live legacy, while releasing overblown, overlong albums whose qualities are distilled and desperately in need of an editor, someone to tell them 'no' once in awhile. Judas Priest is on an upswing, granted, but only by emulating their 1990 breakout Painkiller. Saxon is rock solid, and have always been other than a handful of albums in the 80s and 90s. Tank is a clusterfuck turned tragedy. Grim Reaper, we lost you bro, and that sucks. Diamond Head is trying. Angel Witch is succeeding. Raven has kicked ass on the last two albums with the new drummer injecting some real power and contemporary extremity to the Gallagher brothers' estimable talents. But they're the only one that can even come close to the win streak that Satan has embarked on ever since their 2011 formation, and that's quite a compliment, because Brian Ross and company have a skill-set that leaves almost all of their peers from the 80s completely in the dust.

They might not have arena tours paying them hundreds of thousands per night, or VHS-1 documentaries galore; in fact they don't get attention commensurate to the amount of talent and effort they put into every recording. But Satan is the best NWOBHM band of the 21st century, and though it might be hard to pick amongst four such awesome new albums, one of those almost unparalleled runs in their sub-genre, Cruel Magic is my favorite Satan album. The masterpiece that has always been waiting beneath the wig of their demonic, grim reaping barrister mascot. This 10 tracks and 50 minutes of content compacts together all of the strengths of the band's career into some of their most intense, impressive, and immediately memorable material, and it represents the summit of a job done right, a reunion era that offers no fucks given for simply rollicking in nostalgia, laying down on their laurels. This is a record that punches as much forward as it punches back, and I don't mean through the use of electronics or cybertechnology, but by proving that their brand of musically-intensive, melodic heavy metal has so much more to offer than those who have given up on it as some relic of the past.

This one sunk its horns into me with the thundering "Into the Mouth of Eternity" and just never let me off the hooks. It's not always as frenzied as some of their other material, it actually keeps pretty tight reins on itself, and offers a good versatility of tempo and riff structure, but there's hardly a single note throughout this that ever felt misplaced. From the winding, blue-collar street grooves of the title track, to the eerie, mystical melodies of "Ophidian", this is an adventure cast in that organic, warm mix that the band has clung to throughout this new era. All instruments are absolutely clear, with rhythm guitars that feel punchy but never overdriven, bass lines that plod along with atmosphere and finesse of their own, and some very genuine drumming that feels like you're in the room with it. The leads are brilliant without being saturated in too many effects, they can create multiple dimensions just by the excellence of the note patterns, and Brian Ross has a great performance here which is often showing some more theatric elements as in "My Prophetic Soul". Italian producer Dario Mollo deserves a ton of credit for how well he framed the band's style on these first three reunion albums, an unsung hero of the band.

Every song is so good that you would never find me skipping any on a playthrough, but this is also one of the rare cases where a single/video is my favorite, "The Doomsday Clock", which has some of the most amazing, endless streams of riffs I've ever heard, drawing a lot from their Pariah years when they dazzled with tunes like "Puppet Regime". This is that busy, but fronted with those brief, beautiful acoustics, and those the classical guitar influence threaded through the faster hooks. Brian's vocal arrangements are absolutely bananas, with a little operatic counterpoint. Even the lyrics are great, here and elsewhere through Cruel Magic; they show some effort rather than dabbling in dumb metal stereotypes, and though I wouldn't call them poetic necessarily, they posit sensible and serious prose that can match the gravity and impressiveness of the musicianship. And when this tune transitions into the raging speed-metal piracy of "Legions Hellbound"...I'm a straight man, people, but goddamn do I whistle and catcall like a construction worker stereotype when this album struts on by.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.75/10]

https://www.satanmusic.com/

Satan - Atom by Atom (2015)

Life Sentence was one of the greatest comebacks launched in all of British heavy metal history, and as far as I'm concerned, the band could have packed it all up, called it a day, and been content. But that was never an option, because Satan's reformation was going to become the rule, not the exception...they were about to surge into a period of productivity and relevance that very easily eclipsed their 80s cult classics. Touring, studio albums, the works, and not only remaining steadfast to their original sound, but bringing with them the experience that the members picked up in Pariah, Skyclad or Blitzkrieg. Yes, if this album resembles Blaze of Obscurity just as much as Court in the Act, I don't think that's any mistake, these were essentially the same band, and the modern crop of Satan releases are richer for it.

This is another incredible album, full of ceaseless, quality riffing that doesn't just honor the traditions that birthed it, but pushes the medium forward even so many decades later. That's what I love about these newer Satan albums, and why I enjoy them even more than the beloved debut, because there's very little here that seems stuck in the slough of nostalgia. Yes, that's the sound, but Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins are bringing a wealth of creative ideas to the riffing which span all those decades of heavy, power, even a little thrash, and it sounds just as potent in the 21st century as it did during the era of spandex and hair spray. Just listen to the craftsmanship in "Farewell Evolution" or "Ruination", you can't go even a few seconds without some explosive of delicious ear-candy. The variation is expansive, yes they do focus in a lot on flighty, melodic, fast picking lines, but the leads are uniformly exquisite, and there's a lot of glorious emotion packed into every single moment of the experience. Graeme's bass playing is as thick and flexible as ever, still a match against the rest of the band, and even Sean Taylor sounds more invigorated than ever he was in the 80s.

As for Brian, guy doesn't sound like he's aged a day, although he definitely stays in his stronger zone here, with less of the stray screams that occasionally permeated the earlier material. Hell, I think he just sounds better, listen to how his pipes carry out over the melancholic and powerful bridge in "Ruination", or how he can inflect a little nastiness in there like Michael Jackson used to on Suspended Sentence. But most importantly, the guy is just totally distinct...he sounds nothing like Biff, or Bruce, or Rob, or Ozzy, or John G., and yet he's every bit as good of a singer. Sure, he's not who you turn for if range is your only thrill, but his voice flows so well over this material, there's a wavering quality to his performance which seems like a confident, spectral general guiding his soldiers to battle. Add to this the impeccable, organic feel to the production on this record and its neighbors...the guitars are crystal clear and mighty without needing tons of extra fuzz or gain, it all feels so warm and perfect without seemingly like it has some poppy overpolish. Eliran Kantor continues to capture the debut album's spirit with the artwork he's provided for all these new Satan albums, and while it lacks the total surprising impact I felt from Life Sentence, this one is very nearly in that ballpark of quality.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

https://www.satanmusic.com/

Satan - Suspended Sentence (1987)

I have a little bit of Mandela Effect when it comes to Suspended Sentence, or at least I thought I did, because I always equated this as more of a thrash album when I was growing up. I remember listening to this one almost as much as Court in the Act, possibly because I thought it just had a better mix in my headphones, but also because it was a little harder hitting and that mixed in better with my fixation Slayer, Death Angel, Metallica, Coroner, Kreator, Possessed, and all the other stuff I was so heavily into at the time I was transitioning from a pimply Middle School geek to a pimply High School geek with longer hair. Now that I've had so many years to get back to it, I realize that it might have been a bit of exaggeration...sure, this is more adjacent to the escalation of aggression that was transpiring, and many bands actually morphed into straight up thrash bands from their trad metal roots, but it's also a pretty smooth successor for how Court in the Act transitioned to Into the Future...this is a very natural extension.

Imagine the band took their debut, ramped up the bottom end, added a few more gang shouts to the chorus parts, and transformed some of their complex guitar lines into some more chugging force. That is the sophomore in a nutshell: a modified, leaden heavy metal bruiser which was prescient for a lot of the harder hitting European power metal to follow the next decade. The bass playing here is incredible, Graeme English cranked up a little with a thicker, fluidic tone that is just as prominent as the two axe lords he is locking horns with. There are still oodles of melodic noodles flowing above the pummeling pavement, to give this record plenty of atmosphere on tunes like the epic "Who Dies Wins", which for me is the equal of anything off the debut. In fact, there is about an EP worth of material here, that combined with the Into the Future, might have surpassed the debut in my estimation. The "92th Symphony" intro is a nice setup with its glistening harmonies, "11th Commandment" is unforgettable with those pluggy opening bass lines and some totally killer, thick mid-paced riffs. "Avalanche of a Million Hearts", a beautiful acoustic power ballad that erupts into Sean Taylor's thundering beats and some more riffs that have remained in my memory since first hearing them.

Otherwise, there are a few numbers which are give or take, like "Vandal" and "S.C.U.M.", the titles of both enforcing that semi-thrash vibe I get for the record. These have their moments, but before I spun this again I would have had a harder time remembering them, or "Suicidal Justice". Nothing that would necessarily make you press 'stop', but they are not the equals of their peers for me. And that's the one reason that Suspended Sentence doesn't quite match Court in the Act or the amazing reunion period material. The production is a bit uneven here, too, half of the stuff sounds more polished and punchy than the rest...for example, "Calculated Execution" is a decent closer but lacks the power of the first three on the disc. Having said that, this is a robust, edgier Satan for the later 80s, some of the more creative magnificence of the debut traded in for something that might keep them afloat during times where more and more heshers were abandoning the trad stuff for the thrashing. It works well enough in that capacity, and there are a number of gems here that the years cannot sully, but it didn't seem to matter as the band would soon enter a 22 year slumber interrupted only by their time as Pariah.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.satanmusic.com/

Satan - Into the Future EP (1986)

Into the Future (aka the Dirt Demo '86) came out three years after Court in the Act, and I think that might be one of the reasons that Satan didn't initially explode as much as they could have. The major British bands at the time were churning out hits like an assembly line, with better production and more accessible songwriting, and even the members here were a little involved in other projects, and yes, they had the provocative name that was going to get them in all manner of hot water (ha ha!), so this didn't have quite the prolific impact; it wasn't getting in front of peoples' faces, or butts in concert seats. That said, the smudgy mushroom cloud (?) cover artwork on this EP might be ugly, but the music itself is a great continuation of the style on the debut, and I daresay I think the mix is stronger, giving a little more tightness and power to the instrumentation. Michael Jackson also has a slightly more controlled delivery than Brian Ross, with a little more dirt to the low end and some sharpness to the higher.

There are only four songs, at under 18 minutes, but the A-side for this one, "Key to Oblivion" and "Hear Evil, See Evil, Speak Evil" are certainly among the better 80s tunes they wrote, and ultimately would belong on a double-disc collection of career highlights. They showcase all of the band's great riffing techniques...complex, tremolo picked lines, packed with melody, a bit of shred or neo-classical influence, and most of all, propulsive power. Jackson's delivery is on point, he even has a few screams on here that I really enjoyed, they felt angrier and more controlled and not just an errant falsetto boast. There might be an added level of weight to how it sounds, and part of that is the production, but it's kind of a bridge to their sophomore album, which was trying to keep a little more current with the heavier, thrash environment around it. The only one of the four that slacks is "Fuck You", and that's not because the music is bad...it's amazing, but the fact that it's mostly an instrumental with just the dumb "Fuck you!" exclamation for the lyrics...when Overkill did this, they made it a straight to the face statement with an aggressive thrash song...here, the music deserved much more, or it should have gone full-on instrumental.

Otherwise, this is one dope, deserving follow-up to the debut, consistent while it moves them a little forward with regards to production. Unfortunately, it's hard to find on its own, but you can usually get it packaged with Suspended Sentence for a pretty killer value, if you can get it at all. I think the songs are also on the Early Rituals collection that came out through Listenable, but I haven't been able to check that one out. Anyways, this is definitely one that I can remember on cassette, spinning it next to Possessed's The Eyes of Horror EP because both of them combined would match the daily duration of my paper route job. The NWOBHM might have been dissolving as of this time, but the chops on display showed that Satan was prepared to take on all comers for the future.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.satanmusic.com/

Satan - Court in the Act (1983)

Though it would take years along my metal path to discover and process so much of the lesser known NWOBHM of the earlier 80s, Satan was a band I encountered fairly early on. I mean, there was no way I was about to resist a band with such a provocative, obvious moniker, one that my parents were very likely to snatch away from me as they did with a Slayer or Sabbat (until giving up entirely). But I definitely found all three of their older cassettes in the later Junior High/early High School years, and was proud to have them in my collection. I remember having a pretty superficial reaction at first, thinking these guys were nowhere near as heavy as Slayer or Metallica and that their name was actually misleading, but I quickly took a 180 on that opinion because the level of proficiency and ambition here was palpable.

Now, to be honest, I've never had a version of this on which I really liked the production all that much, the songwriting and performance seemed to vastly exceed the capabilities, it just seemed a little faint and tinny for me. But that's easy to forgive considering its age and the fact that these guys were literally running circles around so many of their peers in the intensity and complexity of their craft. Compare this to Piece of Mind or Screaming for Vengeance or something, and you can hear that Satan was on an entirely other level, more competitive with the budding thrash bands that had just started to emerge the same year from California. It's still very much in the vein of traditional, melodic heavy metal characteristic of its own scene, but it just cranked up the picking velocity and riff count. Next to this, even stuff like the first two Mercyful Fate albums would feel like a slog; I'm not saying that I like Court in the Act more than any of those albums I just named, because I think they've got better songs and production all around, but there's no doubt this is one fast, furious debut deserving of all the cult status and critical respect it's earned.

The two major weapons in the arsenal here are Brian Ross' distinct vocals, and the incredible guitar duo of Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey. All these guys would excel not only here, but in other bands as varied as Blitzkrieg, Skyclad, Blind Fury, Pariah and Tanith, all of which have excellent records. Yet with Court in the Act, we get to hear them all in unison, and it's quite something to experience. Brian's voice has always felt more relatable to me because of its workmanlike sincerity; sure he has a bit of range where he needs it, but it literally feels like the guy down the street, or at the bar, just started fronting a heavy metal band. It's smooth, melodic, and works great with reverb, but it's never too over the top or screechy, in fact I find it the weakest when he does in fact scream, like that one disposable cry in the bridge of "Alone in the Dock". He can pull those off, but it's not what is interesting about his delivery. It's that mid to upper-mid range which has the most impact. As for the guitarists, they are just fucking unbelievable, spurting riff after riff of busy, calculated, melodic bliss, leads searing fluidly through the undertow, and with this production, sometimes it's hard to tell what is what.

There are at least four tunes on here that make my Satan playlist every time, from the classic raging (proper) opener "Trial by Fire" and epic, escalating "Break Free", to "Hunt You Down" with its great groove and gang vocals, and "Dark Side of Innocence" with its immortal, captivating melodies with a heavy riffing substrate that actually sounds suspiciously like an influence upon a lot of German power metal a few years later. I also really dig the creepy synth intro to the album, "Into the Fire", with the thudding electro percussive beats that stomp through the scintillating ambiance. Or the acoustic interlude "The Ritual" which is absolutely gorgeous and shows off the guitarists' skills in that medium. But I wouldn't throw out the rest of the tunes, either, they're all pretty solid in support of just a few that are more timeless. I emphasized the guitars and vocals, but Sean Taylor's drumming on this one is also pretty intense for the time, lots of good fills, and Grame English, another legend, keeps his bass lines busy enough so that you're not just engaged on that higher, melodic level, but what is supporting it.

Amazingly, this is not even close to my favorite Satan record. I appreciate it a lot, it's one that I often revisit, at least for my favorite songs, and it's the best of their earlier output...but Satan is also my favorite NWOBHM band of the 21st century, and we'll get into why. Court in the Act definitely sets the standard, even the iconic logo and cover artwork style, and this is pretty much mandatory if you're into that British stuff, and should sit in your collection alongside the debuts of Angel Witch, Tank and Diamond Head, and all the Raven, Saxon, Venom, Maiden and Priest you can muster.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

http://www.satanmusic.com/

Iron Maiden - Senjutsu (2021)

It might be tempting to take my recent review of Book of Souls, copy and paste it with all the appropriate titles changed, because Senjutsu suffers from a lot of the same issues I had with that record. However, I think the difference is that the lows here are lower, and the highs are debatably higher than anything on that 2015 offering. Keep in mind that this is still a legendary band, capable of legendary metal tracks, with much of its classic roster in place, taking its sweet time between new studio offerings, yet unable to really compose on the level of their younger selves, with all that money, and all that time. Don't get me wrong, they have EARNED such breaks, unquestionably, because of their incessant touring and advanced ages. Iron Maiden has nothing to prove, with a stellar, classic backlog, loads of popular merchandising, and tours that do their damnedest to give you your money's worth. The band has given me so much that I cannot really ask more of them...

Still, I'm baffled why a band with such an enormous resource pool can no longer create the sort of top shelf tuneage which put them on the map. On its surface, Senjutsu does look cool...I dig the stark simplicity of the artwork (as with Book of Souls), and Samurai Eddie is surely a thing. The 81-82 minutes of this might have easily been quashed onto a single CD, but once more the band has opted for the double-album, with a number of lengthy tracks, although nothing as long as on the prior disc. We're talking several pieces that are 9-12 minutes, and the odds of Maiden being able to fill all that bulk with the quality of a "Powerslave" or "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" seem bleak. The first single I heard off this, "The Writing on the Wall", had a decent animated video, and a folky feel to it which felt fresh for the band, although it's ultimately a pretty dull track without a memorable chorus. "Stratego" had me more excited, the flow on that one brought me back to the Maiden I loved of that mid-to-late 80s period, but with a slightly fresh mood to it (and another animated video). That's still one of my favorite songs on this album, but if you're asking me to put together a collection of a few dozen tracks for a road trip, it's not going anywhere NEAR that list.

Most of the lengthier tunes here feel rather empty, not that they lack emotion or melody, because Bruce still delivers as one of the high points of Senjutsu; but I almost never feel like there is any positive payoff to spending all that time within the music. There are tracks like "Lost in a Lost World" which feel like pure callbacks to some of my favorite Maiden material, but then there's nothing new or remotely refreshing about them. The shorter tracks here ("Stratego", "Days of Future Past") are much more engaging, while cuts like "Death of the Celts" and "The Parchment" seem to be building to something impressive, and then the work crews up and retire for a lunchbreak and never return. "Hell on Earth" is more successful at grabbing me, but again all the good stuff could have been condensed to a track half the length and I would have missed nothing.

Now that I've covered my disappointments, I will say that I don't quite dislike the album, this is not Nostradamus by a long shot; it doesn't suck at all, and it once again squeaks by on some of its positive factors. The production feels a lot more natural and resonant to me than The Book of Souls' smoother, cleaner mix, and as a result the historical, windy, epic nature of the lyrical matter seems better suited to the sound of the actual instruments. It's just as pleasant to put on in the background as its predecessor, because hey, that's Iron Maiden back there. But compare for a moment what this band is churning out compared to some of its peers...the last two Saxon albums kick ass in their traditional blue collar heavy metal. The most recent Judas Priest album was the most charged up they've been in almost 30 years. The last four Satan albums, since the reunion, leave Iron Maiden and every other NWOBHM or NWOBHM-adjacent band in the fucking dust. Bruce and the boys just sound bored and exhausted by comparison, and I hope that with these last two double albums, they've shaken off these 'epic' urges, and can fire off a few more concise efforts like Piece of Mind or Number of the Beast before we have to inevitably say goodbye to one of our favorite bands. Senjutsu is decent enough, but could have been so. much. more.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.ironmaiden.com/

Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (2015)

Iron Maiden's first double-album arrived at an era in which the band would be highly unlikely to fill 90 minutes with the sort of immortal, quality material that marked their ascent through the 80s, but the hope is that you can pick through all of its bloated carcass and find a few bits of tasty meat within, which you can then carve away from the fat. After years of trying, I can't seem to find enough of that choice protein. The Book of Souls is no hit machine, but rather the sort of record one grows to appreciate merely because of its experiential qualities. A good 90% of the material present on these two discs is harvested from similar and superior songwriting from across the band's past, but reconfigured just enough to feel like it still might be relevant, and the result is a pretty pleasant chunk of Iron Maiden lite that is well suited to background aural radiation...but you see, it's still Iron Fucking Maiden, and that matters.

I enjoyed this one for what it was when it first dropped, but admittedly had it shelved for years before deciding to finally draft up some thoughts on it. Listening now, it's much as I felt back then, professionally and competently executed Maiden with all the trademarks: mid to slow, plodding, majestic rhythms that occasionally stir an emotional response, Bruce Dickinson's distinct pipes sounding as well oiled as they've been in the 21st century, and a lot of interesting subject matter to inspire its lyrics. Toss in a production so clean that you could sniff Eddie's mummy dust off its surface without contamination, and add to that a rather simplistic but effective cover with the mascot looking his creepy best. Being an hour and a half of content with 11 tracks, there are bound to be a lot of overstuffed songs, and few of them really warrant the riffing and arrangement to justify that; but even if you take "The Red and the Black" at its 13 minute whole, there is still enough of the dreamy escapist quality to their classic material circa Somewhere in Time or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son or even Brave New World to not hit the Skip button. "Empire of the Clouds" at 18 minutes seems a little more adventurous, akin to a "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", sans the excellent payoffs and narrative quality of that track.

When they do occasionally manage to pick up the pace for chunks of  "When the River Runs Deep" or "Death or Glory", you immediately perk up, because it just stands out from the more gleaming, polished melancholy that comprises so much of the remainder. Both of these tunes are worth hearing extracted from The Book of Souls as a whole, but even then if I were to compare them to the classics of yore, they still tend to come up short in terms of having legendary choruses. The leads throughout the album are serviceable, but again you rarely get anything past 'just alright', and Iron Maiden is never a band that should settle for 'just alright', or anything less than excellence. I've seen other refer to this album as Iron Maiden 'covering' themselves, and I don't know that I agree with that, it all seems genuine enough, only played too safely, like the well of ambition behind these legends has run dry, and they've sealed it off rather than wait for that rainfall of ingenuity to arrive again. The Book of Souls gives them something more to tour on, to rally around, to churn out a bunch of non-challenging, acceptable tunes, but I'd much rather they tried to kick us all in the proverbial balls again (in a good way, not a Virtua XI way) and fail, then summon up another lukewarm offering like this one.

This album does manage to squeak by on my scale, hitting all the superficial chords I expect, with decent lyrics and production, but there's just no "Wicker Man" here. No "Can I Play With Madness?". No "Powerslave". And hearing how obviously competent the band remains, I think they could still pull such glories off, it's just going to require a little more pickiness in the writing phase, and a long look in the mirror without the shave.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.ironmaiden.com/

Hell - Curse & Chapter (2013)

It's strange and bittersweet to be reviewing this sophomore album posthumously, because at the time this one dropped, Hell had top-of-the-world potential, and they could do no wrong unless massively fucking up, which Curse & Chapter does not. While I might not have been a worshiper on the same levels as others I know, I still really enjoyed the amount of effort they put into the production and personality of their debut Human Remains. The fact that it was a reincarnated NWOBHM band, being given a fresh kickstart by a huge fan (in Andy Sneap) whose own legendary band Sabbat were pretty much the only one pimping this group through their own career, is just icing on the cake. Glorious.

As I hinted, Curse & Chapter does not disappoint, even if it doesn't possess quite the perfect set-up as its predecessor. Insane, operatically-informed heavy metal which infuses whatever aesthetics of power and thrash it desires, the material relies heavily on the vocal strength of David Bower, who just owns it once again. His frilly, shrieking, manic sounding voice is once again an instant win for the amount of character he gives it. He can snarl, growl, and freak out, then just belt out something more powerful and sustained effortlessly, and he is always bending his lines to keep each fresh and fearsome. He can also do some nice counter vocals with the backups, or the deeper sort of guttural narrative that we all know Martin Walkyier probably would have used had he stuck with the Hell reunion. Apart from his performance, the twin guitar attack of Sneap and Kev Bower is formidable, bringing a good degree of variance, between choppy and powerful chords, to acoustics, wild leads, and it all sounds fresh and modern like a lot of Sneap's studio work.

As usual, the theatrics and orchestration play an important role, used to great strength in tracks like in "The Disposer Supreme" or "Darkhangel" before they clobber you over the head with the heavy-ass, thrashing riffs, and then shift again into an almost Maiden-esque vocal harmony. This was pompous, adventurous, unapologetic heavy metal which, while carried over into the live performance, wouldn't even have required costumes because it just rubs off so well on the studio recording. Another thing I really dug about this album is that at times it reminded me of a British Nevermore...Bower's delivery is in some ways reminiscent of the great Warrell Dane, and certainly some of the more involved riffs, which is probably no surprise since Sneap worked on a lot of the Americans' albums from 2000-2011.

Curse & Chapter isn't always extremely catchy or memorable, but it's timelessness comes from how it takes command of you from the operatic opener and holds your attention as it transports you into its world of occult revelations and clerical conspiracies (see what I did there?), with a brazen, polished production and a level of identity you just weren't going to find in the old geezer British metal bands of the time. If I were Iron Maiden coming off The Final Frontier, or Judas Priest scraping together the lukewarm Redeemer of Souls, I'd be pissing down my leg when I heard this fucking band, because it might have made them irrelevant if they hadn't gotten their shit together (which, to be fair, they did). Exciting compositions, bewildering musicianship, and just the right amount of controlled chaos, it's a bloody shame that in hindsight this would be their last studio album. History repeated itself. We never got enough Hell in its original incarnation, and while they hung on for some years after touring off this material, we never enough in this one. Resquiescat in pace.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/HELLofficial

Hell - The Age of Nefarious EP (2013)

The Age of Nefarious EP is a limited run artifact that arrived around the time that Hell had really hit its heights, folks were stoked to hear the follow-up to the wildly popular 'debut' Human Remains from the reformed NWOBHM legends. It was largely a teaser, with the one title track that would be the first proper metal cut on the sophomore album, and then the rest of the this, the 'B-side', was a trio of live tracks. I'll go into "The Age of Nefarious" itself when I cover the album, but I wanted to cover the rest of this because it's not quite as disposable as one would think. In fact, the only thing limiting the quality of this is its short duration and low availability.

Because these live tunes sound AWESOME. Taken from their 2013 Bloodstock performance, they sound almost as potent as their studio versions, with the caveat that you'll get some of that live noise in between having your head spun off by the great sound. I don't know if Andy Sneap was working some of his studio magic on the live mixing board, or if he just taught someone else well, but the rhythm guitars are punchy and powerful, the perfect force to drive Dave Bower's vocals, which also sound incredible here. I've seen videos of some of their live performances, including possibly this one, and they REALLY pull it off. All three of the selections are taken from the debut, naturally, they didn't wanna give too much away from the new disc, so you're getting "On Earth As It in Hell", "Blasphemy and the Master", and their cover of "The Oppressors". Intense, fun as hell, this all reinforces the idea that Hell was this nuclear explosion of unstoppable, unique heavy/power metal.

If this had been a full length live album I'd be raving about it, but alas it's only a sampling of what might have been, and the studio tune is just a 'single' for Curse & Chapter, a format that I could care less about. But the live songs here are wonderful and I'd highly recommend watching a performance if you can find one on video, it's unlikely you'll be seeing them in person again.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.facebook.com/HELLofficial

Satan - Life Sentence (2013)

NWOBHM acts don't always have the best track records when it comes to their inevitable reunions and comeback albums. Groups I once loved like Witchfinder General and Angel Witch did not entirely impress me with records like Resurrected or As Above, So Below, while others like Cloven Hoof assumed modern, glossier production and stylistic aesthetics that turned off a good portion of their fanbases. I think a lot of this is that, in so many cases, having been 'out of the game' for so long breeds a sense of confusion between wanting to resurrect 'what they were' with what's out there in the field of today. In a world where Dragonforce is sadly but arguably the most popular band in the entire heavy/power metal spectrum outside of titans like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, where will these old timers fit in? Thankfully, Brian Ross and Satan dodge this entire question by picking up right where they left off, as if the past 26 years between Suspended Sentence and Life Sentence never happened...

The logo is back. The title theme and cover artwork is flush with the first two records in the 80s. But most prominently, the sound is much the same. Granted, the production is understandably cleaner than on the earlier works, and the musicianship also more pristine, but otherwise it's direct continuity. Whereas many of these comebacks feature only a handful of the original lineup, Life Sentence is a COMPLETE reunion, with all five members of the Court in the Act roster returning: Brian Ross (vox), Russ Tippins & Steve Ramsay (guitars), Graeme English (bass) and Sean Taylor (drums), all of whom are older and wiser after stints with bands like Blitzkrieg, Blind Fury, Pariah or a little known group called Skyclad. But most importantly, they've brought back the crucial component that has earned them the adoration of traditional metal addicts incessantly for the last several decades: the riffs. Satan was one of the first bands of this niche (beyond the more popular groups like Maiden, Def Leppard, Motörhead and Raven) that I had explored as a kid. I guiltily admit, initially, their name had a lot to do with picking up their tapes, but once I placed them in the deck, I was immediately taken aback by the refreshing musicianship, with busier guitars and melodies than I often associated with simpler acts in the same scene.

So I don't speak lightly when I say that Life Sentence is the band's most consistent and intricate recording to date, and hands down their best, building upon the two strong predecessors that enabled their legacy. The guitar riffing here is slick and dextrous without becoming obsessively indulgent or flashy, and no track passes without some head spinning progressions that marry the techniques of antiquity with the prowess of younger musicians. Experience the storm of harmonics and speed/power metal licks coursing through "Life Sentence" itself, the sub-thrashing tempo of "Twenty Five Twenty Five", acrobatic melody runs in "Testimony", or the darker, spiraling contours of "Personal Demons" and "Cenotaph" and you'll come to share my opinion that, along with Attacker's latest Giants of Canaan, Life Sentence is likely to go down as one of the best guitar-oriented records of 2013. Each lead is carefully constructed, thoughtful and interesting, while the brighter spikes of speedy tremolo picking channel classic Maiden, and there are incredibly few note patterns here that can be predicted right off, which is all too rare for this genre as a whole...

But Tippins & Ramsay alone do not get all the credit here. English's lines are constantly swerving, grooving and natural, never par for the course or second fiddle to the rhythm guitars (if you'll pardon the Skyclad pun). The tone is clean but more akin to psychedelic/prog rock than, say, your usual Steve Harris muscular thudding. I could honestly just listen to Graeme and the drums alone and still derive enjoyment from the songs, if that says anything to you. Taylor's performance is about as organic as you can hope for, with a nice old snare tone that plays well into his varied fills and cadences; just hectic enough to support these waltzing and gallivanting guitar lines all over their respective fret boards. Lastly, but not leastly, Brian Ross has not skipped a damn beat; if anything, his mid range here, one of the band's long distinguishing traits, is even more robust than the early years; though he'll still mete out some occasional, elevated screams. All that time spent keeping the Blitzkrieg torch burning might not have resulted in a string of phenomenal recordings through the 90s and 'oughts, but if it primed him for Life Sentence, all the power to him, because he's just as catchy as he was on Court in the Act or A Time of Changes. Ross even leads the charge for some outstanding harmony arrangements.

Above and beyond all of these compliments, Satan does not sound 'old' or 'exhausted' in the slightest here. Comparing this record to, say, Manilla Road's latest, or the last album Diamond Head put out, is like comparing a lit firecracker to a tray of old cigarette butts (and don't get me wrong, I love my Lightning to the Nations and 80s Road quite a lot). I'd consider the songwriting and guitar picking here to remain adventurous and interesting, despite the overall moody and muddy darkened depths of the production, which are clearly content with letting the tunes stand by themselves. Not a unique approach, since a lot of veteran bands prefer the pure analog (or analog sounding) output, but with Life Sentence it helps generate this interesting contrast between nostalgic tones and very future thinking composition, even some of the lyrics, which vary between subjects like ancient Egyptology ("Incantations"), self realization/perseverance ("Life Sentence") and the ever-lingering potential for worldwide Armageddon ("Twenty Five Twenty Five"). It makes NWOBHM feel like new again. Like it's 'today', and forever, and not just something we need to restrict to bands whose balls dropped in the late 70s.

Sure, these blokes might never have really fallen out of practice, but if you told me six months ago that they'd be releasing a new album this, I'd have asked if you were planning on selling me snake oil with that. And then you'd be calling upon me to remove your boot from my teeth, because Life Sentence is outstanding. An audio dissertation on heavy metal redemption, which plays salutatorian to exactly NONE of the band's peers around today. Hail...well, you know...Satan.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10]

http://www.satanmusic.com/

Judas Priest - Nostradamus (2008)

I can't help but wonder what might have been had Judas Priest decided to pursue an experiment like Nostradamus earlier in their career, when they were in full writing capacity and churning out hit after hit. Perhaps they might have chased the idea in place of Point of Entry, or Turbo, or one of their other divisive records. Certainly they've got a front man with the capable range, and all the tools to create a satisfying rock opera concept album, but the problem is that by 2008 they were coming off almost two decades of mediocre music, and this was not really the time to be reaching so far outside the comfort zone. As a result, Nostradamus is a whole lotta ambitious nothing that is effectively one of the saddest studio efforts of their career (and I'm including the 'Ripper' Owens records in that statement). Not for lack of trying, mind you, but for the lack of results.

Hell, they couldn't even make this album LOOK good. Why in the name of the powers would you replace your iconic, wonderful logo with a shitty font like that? Yeah, it's a concept album about Nostradamus, and it makes sense that they were going to showcase the prophet, but it comes off like some cheap Photoshop. I didn't even think the album was real when I first saw this artwork, I felt like someone had played an online hoax. As it stands, I'd rather stare at the cover of Demolition than this eyesore, and that's not even really a cover. Of course, had this been two hours of lightning bliss with the compositional fortitude of a Painkiller of Stained Class than I'd be more than willing to overlook its outer shell, but sadly its lackluster quality does not end at that, but at the 100+ minutes of good intentions gone awry, a bloated and dramatic musical narrative which at its very best rips off past Priest triumphs or revels in haughty, "Carmen Burena"-like nonsense, the caveat being that they focus in on Rob Halford's voice rather than backing choirs.

This was produced by the guitarists, and I must say they didn't do a bad job of it, though it's not so bold and bright and polished as Angel of Retribution before it. The strings and keys swell accordingly to the emotional tension the band thinks its creating, but the real downfall is that across 23 tracks they can't even manage to pull out one that is remotely memorable. The double-album is divided into a series of shorter vignettes that often alternate with 5-8 minute pieces, the latter of which usually contain the harder guitars. The riffs on this song are simply abysmal, pulled from about 35 years of history and loosely paraphrased from metal tunes you've no doubt heard in the past. At the most 'exciting' you'll get a piece like "Persecution" which wants to very much belong to the Painkiller era, only the delivery of vocals and lyrics just don't cut it, and the note progressions feel tired and unsurprising. Others like "Prophecy" try to creep along with a very simple, almost heavy/doom driven riff like something you might have expected on the Halford solo records, and while I can't deny that he manages to conjure up that same, strong character in his voice, the songs really lack excitement.

The leads actually seem like they put some thought into them, but since they're not launched at you from the foundation of killer rhythm guitars, their uphill battle can't seem to reach the summit. Most of the pieces are so heavily multi-tracked with strings and synthesizers that it feels like the soundtrack to some big budget video game, like a God of War score without the menace and bravado. The bass lines are boring, the drums somewhat caged in by the orchestration. Add to this the rather cheesy lyrics in a cut like "Lost Love" and the whole things feels like an immense failure to broaden the band's horizons towards Trans-Siberian Orchestra fans (who don't realize Savatage was better). The worst thing about this is that the ratio of pay-off to duration is frustrating, who wants to listen to two full discs of mediocrity? Perhaps they should have reined in the writing to a single album and given a 'trial run' to the whole concept album, before going overboard. It's hard to believe this even got the green light from Columbia/Epic, but I guess they've just been around so long that they can pull their own strings.

Nostradamus is not the most incompetent bumbling of a career I've heard from a major metal outfit like this one. It's no Virtual XI or St. Anger. In fact, there are elements to its execution which show me that all of the band's constituents still know how to play, in particular Rob's pitch is still quite stunning. But I would be hard pressed to find a more lackluster skeleton in their closet than this one. Okay, Demolition is a sliver worse, but at least we didn't have to spend nearly two hours to find that out. What might have been an interesting, in depth glimpse into the life and times of a near mythic figure is gimped by generic, uninspired lyrics, and weak music that puts bombast above ballast. It's a little late to close my eyes and pretend everything after 1990 didn't happen, but Judas Priest are a long, long way from home here. Time to book a return flight.

Verdict: Fail [3.5/10] (condemnation, my vindication)

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Judas Priest - Angel of Retribution (2005)

I, like just about everyone, was shocked when Rob Halford parted ways with Judas Priest in the 90s. The blokes were really on top of their game. They'd managed to breathe fire and passion into their traditional formula to produce the greatest record in their career, and there was no question in anyone of sound mind's mind that they were and would remain the metal gods we grew up with. But then, like with so many other great acts, it happened. The chicken flew the coop, to land only at a bad series of thrash/groove albums and industrial rock mediocrity that could never compete with or further the legacy he left behind. Eventually, he came to his senses and began putting out heavy metal records again in his eponymous solo outfit, but by then the damage had already been done, the void had widened to the point that, despite his cavalier efforts, Tim 'Ripper' Owens was about to be swallowed into it.

What's not a shock: after two weak albums, the guys would work out their differences and return Halford to the fold. And who doesn't? There was money to be made, nostalgia to be cashiered, and midlife (or past midlife) crises to avert. Of course he was getting back together with the band, barring an untimely death, and it was only a matter of when. The when was 2003, and two years later we had a new studio album in our hands, Angel of Retribution, its proud Painkiller-like winged angel in armor spreading for the artist while it tiptoed through the flames. Metal fire. Metal meltdown fire. Unfortunately, anyone hoping that 15 years of proper studio association was going to inspire a dream comeback record was sadly mistaken, for this is just not that great of an effort. It TRIES to be, and in terms of sheer audio spectacle, it's hands down one of the best produced albums of the band's career, Roy Z more than earning his paycheck, but even after seven years I can't think of a single song on Angel that I would feel compelled to return to were I not concluding this discography of reviews.

This is essentially a lot of old ideas dressed in a sparkling new suit, and I can't help but feel that the band were pushing hard to play 'catch up', to create an album that was just cohesive enough that the fans wouldn't pull their ears off and trample them in the offal. Why else include all the self-referential lyrical bullshit? To that effect, Angel of Retribution is certainly no failure. The songs flow well enough in sequence, the tones are all loud, the album lacks for none of the heaviness of its predecessor while still managing to draw on the more accessible hard rock inflected albums of Priest past. Seriously, this is just as clean cut as anything Z  produced for Bruce Dickinson, and more importantly, Halford doesn't sound as if he'd skipped a beat in the 15 years since he'd helmed an album for this lot. The guy kept busy in the interim, after all, and his pipes seem just as capable of hitting their youthful heights as ever, even if he has the maturation to restrain himself for much of the run time.

Unfortunately, while a few of the songs 'rock', they don't exactly roll out the red carpet into my memory. A number like "Deal with the Devil" is pure power metal electricity, only by 2005 the riffs had all been played a thousand times by Germanic groups who were biting off Priest to begin with. "Revolution" sounds like the bastard stepchild of Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song" and some old Sabbath (like "Sweat Leaf"), only it runs out of steam real quick with its sassy, whiny chorus; definitely feels like something that would have made it onto a Halford solo record as filler. "Judas Priest" is a competent if average opener, the measured charge of the guitars reminds me a lot of how Omen used to structure their songs in the early 80s, though the vocals sound nothing alike and the guitars are less Maiden-esque. "Demonizer" is perhaps the heaviest tune on the album, matching the harder cuts off Jugulator or Resurrection in groove power, but while it's entertaining to hear Rob stretch himself for the chorus, and I love the bubbly lead noises, it's just not as catchy as it needs to be...

Angel of Retribution gets a little ambitious at the end with the 13+ minute "Lochness", but despite the doomed trawl it moves at, there is just no way in the 21st century of making this particular legend cool. Especially if you've seen the Penn & Teller "Bullshit!" episode about cryptozoology, or that episode of Celebrity Deathmatch in which a claymation Nessie battles Bigfoot. Still, at least this experiment is 'contained' to some slow, steady riffing and harmonized choruses, unlike the following double album Nostradamus where they bit off far more than they could chew. The worst here is probably "Angel" itself, because as competent as Halford is, I really have no need for a Judas Priest power ballad anymore. "Eulogy" also uses clean guitars, but it's shorter and more downcast in nature (though not much better). Others I could skip on include the pedestrian rock of "Worth Fighting For", or "Wheels of Fire" which is an attempt to recapture the pacing and catchiness of "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" (at least one lick in there seems strikingly similar).

All told, though, this is not an utter fuck-up for a comeback effort, and even the weaker tracks are far from horrible. I just didn't care, and still don't. When I can dial back a few years and listen to Resurrection, or even a few of the better songs on its successor Crucible, or anything 1990 and earlier from the Priest canon, there's no need for something sub-par. I don't think there's a single song on this album that anyone would consider a 'hit'. If the British steel-mongers were out to prove that they still had 'what it takes', then I say they followed through. They can still pick up their instruments and write a metal record for the studio. Now let's move past that and write some goddamn screamers again. Is there another "Breakin' the Law" in you, Judas Priest? Another "Exciter"? Because, frankly, the world could use one.

Verdict: Win [6.25/10] (took it to the smoke)

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith (1984)

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a cat? Is it a tank? Is it a cat-tank? A battle-cat? A cattle-tank? In any case, we've gone from mecha-avian to mecha-feline with Doug Johnson's second cover for Judas Priest, but this predatory juggernaut mascot is strangely appropriate for what was one of the band's heaviest records of the 80s, one I might have dubbed Painkiller, Jr. if Ram It Down were not slightly more aggressive, enough to steal that retroactive title away. Certainly this is a more ballistic effort than its predecessor Screaming for Vengeance, and even though it lacks a true breakout hit at the level of "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", it's pound for pound competitive in terms of quality for much of its playtime, disintegrating only when you've gotten pretty far in the track list.

By 1983-84, the rest of the metal world was starting to catch up with Judas Priest. In England alone, you had Iron Maiden riding on the success of albums like Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind, while Def Leppard was exploding with Pyromania, and the lesser known Venom had by this point forced and soiled the boundaries of the traditional NWOBHM. Across the pond, American bands were reaching new extremes as the thrash and speed/thrash generation was just then emerging through Slayer and Metallica. By contrast, a group like Priest was, frankly, starting to feel old. Or rather, they would have, had they churned out another Point of Entry right in the middle of the mass evolution taking place. Fortunately, Halford and crew managed to stave off any notion of irrelevance with a pair of fine albums, first Screaming for Vengeance and then the Defenders of the Faith, the latter of which proved they had the muscle to go the distance, and that there was no known limit to which you could push Rob's lungs and the syncopated headbanging of the ax men.

The first seven tracks on this album completely destroy, with pure power metal pacers like "Jawbreaker" and "Eat Me Alive" highlighting just how rich and lethal Rob's vocal lines had become. The guitar tones fucking crush here, meaner and fatter than they had been on Screaming for Vengeance but just as resonant. Of special note on the album are the leads, which are in my opinion among the best of the band's career. In "The Sentinel", "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll" and "Jawbreaker", they really let themselves dash all over the fretboards, whammy bars and all, with the sort of excess you'd expect out of a guitar hero like E. Van Halen. The dual melodies pop along to the beats, the rhythm tone is impenetrable. Dave Holland had gelled into a pure cipher of thunder. The slight use of atmospheric synthesized effects here like the intro to "Love Bites" is tasteful rather than out of control (as is often the case with the following album Turbo). What's more, just about every riff on the album up to this point, while often reminiscent of others they'd written in the past, is perfectly placed into a verse/chorus structure and immediately memorable.

Then, about the time we arrive at "Night Comes Down", the storm starts to subside. Not because this is a slower, near power ballad, because it's still pretty atmospheric and has a nice build into the chorus with some heavy riffs, but just because those leading up to it had been so much damned fun. "Heavy Duty", with its Queen-like steady rock beat and generic riffing sequence fares far worse, and I could completely do without the afterthought/outro "Defenders of the Faith" in which they just repeat the album title ad infinitum. Had Judas Priest clipped these last 8 or so minutes and included one more bridge burner, I'd likely rank this above Screaming for Vengeance and possibly up there with Stained Class in quality, but alas I can't ignore how the album just goes limp.

Either way, Defenders is still a ripper of a record that begs a question: why, after such a pounding as this, would they suddenly decide to drift oft into the more mainstream/electrified overtures of Turbo before Ram It Down (considering they were supposed to be a double album at first)? Granted, I still enjoy that album to a degree, but couldn't they hear the spark of something so intense here? They'd already given us the hard rocker albums like British Steel and Point of Entry, so even in my youth I was hoping they'd take the material on Defenders and take even further. Heavier. After all I was starting to get into the faster and more aggressive metal around this time where I could sneak dubs of it off older kids whose parents wouldn't ground them for buying the tapes (I was like 10, forgive me). Ram It Down would have been a far more natural progression from this, though I admit the songs there aren't quite this amazing. Alas, it would take until 1990 to get exactly what I wanted of Judas Priest, but get it I would. At last.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (groan in the pleasure zone)

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance (1982)

Screaming for Vengeance represented a return to the level of ambition that Judas Priest had seemingly sidetracked for the previous albums British Steel and Point of Entry, but at the same time it also retains those records' flair for production and accessibility. Featuring the first of Doug Johnson's iconic cover trilogy (the stylish, metallic raptor who many bands like Primal Fear would later tweak and adopt as their mascot), this was a smashing success largely due to its major single "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", which experienced so much penetration into Western culture that you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't know it that wasn't deaf. But Screaming was and remains quite pleasing in its entirety, the best of Priest's recordings in the 80s, and while it's a few inches shy of perfection, even the worst songs in the roster are a match for nearly anything on Point of Entry.

One of the things that first struck me about the album is its lyrical awareness and even forward thinking nature, which the band had sort of dropped out of with a lot of songs on the few albums leading up to it. Not to say that the lyrics are as complex as some of the 70s material, or that every song here is necessarily deep in intent, but I rather appreciated the relevance of "Electric Eye" and its observations on...well, modern observation. Or corruption ("Bloodstone"). Granted, there are a number of sassy sex songs here like "Fever", "Devil's Child" and so forth, and your typical 'hit the road' feel goodness ("Riding on the Wind") and 'don't fuck with me' anthem ("You've Got Another Thing Comin'"), yet even these seem well handled. Unlike Point of Entry, Screaming for Vengeance seems far more structured and plotted out rather than just spontaneously created in some exotic studio locale to fit a particular theme. But it doesn't hurt that so many of the individual songs are bastions of strong writing and hooks that likely won't escape your memory...ever.

It also doesn't hurt that "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" is either tied with or surpassing "Breaking the Law" as the band's singular, most recognizable song. And at twice the length! The simple chugging in the verses is flush with Halford's diatribe of revenge and rebellion, and the (predictable) chorus is simply a timeless miracle that will probably sound as fresh and poignant in 2082 as it did in 1982. The lead, while not the best in their canon, also seemed a step up from most on the previous two albums, all tying in with the notion that Priest had once again attained some forward momentum here. Remarkably, the rest of the songs on the album are not nearly so popular. The dire melodies that instigate the brief intro "The Helion" are pervasive, and "Electric Eye" has some of the most unforgettable guitars in it since "Breaking the Law" and an ace chorus, but even this was not the hugest hit when the album first arrived. Other notables include "Bloodstone" with its airy screaming in both the verses and chorus, and a pretty sweet intro-lick reminiscent of something Eddie Van Halen might have pulled on one of his group's earlier records. Or "Riding on the Wind" with Dave Holland's opening battery and some cutting highway hard rock that makes it feel like a Point of Entry outtake (only a lot catchier thanks to that harpy chorus).

Priest also shows a softer side at points, but not for very long. Cleaner guitar tones introduce "(Take These) Chains" and "Fever", but it's not long before the chords erupt. Both highly underrated songs, but then, so is everything on this album that isn't named "You've Got Another Thing Comin'". The only tune I'm not a huge fanatic for is "Pain and Pleasure", which implements more or less a swaggering bluesy groove riff in the Zeppelin vein, yet even here the chorus is admittedly pretty good. In total, there is no imbalance to Screaming for Vengeance as there was with its predecessors. I never felt that I was experiencing a glut of creativity or phoned in filler; all the songs are very unified due to the production and pacing, but distinct from one another.

It helps that Rob is really on fire throughout the 39 minutes of the album, relying heavily on the screamed lines that he'd reined in for a few of the recent albums. I don't know about you, but while I appreciate the guy's adventurous nature and willingness to experiment and broaden his range to include its depths, I like it best when he's screeching over the iron-clad mesh of the guitars like acid raining from the sky, and we get plenty of that here. The guitar tone is boxy and effective, the leads spurious but entertaining, certainly some of the most acrobatic they'd yet delivered but still mindful of a good dual melody (as in the title track). The bass once again doesn't do much but follow the guitar, yet you can hear a few of his fills, and this was also the most muscular execution yet from Dave Holland, the powerful pounding undercurrent that the band would further exemplify as they blasted into the late 80s with Ram It Down, and of course the inevitable Painkiller.

Another element that I so love about Screaming for Vengeance is that, while it's immortal in quality, the album is very easily dated to the 80s and influential on so many greats to follow from Europe and the states. The zephyr-like reverb on the instruments, the huge if simple guitar hooks built to fill an arena, this was all a blueprint for hundreds of speed, power and even hard rock acts through the decade, and I really loved this sense of grand production, something we seem to miss in this modern age of excess tracking and digitized over-polish. Not that Screaming for Vengeance isn't 'clean' or mainstream enough sounding to satisfy even the most ardent pop audience, but there's just this sense of glory through the album that I don't get out of Rhapsody or Dragonforce, despite all their advancements in speed and technicality. This is not the best of Priest, but it's very far up the scale, hot enough to burst the mercury from its thermometer.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (the world is a manacled place)

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Judas Priest - Point of Entry (1981)

Of all the Judas Priest records up to and including Painkiller, Point of Entry probably received the worst rep. Turbo was more of a divisive side step, clearly it had some great songs and ideas, but not all fans were on board. With Point of Entry, it was more a case that it didn't have a blazing array of hit singles like the two albums before it. The band also moved a fraction further along the axis of accessibility here, and thus there's a bit more of a laid back hard rock vibe throughout the songs, even more so than was heard on British Steel. Clearly the band wanted to write an album of broad hooks and limited aggression, fit for cruising large open spaces like the implied desert/computer paper roadway of the (US) cover, and I think to that extent it's a success. But inevitably, it resembles its predecessor in having a selection of wonderful tunes offset by some obvious filler that proved anything but inspiring, and the ratio of the latter to the former is higher here.

"Heading Out to the Highway" is the only track that most people I know play any lip service to, a straight and somewhat dirty rocker with a glorious chorus that celebrates personal initiatives in life. Motivational metal, but the riffs aren't all that heavy despite the spacious, slicing tone Downing and Tipton draw from their axes. My favorite cuts are actually those in the middle of the record, "Desert Plains" and "Solar Angels". The airy picking and resonant vocals definitely feel like a desert blues, but especially in the former I love the effects created over the chorus and Halford's loner, drifting delivery. "Solar Angels" has some riffing patterns similar to "Heading Out to the Highway", and once again they throw a brief flurry of wild electronic effects which foreshadow Turbo but add a necessary atmosphere to balance out the rather predictable riffing. Of the rest of the songs, however, the only ones I pay much attention to are "Troubleshooter" for its fun, choppy hard rock riffing and "You Say Yes" for that climactic, if silly chorus melody. Others like "Don't Go'" and "Turning Circles" are bland and would be difficult to distinguish from bands like KISS or AC/DC if not for Halford's timbre.

Sonically, this is an album that favors the convertible owner. Roll down the top and just let these songs pound off into the dusty night as you race down the dusk. Internal landscape stereotyping lends me to believe that this would be a far more effective album for a road trip in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada or California than the band's native United Kingdom. But then, that makes sense, because they wrote and recorded this on the summery Mediterranean isle of Ibiza, and it definitely carries that seasonal aesthetic to it even if it seems better suited to larger stretches of desert than an island. Unlike the previous records, this was more of a sporadic creation of mood, and in a way it's more conceptually unified and consistent than most of their records (save the 1990 magnum opus Painkiller). The guitars and vocals are set just right in the mix, the drums solid and comfortable, the bass taking a backseat to the rest. I wasn't impressed with the leads on this disc but then neither was I all that enamored with them on British Steel. In one ear, out the opposite.

Point of Entry is indeed one of the least impressive of Priest's early offerings (about equal with Rocka Rolla in quality), but I feel like the negative reactions are often misrepresented or overinflated. It's still an enjoyable disc if you're in the proper mood or environment to experience it, even if the riffs and vocal hooks don't match up to the five albums leading up to it. Hell, I'd still take this in a heartbeat over any of the middling-to-crappy studio efforts the band released post-Painkiller, but there's no denying that around 50% of the content is stodgily average for a band who's prior ambitions launched them into the metallic stratosphere. If you're not on a desert drive, with time to kill,  then there's not much reason to visit more than a handful of the songs. The lyrics are in general quite pedestrian. I should point out too that all of the best tunes here are remastered for the Metalogy boxed set compilation (2004) where they sound superior.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (oh everybody breaks down sooner or later)

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Judas Priest - British Steel (1980)

British Steel is not an album requiring much introduction, since it's one of the most popular of Judas Priest's outings and one of the better known in all of the heavy metal spectrum. The English legends had already built up a staggering momentum by the time 1980 struck, and this put them well over the top into the living rooms and tape decks of enthusiasts the world, and many galaxies over. I've met extra-terrestrials from far down the nearest Spiral Arm who have this on their .mp3 player. Seriously, if you've not heard "Breaking the Law" by now then you're either three years old and under (in which case you've probably STILL been exposed to it, just not retained the chorus), or you're from some undiscovered tribe of aboriginals on some uncharted island who worship overhead air traffic as deities; in which case I should not be addressing 'you' in the second-person since it's unlikely you have the Intertrons.

And it makes sense: British Steel is a more commercial venture, not unlike Hell Bent for Leather before it, only far better written. This album is a veritable hit machine, built for radio without abandoning the whole heaviness of the chords and distinctive screaming that got them to that point. Yet, some of the songs are so damned unforgettable that their appeal transcended wide beyond the borders of the metal/hard rock audience, as prevalent as it was through the 80s. Hell, a live version of pretty much the entire album was available to download and play in Rock Band. I have family members two generations removed that know "Living After Midnight". Despite this level of saturation, though, I would find it dishonest to qualify British Steel as one of my very favorites from the band. Essential to own? Probably. Consistent? For the most part. But I've long felt that there were a few chinks in its armor which brokered the album's dominion from an empire to a fiefdom. A killer fiefdom that hosts a large range of jousts and events, mind you, but it couldn't win a war with its more stunning and grandiose siblings like Stained Class, Sin After Sin, Screaming for Vengeance or Painkiller.

I've already mentioned "Breaking the Law", and where would we be without it? The vocal patterns are so pristine that they truly feel as if they've been engraved into the razor blade on the cover along with the logo and album title. The melodic lead-in guitar pattern is a thing of legend, learned by hundreds of thousands of aspiring six-stringers, and the chugging aggression of the chorus is enough to start a riot in any crowd of inebriated or even sober witnesses. Not to mention the atmosphere on the vocals, and the fact that the whole tune clocks in at around 2 and a half minutes. Concise and mother fucking immortal. "Living After Midnight" is the other giant in the room, with its party rock guitars and chorus that might just as well have been attributed to KISS or the Rolling Stones; but then you've got this 'second string' of semi-legendary tracks that have become regulars in the band's set list throughout the decades. The forceful, airy power metal staple "Rapid Fire" which has been emulated to precision in hundreds of cases; the mid-paced stadium anthem "Metal Gods" with its burly chords and laconic but hooky chorus; the dark grooves of "Grinder" and highway ready "Steeler", both of which would spawn bands using the titles as monikers (as other Priest songs had done in the past).

So what's my hangup? The rest of the album. I can forgive "The Rage" for its reggae-like introduction since the chords in the verse swagger with a particular degree of bad-assery, and I enjoy the flecks of rust Rob Halford places on the vocal lines. But the arena anthem "United", despite its cheesy melodic chorus, simply does not stand out to memory, paling in comparison to "Metal Gods" from the very same album, and suffering from a pretty generic guitar riff even for 1980. Not sure why this was chosen for a single. As for "Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise", I would not have even remembered the song was on British Steel were I not listening again to review it, a pretty bare bones hard rock track without much appeal to the chorus, though it certainly feels classic Priest in its execution. All things considered, neither of these is necessarily a 'bad' song, just painfully average and overshadowed by the many great tracks that would catapult the band even further into the collective metal conscience. Another slight nuisance is the lack of devastating leads. A lot of the songs have them, but they get lost in the shuffle and often feel more atmospheric than impressive, even in the bigger numbers.

Production is good and dry, clean and appropriate for the mainstream steamrolling that the album would take straight to the bank, but perhaps not one of their best in terms of driving the songs into my noggin. This was the first album with new drummer Dave Holland, who would remain with Priest for six studio efforts before Scott Travis came in for Painkiller, but his output isn't all that wild here. Capable and dependable, like most of the albums he would appear on, and certainly heavy enough to add some ballast to the riffing, but not quite the powerhouse equivalent of his successor. Ian Hill's bass is present, but hardly exemplary and I feel it does get lost under the dry, ruddy industrial strength sheen of the chords; while Halford is his normal self, but he's not executing the same screaming and variation that he manifests on earlier (and later) works. Lyrically, too, this was never one of their most interesting records, especially tracks like "United" which have the poignancy of a kindergartner reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while privately thinking how he's going to stealth a few hours on his dad's XBOX later that evening.

In the end, though, the songs really win out here. At least six of them, and British Steel earns its keep despite the sagging, unremarkable middle cuts. Certainly the first 15 minutes of the album are comparable in quality to nearly anything else in their catalog, and its logical that this would be one of their better sellers in England and the States. Heavily promoted, and not surprisingly, defined as a major milestone in the genre due to its success and the utter stickiness of some of the songs.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (then I'm gone, I'm gone)


http://www.judaspriest.com/

Judas Priest - Metalogy (2004)

Rather than waste my time and yours vomiting over the dozen or so other approved and unapproved collections of Judas Priest material that have been released into the open arms of suckers through the past 30 years, I'll instead focus on the only one that matters: the special edition Metalogy boxed set from 2004, which features 4 discs and a bonus DVD swathed in mock leather and studs. Now, this thing isn't cheap, it'll probably put you out at least 40 bucks US if you can find it today, but trust me when I say that it's worth the cost for any diehard follower of the band's legacy. There are a few areas in which it could have used some improvement, honing it into a near perfect product, but hands down this is superior to garbage like the Metal Works '73-'93 collection or the Gull cash-in Hero, Hero which muddles with the first two albums, and a damn sight better than the rest.

And it's not the packaging or the sheer wealth of content here that's impressive. No, if Metalogy was a mere reprinting of 65 cuts from the albums with no tinkering, it'd be a heaping helping of useless shit. The audio remastering of every cut on the four audio discs is absolutely phenomenal. In fact, in almost all cases, these are the very versions of the songs I prefer to experience. The leads, the cutting vocals, the reverb levels sound incredibly across all the eras of the band's material, and even though you're not getting the lion's share of their catalog, you're at least getting all the hits that you'd expect at a Priest gig, and then some. In particular, I dug how the selections from Point of Entry and Turbo, two of the band's more divisive albums seem to have a harder edge to them here that makes them flush with the more aggressive material from Ram It Down, Painkiller and so forth. "Desert Plains", "Solar Angels", "Troubleshooter" and "Heading Out to the Highway" sound so fucking great, and the guitar tone on "Turbo Lover" and "Private Property" seems to be brought out a little richer than it was on the original release of the album. The leads take my breath away...and as someone who does not own any of the individual remastered albums, the value skyrocketed.

That said, one of the downsides to Metalogy is that there's very little to no rare content included. Most of the previously unreleased to CD material are live tunes drawn from B-sides or promotional EPs, titles like "The Hellion/Electric Eye", "Grinder", "Breaking the Law", "Starbreaker", etc. Granted, the live songs replace their studio incarnations in the lineup (circumventing any possible redundancy), and sound every bit as great  but I would have loved if there were an entire disc of remastered rarities. As it stands, the only track new to me was the "Heart of a Lion" demo, a leftover from the Turbo sessions, and it's not much to write home about, trumped by just about anything that made it onto that record. Also, I don't see much need in including the Tim 'Ripper' Owens fronted material here. It's tucked gently away on the last four tracks of the fourth audio CD, where it belongs chronologically, but considering how recent this stuff was at the time of the compilation's release I would have rather had four more remastered classics. After all, I dislike Jugulator and Demolition quite a bit and I can't imagine anyone caring about it...

They could have at least clipped these and fattened up the selection from Rocka Rolla, which consists of only "Never Satisfied". But of course they want to acknowledge that sad, sad period of their career...so we can compare and contrast it to how good they were leading up to it?! Otherwise, Metalogy is a beast due solely to the sound quality, and well worth spinning on your car or home stereo as a proxy to the original albums (though you'd be missing a lot of great songs). The DVD included here is a reprint of the old Priest VHS known simply as Judas Priest Live, from a Tennessee gig in 1982, redubbed Live Vengeance '82. Stock, cult footage, nothing special, but nice to have here instead of shelling out for the independent DVD release. At any rate, despite it's rather 'tough' looking exterior, it's packed in there pretty tightly, enough that it might be worth ripping in high quality and then leaving on your rack for display, but aside from that fact and the shocking dearth of rarities, it's the one comp in over 40 years of this band's career you'll want. Skip the bullshit like The Chosen Few (tracks selected by famous metal celebrities) and grab Metalogy while you can still find it.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather (1978)

That Judas Priest could follow up a masterpiece like Stained Class with another great album so quickly was nothing short of a miracle, so I can probably forgive this 1978 successor if it does possess a marginally higher ratio of filler to the truly captivating material. By this time they had proven to be one of the most productive and consistent acts in the hard rock spectrum, destroying peers like Black Sabbath who were starting to dive in quality around this time, and continuing to expand the number of unforgettable songs they could fuse into their existing live sets by at least 3-4 on this very disc. For once, also, we Americans didn't get the short end of the stick: we got the version with the better title, not to mention the Fleetwood Mac cover. Yeah, yeah, fuck you, across-the-ponders.

I kid, of course, but though Killing Machine was a decent and extreme cliche for a metal record in the 70s, Hell Bent for Leather is simply put one of the best album brands I've ever seen among the tens of thousands in memory. However, either is a fitting label for the amount of aggression Priest have put into this record, the primary characteristic which differentiates it from its direct predecessor. Stylistically, there's not much of a gulf between the two, but the chords hit a lot harder, the heavier songs seem a lot more gnarly and vicious. One of the reasons for this is Halford's delivery, which on a tune like "Hell Bent for Leather" or "Take On the World" was downright nasty as he focused more on placing a gritty, barbaric edge to his lower and mid ranged. In fact, the screams don't really define his presence on this album like they did on Stained Class: truly, they still existed, but there is admittedly more variety in general with this album. Not that the vocals are better, necessarily, but it's good to know that Rob had no intention of discontinuing his growth.

I always caught a vibe of an almost science fiction, apocalyptic undercurrent to this record which likely stems from the tapping/effects used in tunes like "Burnin 'Up" or the title track, but really the album seems to travel all over the place. "Take on the World" could be viewed as a progenitor to the whole Manowar, muscle metal trend, since lyrically and musically the New Yorkers have spent over half their career simulating it (even the vocals seem like they had a huge influence on Joey DeMaio). The anthem-esque shouts of the vocal harmonies, the simple cadence of the war drums, and the simple chord structure. They do a huge Zeppelin groove in "Evil Fantasies", an almost KISS-like swagger to "Killing Machine", and a further, bluesy boogie to "Rock Forever" with wild, almost conversational vocals in the verse that burst into incredible screams and chorus harmonies. There's even a straight up, psychedelic/prog rock ballad in "Before the Dawn", which while admittedly is one of the least interesting or impressive on the album, shows that they've still got that same dynamic range they did years earlier on the debut.

But none of those songs are the best here, and in fact a number of them settle into the 'above average' range which ensured you wouldn't be seeing them on a whole lotta set lists. There are four in particular which shine brighter than the remainder. "Delivering the Goods" flexes a little of Glenn Tipton's whammy wanking and tapping as it drives from a memorable, saturated blues metal lick into a total bad ass (though obvious) chorus. "Running Wild" is a prototype power/heavy metal song that even bands like Iron Maiden would emulate (in the central riff), not to mention that, like "Exciter" on the previous album, would transfer over to provide the musical inspiration and moniker of another legendary metal outfit. "Evening Star" has a gorgeous intro with clean guitars that sounds like something The Cult would pull, but explodes into a friendly but truly catchy chorus. And last but not least, one of the finest rock-to-metal transformations in history in the band's cover of "Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown)", so good that I feel it surpasses the original Fleetwood Mac version. Pure, mid-gait fuel injection rock & roll under a wailin', bluesy salsa with Les Binks riding that hi-hat for all it's worth.

Ultimately, this is not the crown jewel in the Judas Priest legacy, but it's got enough value that I still find myself listening decades down the line, even through its entirety. The pacing of the record is pretty sweet, but there are only a few points at which it creates that same level of breathless exhilaration that I felt from Sin After Sin or Stained Class. The lyrics are marginally more generic, creating a biker/party atmosphere that lacks the same depth, and it almost seems as if they were providing a blue collar alternative to their more heady material. That said, when it does shine, we're talking 'greatest hits' good for the songs I mentioned in that last 'graph, and the iconic cover image and status as the Les Binks 'swansong' with Priest ensure that it belongs in your collection alongside the more refined ambitions of its elder '78 sibling.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (dreams crash one by one to the ground)

http://www.judaspriest.com/