By Andrew Bansal
For the past three years, ever since parting ways with KK Downing and welcoming new guitarist Richie Faulkner into the fold as his replacement, metal gods Judas Priest have been talking about the possibility of a new album, a back-to-the-roots effort after the 2008 concept album ‘Nostradamus’ which was clearly a departure from the norm. All the hype and talk has eventually materialized and for the band and their fans, the moment has finally arrived. The seventeenth Judas Priest album ‘Redeemer Of Souls’ is about to be unleashed. I was given access to the album a week ago, and it was time to temporarily put aside the fact that I’ve always worshipped this band and always will, to give it a good number of thorough and objective listens for the purpose of this review.
The 13-track album spans a 62-minute duration, and including the five bonus tracks which can be obtained by purchasing the deluxe edition, ‘Redeemer Of Souls’ amounts to nearly 84 minutes of Judas Priest. The record begins with the mid-paced ‘Dragonaut’, an assortment of extremely generic riffs, solos and vocal melodies but not a terrible start and you hope things would liven up on the rest of the album. ‘Redeemer Of Souls’ has more of the heavy metal gallop Priest fans can relate to and is decidedly better with somewhat of a ‘Hell Patrol’ vibe to it, while the fist-pumping ‘Halls Of Valhalla’ comes across as a great follow-up, boasting of some enjoyable vocals choruses, guitar work and a semblance of the classic Halford high-pitched scream.
But this is where the album starts losing momentum, as ‘Sword Of Damocles’ fails to make any kind of impact even upon repeated listening, and the same can be said about the next three tracks ‘March Of The Damned’, ‘Down In Flames’ and ‘Hell And Back’, not only presenting bland music but also having unbelievably generic and unoriginal song titles and lyrics. There are a couple of noteworthy musical moments on these three tracks altogether, like the intro of ‘Down In Flames’ and the guitar solo in ‘Hell And Back’, but aside from that, they don’t meet the expectations I had from Halford and co. But thankfully, the album does get better, albeit briefly, and comes forth with ‘Cold Blooded’, the best of the 13 tracks on the standard edition. The vocals, the guitars, the lyrics, the rhythm section, the progression in tempo, everything on this song is a genuine throwback to classic Priest and this is honestly the only track that can hold a candle to Priest’s most loved classics of the past.
The remaining four tracks on Redeemer Of Souls don’t match up to the instant impact of ‘Cold Blooded’, but ‘Crossfire’ has a nice laid-back classic/southern rock Rocka Rolla/Sad Wings Of Destiny feel to it which some people could find enjoyable, and ‘Battle Cry’ treats Priest worshippers with a fantastic twin guitar harmony between Richie Faulkner and Glenn Tepton, of which there isn’t nearly enough on the album.
Talking of the bonus tracks, I was left flabbergasted upon listening to them because I realized that these five songs put together are actually better than the whole of the 13-track album and I fail to understand the thought process behind choosing these to be bonus tracks, as the album could have certainly benefitted from the inclusion of some, if not all of them. ‘Snakebite’ is a lively tune extremely easy to sing along and rock out to, and the same goes for ‘Tears Of Blood’ which takes it a notch further with a greater guitar solo. ‘Creatures’ and ‘Bring It On’ maintain the impetus, and things end with ‘Never Forget’, a well-executed ballad.
The music on the 84-minute effort undoubtedly encompasses some great moments but they are few and far between. Most of it sounds unmistakably recycled, and as mentioned earlier, there is a discernible shortage of the signature Priest twin guitar harmony. With that said, Richie Faulkner seems to have done as good a job at filling KK Downing’s shoes as anyone could have, and in addition to that he manages to put his own stamp on the album as you can hear certain things previously unheard in Priest’s guitar work. But when it comes to recent items of the Priest catalog (post-Painkiller), I have to say ‘Angel Of Retribution’ is still by far the best of the lot.
Besides, the production doesn’t quite succeed in capturing the classic Judas Priest sound we’re all familiar with, a far cry from the godlike production of records such as Defenders Of The Faith, Ram It Down and Painkiller. On most tracks, Halford’s vocals are overly processed and self-harmonized, almost sounding like an attempt to ‘hide’ them, and except for a few moments, the music on the whole just doesn’t cut through with any great power or conviction.
Overall, this long-awaited Judas Priest record doesn’t quite deliver the goods, and while in all honesty, Priest fans would be best prescribed to a healthy regimen of classic Priest albums along with Angel Of Retribution on the side, the band’s upcoming North American tour (hopefully with not more than one or two songs off of this new album) will still be a great show, and all things considered, the disappointment of Redeemer Of Souls does not bare any negative impact on my unwavering Priest worship.
Rating: 5/10
Record Label: Sony/Epic
Release Dates:
July 8th 2014 (US)
July 14th 2014 (UK)
Track Listing:
01. Dragonaut
02. Redeemer Of Souls
03. Halls Of Valhalla
04. Sword Of Damocles
05. March Of The Damned
06. Down In Flames
07. Hell And Back
08. Cold Blooded
09. Metalizer
10. Crossfire
11. Secrets Of The Fire
12. Battle Cry
13. Beginning Of The End
14. Snakebite (bonus track)
15. Tears Of Blood (bonus track)
16. Creatures (bonus track)
17. Bring It On (bonus track)
18. Never Forget (bonus track)
Links:
JudasPriest.com
facebook.com/OfficialJudasPriest
twitter.com/JudasPriest
US tour dates w/ Steel Panther:
Oct 01 – Rochester, NY – Main Street Armory
Oct 03 – Hammond, IN – The Venue at Horseshoe Casino
Oct 04 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life Fest at Champions
Oct 09 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays
Oct 10 – Atlantic City, NJ – Harrah’s
Oct 11 – Mashantucket, CT – MGM Grand Theater at Foxwood’s
Oct 14 – Lowell, MA – Tsongas Center at UMass
Oct 15 – Allentown, PA – PPL Center
Oct 17 – East Rutherford, NJ – Izod Center
Oct 19 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
Oct 24 – Baltimore, MD – Pier Six Pavilion
Oct 28 – Duluth, GA – The Arena at Gwinnett Center
Oct 30 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live Arena
Nov 06 – Allen, TX – Allen Event Center
Nov 07 – Austin – FunFunFun Fest
Nov 10 – Los Angeles, CA – Nokia
Nov 12 – Phoenix, AZ – Jobing Arena
Nov 13 – Highland, CA – San Manuel Casino
Nov 14 – Las Vegas, NV – The Pearl
Nov 16 – San Jose, CA – City National Civic
Nov 18 – Salt Lake City, UT – Maverik Center