Judas Priest – Redeemer of Souls
Release Date: July 8, 2014
It’s 2014 and the Priest is back! Did you just read that hearing Rob Halford’s voice in your head? I thought so. I have been less than impressed with anything Judas Priest has put out since Painkiller but as always, I went into this album with an open mind and hoping for the best. Anyways, the Priest is indeed back with their 17th album Redeemer of Souls and in all honesty, if you ask me, this was without a doubt a swing and big ol’ miss. The band released the first single “Dragonaut” and the first thing I thought was that they just sounded tired and somewhat lifeless. When I finally got around to hearing the rest of this album it just solidified that fact for me. Priest swings… Priest misses.
The songwriting on Redeemer of Souls is a big improvement from Priest’s previous few offerings but the real problem here is in the delivery. For having such an awesome, young blood guitarist such as Richie Faulkner, you’d think that the band would’ve found some new energy and drive like they did when they released Painkiller. Instead, songs like “Redeemer of Souls”, “Halls of Valhalla” and “Metalizer” sound like rehashed, leftover riffs from Painkiller. Listening to Rob Halford on this album is just plain sad. The man who was once one of the most powerful, dynamic voices in metal now talks his way through most of these songs unable to even reach the heights that at one time only he could reach. “Sword of Damocles” was actually a really good song that really reminded me classic Priest but again, Halford’s lifeless vocal delivery just makes it fall completely flat.
Musically I found Redeemer of Souls to sometimes come close to capturing the essence of classic Priest only to fall apart before the end of a song. As a whole, Redeemer of Souls sounded contrived, lifeless, bored, dishonest, and completely forced. Judas Priest just sounds tired and completely tapped out of ideas. I have been hearing so many people praising this new Judas Priest album that you’d think it was the second coming of Screaming for Vengeance. They must be hearing a totally different album because what I hear is a tired, uninspired, and bored band with a very tired singer who is barely a shadow of his former self. I just don’t get it and I’m sure I will get a lot of shit for this but this isn’t the first time a classic band has put out subpar product. Black Sabbath did it with “13” and Priest is doing it with Redeemer of Souls. You can praise it all you want because of the fact that it’s Judas Priest but in my mind, just because a band is “legendary” doesn’t give them a hall pass to put out sub-par material.
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