1008. Halford / Resurrection. 2000. 5/5

After the separation of Rob Halford and the rest of Judas Priest following the tour to promote the “Painkiller” album, I suffer from a feeling that the decade of the 1990’s was lost for all sides of the equation. There was not a lot of standing still mind you, that they were inactive, but the sum of all of the parts still probably didn’t add up to the whole that had come before it. While Judas Priest eventually moved on, employing a new lead vocalist and releasing a new album in the form of “Jugulator” and resumed their touring duties, Halford himself had put together and performed in two new projects. The first had been Fight, a metal driven band that had a surprising hit with their debut album “War of Words” that was followed up with a slightly less enthusiastic air by “A Small Deadly Space”. Once this project had dissolved he had formed a duo with the guitarist John 5 which they called 2wo, which also included Bob Marlette on bass and Trent Reznor as producer. The album, “Voyeurs” tanked, and although Halford had already been planning demos for a purported second album, the project folded. Those demos were held onto, as Halford then began to plan his next moves. This time also corresponded to Halford doing an interview on MTV, in which he inadvertently and without planning, came out as gay, something that he claimed later filled him with elation and dread, and eventually empowering, able to now live his life with the cupboard door having been banged open.
Meanwhile, guitarist/composer/producer Roy Z had been involved in the resurrection (no pun intended) of Bruce Dickinson’s solo career, having performed all three of those roles for Dickinson’s “Accident of Birth” and “The Chemical Wedding” albums, each of which had been critically acclaimed and had seen his popularity rise to Iron Maiden-like levels amongst the fan base. No doubt sensing an opportunity of his own, Halford and Z came together to meet, and on the back of this agreed to work together on Rob’s next project. Halford had brought together a whole new band for this, his third attempt to create for himself a project that would satisfy all of his requirements. Patrick Lachman and Mike Chlasciak came on board as the two guitarists, and both contributed heavily to the writing process for the album as well, which gave this project the band feeling that was obviously important to Rob, that it was not just seen as a solo project. And thus became the basis of the debut album for the new band that took Rob’s name, Halford, and with a title that was more a statement than a prophecy, one that stood strong and bold for the beginning of the new era, the name of “Resurrection”.

While there were deliberate differences in the music produced by Rob Halford in his other projects prior to this one, a necessity borne from Rob wanting to do a solo album away from Judas Priest in the first place, “Resurrection” immediately feels like it is a return to the traditional heavy metal that Halford was renowned for in Judas Priest. In the main it feels as though this can be attributed to the presence of Roy Z, who not only produced the album but co-wrote the majority of the material that was recorded. Z had previously performed a similar ‘second coming’ for Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, had written the initial songs and riffs that had gotten Dickinson out of his funk and interested in pushing forward with his career after the disappointment he had felt with the reception for the “Skunkworks” album. It had propelled him not only to being back at the top of the metal music scene that he deserved to be with his talents, but eventually also back into the Iron Maiden fold. Here on “Resurrection”, Z does a similar thing, taking a man of unquestioned talent and a vocal range that was considered one of the best in all of the metal genre, and putting together a package that returned him to the top of his profession by writing songs that appealed to his main market. Along with Halford and Z, the contribution of both Lachman and Chlasciak to the writing of the songs and their performance on the album should not be overlooked.
Having everyone on the same page, in order to produce an album that best summed up the times in heavy metal and giving their leader the platform to sell it was massively important. This is an album that helps to slam the door on the previous decade, figuratively for Halford himself and on the slumber and increasing variety of music under the ‘metal’ banner. What “Resurrection” does is show that traditional heavy metal music was not dead, it had just been on hiatus, waiting for men such as these to bring it back to the surface once again. Z and Bruce Dickinson had proved that, and now Z and Halford were going to do the same thing.
This album has all of that, and more. The opening tracks are full of autobiographical lyrics brought forth with the energy that they deserve. Halford’s scream to introduce the opening title track is what punters had been waiting for, along with the squealing guitars, flying drums and fast paced track. Song lyrics such as “Son of Judas bring the saints to my revenge” that reference his roots in Judas Priest, and “I walked alone into a fight” referencing his first band post-Priest are strong moments, and the whole song speaks of his return, that ten years on from his final album with his previous band, this album is where he is taking his stand and making it on his on. “Made in Hell” follows this up with the same amazing energy pumping out of the speakers, and Rob’s music story attached lyrically for everyone to sing along to. And, it’s just such a powerful and catchy chorus, the energy dragging you in to charge along with Rob as he sings “HELL! We're gonna raise some hell!”. Also nice to have Sydney name checked in the song, nice touch Rob. Now dan well tour here more often! Anyway... moving on... It’s a great way to start the album, the opening two tracks have already brought metal and joy through the speakers.
What comes across as one of the major pillars of this album is the lovely contrast there is between many of the songs. Those opening two tracks are fast, belligerent in their way, and do a terrific job of setting the album up by having you know that ‘Rob Halford is back’... and now, here’s some stuff that is a bit different from that for you to enjoy. We crash straight into “Locked and Locked”, bang into the guitar groove and Rob staring you down from the outset and telling you straight how this is going to go. Very simple lyrics for this track, straight and to the point, but the guitar groove is wonderful and smoothly adapts to the way the track is going to play out. And then into the ripping guitar riff of “Night Fall”, as Rob’s brooding vocals crawl along the lower spectrum through the verse until we reach the chorus and he climbs back into the higher spectrum. The guitaring alone here shines, it sets the mood wonderfully from the outset, and holds it through to its conclusion.
“Silent Screams” is an incredible track, a song that showcases the majesty of Rob Halford’s amazing vocals without compromising anything in the music. The opening minute where we have the clear guitar and keys and Rob almost reciting a hymn, no power just beautifully sweet vocalising, that brings forth the duelled harmony into the first electric charge of the track. This then drops back again for a second burst of the opening sequence vocally, and the ever increasing power coming into the song but here the rise of Rob’s vocals is succinct but noticeable. And then, drop the hammer people as we crash into the back half of the song, as the guitars rev up, the drums hit down, and we are off, and Rob drives this song with the full force of his metal voice. The hard emphatic voice, the speed, and the absolute delight of the screams. It is spine tingling stuff here. An amazing song. And then, as it fades out gently, we have the bursting opening guitar of “The One You Love to Hate”, the duet of Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson, the two men most affected by the influence of Roy Z in their lives at that time. It’s a great heavy riff, one that befits both men and their careers, and the traded and dual vocals of two of metal greatest front men combine and offset each other beautifully. It’s a great track to follow up the epic qualities of the previous song.
Things are ramped up even further with the arrival of “Cyberworld” which switches into a higher gear immediately, and the guitars really carry this song and highlight the best that this band can offer. Trading riffs and solo pieces all the way through the song, even given Rob’s great higher snatches throughout, is the best part of this song. And then... the drop into the amazingly brilliant groove of the guitar riff on “Slow Down” is a surprisingly perfect segue between tracks. My word, the groove of the guitar, but also Rob’s vocals on this song, are just incredible. This is another tingle down the spine track, everything about the composition and structure of this song is perfect. Rob’s vocals that move from those high pitches to the low moody expressions, and the whole tone of the song, is amazing. “Silent Screams” and “Slow Down” are the two songs on this album co-written by Ron and Bob Marlette, and the fact that they are the two tracks that starkly stand out on this album as the two whose sound is slowed in tempo but heightened with mood and glory, is plainly obvious. Both are amazing tracks within the framework of everything else that has been set up on the other songs that had Lachman and Z as the major contributors.
“Twist” is another song that has a different flavour about it, and this is no doubt because it is solely written by former occasional Judas Priest contributor Bob Halligan Jr. It sounds great and Rob does a good job. But on an album of some spectacular songs this one just holds its head above water. “Temptation” channels the emotional aspects of “Silent Screams” and “Slow Down” but with the three guitar composers of Lachman, Chlasciak and Z it has a terrific fuller sound of the guitars as a result, a riff drive that hits harder, before Rob’s beautifully melodic vocals take over on the chorus and through the bridge when they are reminiscent of those Judas Priest days. Yet another amazing track on this album.
“Drive” has a similar riff progression as “The One You Love to Hate”. This song is composed by the trio who made up Halford's second band 2wo – yes, I know that seems like an error, but it is not – of Rob, Bob Marlette again and John 5. And much like that aforementioned track, there is nothing spectacular about the structure or riff progression about this song. It is a solid track that excellent albums need to be rated as such, because they provide the backbone that the great songs are built around. The album then closes with the charging speed engineered metal fest of “Savior”, and the lyrics here to finish the album can be judged to be quite pointed: “I'm set to paralyse, I'm older so I'm wise, I have been crucified, with words personified - Here I am now, I'm your saviour, There can be only one, I'm the master, past and future, Now the end has begun - I've always stood alone, Your time got overgrown, Those words shot way too wide, No hate can take my pride”. There are several ways to interpret what is being sung here, but to me at least it feels as though Rob has his cannons loaded at a wide spread of critics and he’s happy to unload without prejudice.

It may be too simplistic to suggest that THIS is the album that Judas Priest should have followed up “Painkiller” with. It is a decade on. Heavy metal had been through some tough times during those years, including having been stretched and morphed and reshaped into many different sub genres. The band itself and Rob obviously parted ways after that 1990 epic album, and had both ventured on different highways in the years since. But this album is a statement. This is Rob Halford, with a lot of help from his bandmates and his co-collaborators, saying ‘I don’t think traditional heavy metal is dead, and I’m going to prove it to you’. Rob has visited and experimented with other types of metal over the past decade, but here has come back to what he has always known, what he has always been great at. The Z Effect, if you will, who had already performed the same exorcism with Bruce Dickinson. Judas Priest had made their return almost three years earlier with their “Jugulator” album with Ripper Owens on vocals. And while my intention here is not to denigrate that album in any way, it has to be said that comparing this album to “Jugulator” is like comparing chalk and cheese. There is such a major difference in tempo and energy and actual joy in the music. “Jugulator” is for all intents and purposes a groove metal album, it is Judas Priest deciding, like so many of their contemporaries did in the 1990’s decade, to try and record an album for the times. And the result is something totally different sounding from anything they had ever released before it. Rob had, in essence, already been down the path of conformity, and was now out the other side, and the result is that this album is joyous, and “Jugulator” does not really exude any of that. It’s a groove or industrial metal influenced album. “Resurrection” is a heavy fucking metal album. Every part of it has been lovingly crafted to gain the reaction and attention that it eventually received, and it is a triumph for all involved.
This album was released a little over two months after Iron Maiden’s “Brave New World” album, which had dominated my listening since then. But once this album arrived in my hands, it had some hefty competition. From the first time I put this in my CD player and turned up the volume in my downstairs hideaway bedroom at my parents' place, this had me won over. In almost the same way that “Painkiller” had a decade earlier, the opening tracks here dragged me in willingly, and the entire album for me was ecstatically received. Even today, I still relate these two albums together, such was the amount of time I spent listening to them together, with the link of the one track that had both bands leads singers acting together. I rarely think of one without the other, “Brave New World” and “Resurrection”. Even today, I feel like listening to one if I have just heard the other.
For this episode, I have had “Resurrection” out for a touch over a week, a bit longer than I might usually do so. But this one has been so good, that I just keep playing it over and over. It is an absolute gem, one I have never gotten tired of listening to. And it is song like this one that still brings me back for its ingrained awesomeness.

811. Halford / Halford IV: Made of Metal. 2010. 3.5/5

Given that Rob Halford had returned to Judas Priest some years earlier, and that two albums had been released since the reformation, is it unusual that Halford himself still felt the need to go out and release another album on his own? Was he not getting enough fulfilment from his band, or was it that he enjoyed being able to express himself away from that writing partnership? Or was it just that he enjoyed being busy and releasing music, while the output of bands as they get older always tends to wind back. Whatever the reason, here is the fourth album under the Halford banner with the message plainly stated in the title - Made of Metal.

The fact that this is a return to his successful partnership with the influential Roy Z as producer and co-writer is also significant, and it is also a delight to have him playing on the album as well. Roy Z's influence in the solo careers of both Halford and Bruce Dickinson is beyond significant, and his ideas are always worth hearing in a musical sense. I particularly love his guitar solos, there is just something about them that appeals to me. Metal Mike Chlasciak returns on the second guitar and blends in beautifully with Roy. Mike Davis on bass guitar and Bobby Jarzombek on drums provide the perfect platform in the rhythm section.
To the album itself, and to be honest it is a mismatch of styles here, and all of it seems to be either fighting to set itself aside from his work with Judas Priest, or then on the other hand deliberately trying to align it self with that work. The songs blend from the faster and heavier songs, to the mid-tempo chorus sing-along songs, to the slower and more reflective tunes that, depending on your own tastes either work amazingly well or just slow down the progress of the album. I guess you know my feelings on this by now. "Twenty Five Years" would be the case in point. This song is molasses-slow and long, stretching out beyond seven minutes with barely any respite or excitement. Judas Priest made this mistake with "Loch Ness". I know there are fans out there who will love this, but it just doesn't fit the profile at all. Why have a song like this, and then follow it up with "Matador", which rattles along at a faster pace with a solid riff, double kick drums and attitude in Halford's vocals. I admit I don't get it, but it isn't the only instance on the album. Having started off at a cracking pace with songs like "Undisputed", "Fire and Ice", "Made of Metal" and "Speed of Sound" there is a bit of a change in a song like "Twenty Five Years".  Still, it is his album, and Rob should certainly be free to explore all his options when it his own release. It is still amusing that his first album under the Halford moniker, Resurrection sounded more like Judas Priest than Judas Priest did at the time. Now however, a decade onwards, and both sides have slipped into this slightly more comfortable arena.
Ignoring my moaning over one particular song, this is a solid release once again. He doesn't over extend his vocal range apart from in "The Mower" but the attitude and strength is still there in spades. "Heartless" is a good example of this, its not a racy song but Halford's vocals followed by the ripping guitar solos make it worth listening to. "Hell Razor" is similar, with the guitars starring in a repetitive lyrical conglomerate. Roy Z's influence is easily heard in most of the songs that he co-wrote here, especially in "Made of Metal", "Speed of Sound" and "Thunder and Lightning", the harmonic guitars and layered vocals give these songs their own style.

The positives far outweigh any negatives I might have come up with here on this album. Certainly, in my opinion, this is better than the two reunited Priest albums that came before this was released. It allows the band to showcase their own skills with their iconic frontman on centre stage, and while it may not be as furious as one may have preferred, there are still highlights to listen to and enjoy.

Rating:   Reeling you in to a climax crescendo of sound.  3.5/5

196. Halford / Crucible. 2002. 2.5/5.

In the unspoken and unacknowledged battle between Judas Priest and Rob Halford when it came to the popularity of the two following their split after the “Painkiller” album, there is little doubt that the success of Halford’s “Resurrection” album tipped the scales well and truly in Rob’s favour. The return of that album to a more natural heavy metal sound that incorporated everything that was great about Halford’s vocals and the faster guitar driven songs in a Judas Priest vein brought the fanbase flooding back to his corner.
After its success, and the release of a live album “Live Insurrection”, no doubt to contest the live albums that Judas Priest had recently released with Ripper Owens on vocals, it came time to produce a follow up album, in order to maintain that presence that he had regained. And it must have been an interesting period of time in which the band discussed the focus and direction that the new album should take.
Because when you listen to “Crucible”, you notice the differences immediately. It would have been so easy for Halford and his band - Mike Chlasciak and Patrick Lachman on guitar, Ray Riendeau on bass and Bobby Jarzombek on drums – to just write another album exactly like the first one, and ride on that wave to further success. But the sails were set in another direction, one that drew from musical influences from over the past ten years, and combining them on 13 tracks of a short and sharp tasting platter that on its release made it feel awkward to listen to, and difficult to get a handle on.

It’s interesting that most people who have listened to the album as a fan or as a professional, such as a reviewer, consider that this is a heavier album than “Resurrection”. I understand why it is said to be, but I generally think that it is just a different arrangement of songs and the way they are carried that has changed, rather than this being an outright heavier album. The album opens with the instrumental “Park manor” followed by the title track “Crucible”. The next two tracks, “Betrayal” and “One Will”, are infused with great speed, hard core riffs and Halford’s amazing vocals, but are they significantly different from the songs on the previous album? I’d have thought that they sit in exactly the same sort of category as the opening tracks of the previous album. But enough of comparison. This is about this album, and how it sits in the motion of the time.
There certainly is a progression in this album away from the Judas Priest sound to a more Fight sound. The band has taken its training wheels off and thrown the playbook out the window. There is a lot of heavy guitar, great double kick, and Halford layering his vocals over every song to give us that delightful transition between mid range and high range. The musicianship is excellent, as you would expect from the same team that brought you Halford’s first album. And the songs have developed as a result. There is more attitude, and the experimentation is greater, and in many ways I think that it was this that initially threw a lot of fans as to their enjoyment of this album. While those opening two tracks really hammer along and showcase what is great heavy metal, you also have songs such as “Hearts of Darkness” that mix up the tempo, draw themselves up into a nu-metal kind of output, and focus on the basics of that genre, something a lot of Halford fans were less than enamoured with in his band Two. Added to this, songs such as “Golgotha” that gravitate towards an industrial metal sound – and it’s a gravitation not a full capitulation – again something that wasn’t the most popular move of Halford’s fans in the 1990’s.
But there is plenty of attitude in Halford’s vocals on songs like “Handing Out Bullets” where the Solo especially is fantastic, probably the best part of the song. But it is still songs like “Wrath of God”, where the double kick and screaming Halford vocals come in, and “Weaving Sorrow” and “Sun” that are the best of the album. Despite the great concept of trying to extend their range and change up the style of metal that they wanted to produce, it is still the basic concept of the great Judas Priest songs of the 1980’s that still shine brightest here.
In 2010 this album was remixed and remastered, and the order of the songs was revamped quite a bit, as well as having some bonus tracks added to the main track list. The addition of the songs doesn’t overly affect the album – apart from the addition of the ballad “In the Morning” which is really completely unnecessary – but the re-arranging of the tracks does tend to make the album a better listen that the original version. Putting “Crucible” in the middle of the album rather than at the start, and also redacting “park manor” and allowing the album to open with “Betrayal” and “One Will” improves the format of this album incredibly.

When this album came out, it was one I downloaded first to listen to rather than jump out and buy it immediately. As much as I had loved “Resurrection”, it was the age of downloading and it was just a habit to want to listen to the album first before I committed to buying it. And, whether it was the fact that there were a lot of albums out there I was more interested in listening to at that time, or it was the change in style between his previous album and this one, but “Crucible” was not an album that I liked from the start. Indeed, I had quite a few problems with it at the time, and it fell off my rotation pretty quickly. On the odd occasion that it had come on since I hadn’t paid much attention to it either.
Fast forward several years to the present, and when this came up on my podcast list, I felt that it was another of those albums that epitomises what I was trying to achieve with this podcast, by being able to give it a really good second chance to prove to me that it was an album worth owning. So, for three weeks I have had it on rotation, and by force of will, and by concentrating closely on the tracks here, I have found a greater appreciation for it has appeared. I can still hear on some tracks why I abandoned it so quickly at the time, mostly as I was in my European metal phase. But giving this a much better chance to grow on me at this point in my musical appreciation life has helped it immensely. And this really is an album that needs the right place to flourish. Sitting at home in the Metal Cavern and allowing it to pound out at me was where this album was at its best. It needs that volume and bass to feel its best moments.
So I can honestly say that this is an album I now have a greater appreciation of, and that it would probably be a similar feeling for most who, like me, abandoned this quickly at its time of release. What did come from this album was the eventual reformation of Halford with Judas Priest, and the album “Angel of Retribution” that came with it, which has some similar moments on it that this does. Like Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden, the re-joining has seen renewed success for that band over the last two decades. And despite this podcast enabling me to find much more to enjoy from this album than I had initially, it seems that it is still likely to lay in the obscure category for most metal fans, an album that looked to create something different for the Metal God to indulge his amazing vocals on, and it remains an interesting but somewhat flawed result.