Review Summary: A decent summary of Rob Halford's career in one double album.
For those few of you who are unfamiliar with the band Halford, or Rob Halford the man at the helm, here is a brief history. Rob Halford became the lead singer of up and coming heavy metal band Judas Priest in 1974. Priest would go on to release classic albums such as ; Stained Class, Sad Wings of destiny, Screaming for Vengeance and Painkiller which kept then near the top of the heavy metal world for almost two decades. This all came to an end, when in 1992 Rob Halford seeking a change left the band. During the period between 1992 and 1999 Rob released albums with projects such as Fight and 2wo which failed to garner much attention. Then Rob started a new project which would return him to the forefront of heavy metal, a band originally titled “Halford”. With Halford in 2000 Rob released the somewhat acclaimed “Resurrection” and as a follow up in 2001 a live counterpart titled “Live Insurrection”.
The album kicks off with two songs from Resurrection , the title track and Made in Hell. The first thing that becomes apparent as soon as the title track begins is the fact that Rob’s vocals are in fine form, delivering his trademark high pitched wail with the same if not greater intensity than is present on the studio recording.
Up next is a selection of three tracks from the Fight era, Rob delivers a far superior vocal performance on these songs here than he ever did on any Fight record. Into the Pit in particular sounds amazing with an intense performance from Rob and proves that the musicians surrounding him on Live Insurrection are far better than any others he’s worked with away from Priest.
Following on are a few more Priest classics ,including some material from the 70’s such as Stained Class and Running Wild, both of which are done complete justice. Disc one continues with a live duet between Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson on The One You Love To Hate. This duet,whilst interesting ,could have been a moment in metal history had the duet been done on a stronger track. Closing Disc one is a few more solid Halford tracks and the standout Silent Screams.
After a short intro Disc two launches into Cyberworld, which is an adequate if not very outstanding track. Halford then launches into some of the enduring staples in the live catalogue of Judas Priest including: Electric Eye, Breaking the Law and Metal Gods. All of these tracks sound amazing and Rob and the band deliver energetic performances which don’t miss a beat, and are a vast improvement on the studio versions of these crowd favourites. On the note of the crowd Rob leaves the entire singing of Breaking the Law up to the audience, which tarnishes an overall decent performance on the song.
Three studio cuts close the album, which whilst the tracks are ok, they fail to live up to the rest of the album, making for a somewhat disappointing finish.
Overall, This is the finest work by the band Halford so far, and is a must for fans of Halford and Judas Priest as it delivers excellent performances of their material which will also to appeal to most if not all fans of heavy metal in general.
4.5/5
