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Judas Priest - Demolition Review


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JUDAS PRIEST – DEMOLITION REVIEW

Ah Demolition, the infamously named (by most) worst album in Judas Priest’s catalogue, (Far from it IMO). To be fair Tim Owens didn’t have an easy job, having to replace the legendary Rob Halford, possibly the greatest voice in all of metal, but did he do a good job? Hell yeah he did, 2 great albums and another 2 great live outings, shrieking his lungs out, proving he can perform anything from Victim of Changes to Painkiller and do it well, the Metal Messiah did a fantastic replacing the Metal God.

 
But anyway onto the first track, ‘Machine Man’ is a great piece of raw speed metal, beginning with epic drumming from Scott Travis and shredding guitars, Ripper’s voice as usual is epic but a tad restrained which is a bit of a shame, thankfully he opens up on later tracks, but then we come to one of the main weaknesses on this album, the lyrics, they aren’t terrible, but you have lines like; “So you motherfuckers want to race You've all got loser tattooed on your face” uh Glenn? WTF were you smoking when writing this? It doesn’t take too much away from the song just a bit silly, a great opener overall.

‘One on One’ is a great heavy head banger of a song, starts off with a weird robotic intro then the skull-crushing guitars come in, lyrics are a bit simple but the chorus is pretty dope, and if the chugging riffs don’t make you bob your head to this song I don’t know what will, one of my personal favourites from this album.

‘Hell is Home’ starts with a very  gloomy sounding intro, then comes crashing in with heavy guitars and some great groovy lines from Ripper, never failing to make me bang my head, love the chorus on this song too, overall a very cool dark sounding song with catchy lyrics, a good old Heavy rocker.

‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is the first song that i’m not too bothered about, it’s ok but I often find myself skipping it even though it’s the shortest song on the album, however I do like the opening line, kinda catchy but the song just doesn’t really go anywhere for me.

Now we move on to ‘Close To You’ the best ballad since Beyond the Realms of Death, (not quite as good as that masterpiece but still great in its own right) full of passion and emotion, you can really feel the pain in the vocals, a really beautiful sounding song, it’s nice we got a good ballad in Rippers run with the priest, one of the best songs on the album.

‘Devil Digger’ is next, the popular opinion for this song even among fans of the album are that it’s boring and too slow, and while I admit that the lyrics are pretty dire, the lead heavy riff and shouts of DEVILLL DIGGERRR do help me to enjoy the song, it’s not brilliant but I can rock to it, definitely one of the weaker tracks on the album though.

Next up ‘Bloodsuckers’ a great thrashy tune about lawyers, with some great shrieking vocals from Ripper (FINALLY) awesome riffs and a great chorus to shout along to, the lyrics aren’t too bad either, one of the best songs on the album.

‘In Between’ is a slow paced number with a few acoustic almost ballad like parts, overall not that interesting of a song to me, some pretty cool guitar bits here and there but it doesn’t really grab my attention, for some reason Rippers vocals seem a little uninspired on this one too, except for the screams of IIIIIN BETWEEEEEN!! Another skip for me.

‘Feed on me’ is a mid paced rocker with catchy riffs and more great vocals from Tim. Lyrics are a bit weird, but it’s a good song to jam to with a pretty good chorus and heavy guitars, pretty good song, one of the better ones.

‘Subterfuge’ is a really cool heavy song with a lot of great riffs, awesome vocals and pretty solid lyrics, and a really great chorus; a couple screams from the banshee that is Mr. Owens and you have a damn good song, really like this one, hit the replay button!

‘Lost and Found’ is a fairly average ballad, not bad, but not brilliant, we only really needed one ballad on the album and ‘Close to you’ did that really well, but to be honest it probably is mainly overshadowed by that brilliant song. Overall it’s a pretty nice song but not one of the best.

I have heard ‘Cyberface’ described as ‘boring’ and ‘cheesy’ while I’d agree with the latter with lyrics such as “BEWARE HIS MEGABYTE!” but that just makes me love the song more, it has a very Sabbath-like sound to it which I love, especially with the opening riffs, and it has some of the best SHRIEKING vocals from the incredibly talented Ripper, if you can get past the weird vocal effects on the chorus (I kind of like them as it fits the theme) it’s a great Heavy Doom-y sort of song.

So we come to the end of the album, and ‘Metal Messiah’ does not disappoint in the least, catchy as all hell a brilliant chorus, being the best on the album IMO, “He's the man, Armageddon! Walking through fire Metal Messiah! He's the one The Father, the Son Creator destroyer Metal Messiah!”  the song has an eastern sort of sound to it, a nonstop powerful song , love it definitely one of my favourites from the album.

If you have the version of the album I have you get an incredible version of Rapid Fire that just has to be heard, incredible and almost inhuman vocals from Ripper, and an okay version of the Green Manalishi.

Summary

To sum up i’d definitely say this is better than anything Priest have put out since the reunion, (No shade on Halford though, Firepower is a great album and comes very close.) i’d say it’s about number 8 in my order of Priest’s albums, I think it’s great, an unashamedly different sound for the band but it’s a great metal album nonetheless imo. Obviously it helps I have an insatiable love for Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, who is possibly becoming my favourite vocalist of all time (between him and Halford, funny I know.)

Awesome songs:
Machine Man, One on One, Hell is Home, Close To You, Bloodsuckers, Subterfuge, Cyberface, Metal Messiah

Good Songs:
Feed On Me, Lost and Found

Below Average Songs:
Jekyll and Hyde, Devil Digger, In Between
 

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