With
Rob Halford back on vocals Judas Priest seem to be building
up quit a stir in the metal world. Not only do they have the
co/headlining slot on this years metal extravaganza the Ozzfest,
Judas Priest as well have released a huge box set sure to
break necks across the land. 65 blistering tracks on 4 CD's
are compiled covering 3 decades of pure metal supremacy proving
Priest are the true fathers of heavy metal.
Metalogy
was thankfully assembled with the full participation of the
band members themselves making this a much more interesting
box set the past efforts from so many less worthy artists.
Disk #1 is an extreme education on the metal power riff with
such heavy weight classics as Deceiver, Dissident Aggressor,
Exciter, The Green Manalishi, and Stained Glass. Proving how
ahead of themselves Priest actually were in the mid-seventies,
these early tracks seem so essential in building the stepping
stones of what heavy metal has become all these years later.
At times it seems almost hard to believe that some of these
songs were recorded over 25 years ago with no concern of becoming
the next big trend setting band that plagues modern music
so much today.
Capturing
Judas Priest in their early prime, CD 2 easily stands out
as the pinnacle of their ground- breaking careers. Rob Hanford's
voice is so viciously precise in this era of Priest that such
timeless classics as Delivering The Goods, Evil Fantasies,
Living After Midnight, Metal Gods and Heading Out To The Highway
prove beyond a doubt that he's one of the finest vocalists
around. With The Hellion/Electric Eye, and Screaming For Vengeance
wrapping up the 2nd CD it becomes hard to believe that so
much quality music came from Judas Priest well before the
invasion of the disgustingly saturated hair metal of the eighties.
CD
#3 moves further into the mid-late eighties with more blistering
tracks from the album Screaming For Vengeance including Riding
On The Wind, You've Got Another Thing Coming, and Devil's
Child. If your neck hasn't already been put thru enough brutal
head banging Metalogy continues with a slew of cuts from releases
such as Defenders Of The Faith and Turbo Lover. This in my
opinion was when Judas Priest began falling prey to following
the trends of the times by introducing keyboards, sparkly
leather stage clothes and welcoming a much cleaner production.
With such songs as Turbo Lover and Love Bites, all was not
lost, fans just had to except a more slick image and by the
sales of these to efforts Priest was still a strong arm in
the metal world. Ending CD #3 is sadly one of the only few
added extras, an unreleased demo softly titled Heart Of The
Lion.
Ending
Metalogy on CD #4 are the most recent released tracks from
Priests huge catalog of fist pumping metal. Ram It Down starts
things off moving Priest into a much more modern metal sound
keeping up with all the young metal merchants. Picking up
the tempo to mesh with the sign of the times we find Judas
Priest bashing out a more thrash-influenced edge with such
cuts as Pain Killer, Metal Meltdown, and Machine Man. These
last tracks are noticeably quite different not only with the
loss of Rob Halford on vocals but also with the whole Priest
vibe in general. Ripper Owens does quite well on vocals but
Judas Priest seemed to be a bit lost in the shuffle by their
last few releases becoming more watered down sounding less
like themselves.
Metalogy
is an awesome box set to say the least. With over 60 songs
spanning the careers of one of rocks easily most influential
artists what more could a Priest fan want? With an added DVD
of the long out of print Screaming For Vengeance classic Memphis
concert as well as a full color book containing many unseen
photos this is a masterpiece that should be added to any true
metal fan. Packaged in a leather wrapped spiked box Judas
Priest has easily out done themselves with Metalogy, lets
hope this years Ozzfest appearance is as jaw-dropping.
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