Review Summary: So close, and yet so far...
When Judas Priest released
Painkiller, in 1991, they were at an all-time roll. The ‘banging media held them as darlings, the fans saw them as the ambassadors of true heavy metal, and both the sales and the contract reflected the band’s popularity.
And then Halford left the band.
In a totally unexpected move, the recently-uncloseted frontman decided to split up with the band at the end of the Painkiller tour, stating his desire to do something different and explore new things within metal. He then went on to launch an extremely erratic solo career that, while staying true to its primitive intent, ultimately failed at a commercial level. Part of this failure may have been related to the fact that the “interim” albums weren’t exactly what the fans had come to expect from the “Metal God”. Sure, Fight were traditional metallers, but let’s face it – they sucked. As for Two, their album wasn’t all that bad, but for über-conservative metal fans, the industrial/alternative sound of the project was anything but welcome. In fact, Halford and Reznor’s album was such an epic flop that the Metal God did the wisest thing: put an end to the experimentation and go back to good ol’ heavy metal.
This brings us to 2000. Priest were controversially carrying on with Tim “Ripper” Owens, and had released one sub-par album, with another on the way about a year later. Things between Tipton, Downing and Halford were still tense, and there was no foreseeing the reunion that would take place in five or so years. That was why Halford felt free to assemble his one crack team of musicians – including producer Roy Z and Bobby Jarzombek, of Riot – and have a go at an album aptly titled “Resurrection”.
The cover is clear and leaves very little to imagination: this is Halford, back on the saddle (literally), playing the kind of leather-and-spikes heavy metal that made him famous in the first place. The initial title track does little to dispel this notion, as it is an apologetic, ripping metal anthem sung entirely in Rob’s trademark falsetto wails, with excellent riffing and a fist-pumping chorus. However, don’t be too quick to peg this album; it will soon be proved that there’s more to Halford’s sound than initally meets the eye.
Listening to second track
Made In Hell, however, no-one would have guessed it. This is another track in the finest Judas Priest tradition, with a full set of lyrics, a great chorus, fast riffing and a general capacity to get our blood boiling. We’re only at the end of the second track, and already we’re thinking this could be the metal masterpiece for the twenty-first century, a true gem at a time when real classics are rare to non-existant.
But then….what happened? The intro to
Locked and Loaded is a bucket of ice-cold water right down the spine of our ambitions. The decrease in quality in relation to the previous two tracks is alarmingly steep, and while subsequent, forewarned listens help diminish the effect, the shudder never quite goes away. The track itself eventually evolves into a decent rocker, reminiscent of mid-period Priest, but nothing can excuse that intro.
However, fortunately, the album manages to pick up again, and the next few tracks showcase the diversity Halford meant for his debut solo effort to have. Every era of Priest’s career – as well as Fight and even Two – finds itself represented in at least one song here.
Nightfall harks back to
Killing Machine/Hell Bent for Leather, being eerily similar to
Evening Star;
Saviour and
Cyber World are the typical, fast-paced numbers found in any Priest and Halford record; and
Drive even rehabilitates the earliest Judas years, consisting of a boogie worthy of inclusion on
Rocka Rolla. And what can one say about the awesome
Silent Screams, except that it basically contains two songs in one, and they’re equally good?
In fact, along with the first two tracks,
Silent Screams is probably the clearest standout on the album. Starting off as a ballad, it lulls the listener into a conventional song structure, only to spin them right around about halfway through, when the song becomes something entirely different – a fast paced rocker with a blistering solo. Towards the end, it returns to its earlier incarnation, and quietly ends, leaving us broken and battered against the wall.
And this is where another problem comes up. The next track after
Silent Scream starts with a huge riff, preparing us for another rip-snorting metal track. However, once the drums come in, it’s…a mid-tempo. Worse, it features
Bruce Dickinson, the Bruce Dickinson, dueting with Halford. Two of the greatest masters of epic heavy metal joining forces on the same track, and what do they give us? A drab mid-tempo stomper that owes little to either the epicism of Maiden or the speed and power of Judas Priest. This is another one of those tracks where the listener feels that it could have been so much more, if it had been done right…
This brings us to another general problem of this album: nearly every other track is a mid-tempo. Come on, guys! If we had wanted to listen to stomping riffs and percussion, we would have stuck witn Fight. There's a
reason they didn't succeed, and that is: we want more speed! There's a fair quota of fast rockers on this one, but in general, the album sounds kind of like one gigantic mid-tempo. This further hinders the obtaining of the 'classic' status it could have so easily garnered.
However, that’s not the worst of it. If you thought
The One You Love To Hate was bad, wait until you hear the dire
Twist. Notoriously influenced by the Two experiment, this is the misstep of the album, a rejected b-side from
See You On The Other Side-era Korn that isn’t worthy of licking the rest of this album’s boots. Worse, it kicks off a cluster of uninteresting songs that threaten to end this album on a down-note; fortunately,
Saviour saves the day, and partially washes away the bitter taste these tracks left in our ears.
Still, while there are a few
faux-pas, this is undoubtedly a very good metal album, that manages not to waste all its bullets in the first few rounds. Granted, it relies a little too heavily on mid-tempos, the first half is much better than the second, and nothing ever even touches those first two tracks in terms of sheer awesomeness; but there are a number of strong back-up tracks that manage to keep the listener’s interest evenly balanced throughout the duration of the album. It also clearly shows where Judas Priest gathered the inspiration for their varied, interesting reunion album,
Angel of Retribution, released five years later.
That’s that as far as music is concerned. However, I could not finish this review without mentioning something very important: the lyrics. On this album, Halford “pulls an Ozzy”, so to speak. As with the Madman’s
Down To Earth, released one year after this, Halford takes the chance to purge some inner demons, offering us several auto-biographical lyrics.
Resurrection starts the album off explicitly, containing the stanza:
I walked alone into a Fight
No longer standing in satanic light
I tried to look too far ahead
And saw the road go to my past instead
Anyone remotely familiar with Halford’s solo carreer will have no problem identifying the thinly veiled metaphors in this verse.
Made In Hell ups the ante a notch, consisting
entirely of a description of Rob Halford’s carreer. From the “memories of ’68, when The Wizard shook the world”, to references to “the coal mines and the industries” of his pre-Judas days, this is an accurate, unromanticized depiction of the Metal God’s rise to fame, and the way he “took the scream around the world” to please millions of fans.
Silent Screams, on the other hand, features the following verses:
Look at me I'm chasing
After dreams left in the storm
What I am is all
That really matters now
That lies are gone -
That lies are gone,
All the lies are gone,
The lies are gone.
Tempting fate and losing
Friends along the way I loved
No regrets
I'm standing
With a needle in my heart -
Needle in my heart,
Needle in my heart,
Needle in my heart
Once again, no explanation necessary.
Other lyrics deal with more mundane, fantasy subjects (
Saviour and
Cyber Wold recover the “omnipresent tyrant” motif of later-day Priest), but most of them spew knowledge on broken or troubled relationships, reinforcing the idea that this is a healing album for Halford. Furthermore, nearly every song has a full, detailed set of lyrics, conveying a strong and well-thought-out message. Even songs with more conventional structures, such as
Locked and Loaded or
Nightfall, take special care not to overuse their choruses – an ailment that is sadly common among traditional metal bands.
All in all, then,
Resurrection is a professional, well-groomed album – unsurprising, since musicians like Halford and Roy Z are involved – that nevertheless falls a few tiny steps short of greatness. If it had continued on the path of its first two tracks, it would easily have attained masterpiece status; as it stands, it’s a solid, necessary purchase for classic metal enthusiasts, but one that could so easily have been much more…
Recommended Tracks
Resurrection
Made in Hell
Silent Screams
Cyber World
