1349. Halford / Live Insurrection. 2001. 4/5

For a decade, Rob Halford had fought to keep himself relevant in a world that continued to find ways to reinvent itself through the music of the 1990’s decade. Having moved on from Judas Priest when the band was at arguably its highest peak, and all through confusion and misinformation, Halford had meddled with different styles and formats in his own musical direction. As the music of the decade began its formative and chameleonic morphing, so too Rob made his way through projects such as Fight and 2wo, a journey that saw him go through some of his own personal challenges along the way. Eventually he arrived at the dawn of the new century, and with the help of another group of musicians, including the influential Roy Z, he produced an album that brought him back to the fanbase that he had curated from his Judas Priest days with “Resurrection”, an album which you can hear all about on episode 104 of this podcast. It was the album that truly brought him back to international recognition and saw his profile back on the rise once again.
To promote the album, Halford and his band went out on the road on a tour that included Queensryche, both in support to Iron Maiden, who were touring on their reformed line up that included Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith on the back of their comeback’ album “Brave New World”. It was a big stage to be a part of, a tour that saw huge numbers flocking to see the return of Iron Maiden, but also the return of Halford. No doubt to continue riding this wave into the shore, the decision was made to record some shows and release them as a live album. As it turned out, they did far more than that. They ended up producing a double album that showcased the majority of the band’s new album, some of Fight’s best material, some great Judas Priest classics and some new studio material that included some old Priest that had never been released. It was an ambitious release, one that befit the newly reinstalled position that Rob Halford found himself in. Was it also firing a shot across the bow of his previous band, who at the time was struggling to stay relevant? Maybe yes, maybe no. All we did know at the time was that, for those of us who did not get to see the tour live, this was our chance to see if Halford could still pull off his material live like he did in the studio. And that was one of the winning factors that came our way with the release of “Live Insurrection”.

Those of you who are familiar with the Judas Priest live album “Unleashed in the East” will be aware that it has had many question marks about it over the years, involving just how much of the album is from an actual live performance and how much was re-edited and re-recorded in the studio. As an album it doesn’t affect just how amazing and influential it has been, but the fact that it is not all completely lifted from a live performance of the band does tend to annoy certain parts of the fandom. And I get that. There is cause to confront similar accusations for part of this live album as well. In particular it can be referred to the track “The One You Love to Hate”, the song on the album “Resurrection” that had Iron Maiden’s newly instituted lead singer Bruce Dickinson as dual lead vocals. The live version that appears on this album is a hybrid, it combines the live version of the song as played by Halford live on a night in London with the soundchecks of both Rob and Bruce earlier in the evening. Sure, it sounds great, but it isn’t organic it is a meshing of two or three different moments, and it makes you wonder – was it necessary? Couldn’t we just have had the version that Rob sang each night WITHOUT Bruce? That is the reality, that’s what we want from a live album. If Bruce had gotten on stage with him to sing it one night – which he did, there are bootlegs out there of him and Geoff Tate doing it – and they’d recorded it, then okay. But I think as fans we would all have been just as happy having Rob sing it himself.
Then there comes four other tracks, all of which are for all intents and purposes studio tracks that have had live crowd sounds added to them to make them sound as if they are being performed live on stage. “Light Comes Out of Black” was a song that was from the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ movie soundtrack in 1992, on which the music was played by Pantera and had Halford as guest vocalist. “Life in Black” is a song from Rob’s Fight days from the “War of Words” album, and “Hell’s Last Survivor” and “Sad Wings” are the Japanese bonus tracks from the “Resurrection” album. None of these four songs are listed on any set lists from this tour. Indeed, only “Light Comes Out of Black” is listed as ever having been played live by Halford, on the “Crucible” tour in Anaheim on two nights. But that’s it. So again, we are left with the question, why? Why add these songs to this album in this way? Because there are three songs at the end of the double live album which are simply studio tracks, in the same way Kiss did with “Alive II”. “Screaming in the Dark” is a leftover Halford song, while both “Prisoner of Your Eyes” and “Heart of a Lion” are leftover Judas Priest tracks. Are they all good songs? Sure! Do they sound great? Yes! But why put them on this album in this way. Was it necessary to have a double live album? Could it not just have been a single album? Or a live album and a studio bonus? It is all a bit of a mystery.
But hey, let’s try and get out of the negative here and talk about what is great about this live album. Because, overall, it sounds fabulous. And the remainder of the songs come from the variety that was available at that time. Seven of the songs come from the debut album, and all sound wonderful. The opening of “Resurrection” and “Made in Hell” hits just as hard as it does on that album. “Slow Down” is given a great powerful live blast, with Halford adjusting his vocals as necessary to do it justice without blowing out his voice. I have already mentioned “The One You Love to Hate” (which sounds great despite my problems with its addition), while “Saviour” rallies the battle cry that it deserves, and “Silent Screams” offers its wonderful mix of slow moody into metal anthem perfectly in the live setting. “Cyberworld” opens the second disc in scintillating fashion to conclude the new tracks showcased here.
Rob then rejuvenates the very best of his Fight project with three awesome tracks that light up the album – the brilliant “Into the Pit”, “Nailed to the Gun” and the aforementioned “Life in Black”. Then we have the classic Judas Priest songs that Halford and his band have chosen to scatter amongst their set list, and it's a who’s-who of greatness. Let’s tick them off - “Stained Class”, “Jawbreaker”, “Running Wild”, “The Hellion-Electric Eye”, “Riding on the Wind”, “Genocide”, “Beyond the Realms of Death”, “Metal Gods”, “Breaking the Law” and “Tyrant”. Far out, that’s a concert in itself! And Rob and the band perform them with the glory they deserve, and perhaps just another little nudge to his former band to suggest that maybe there was still life in the old dog just yet.

Following Rob Halford after his split with Judas Priest was a given really, probably even more so because Priest themselves didn’t really get going again for seven years after the “Painkiller” album, whereas Rob was out there with Fight and even toured Australia a couple of times with them. When he too climbed aboard the Roy Z bandwagon and released his album with the Halford band, it was a revelation. And something that was welcome. The hope was that he would tour Australia but that was probably wishful thinking all round, but when this live album was released, it was a reasonable substitute.
I realise I have gone down a bit of a rabbit hole with this review, but to me they were pertinent points to bring up. When it comes to this podcast the more information I can offer in an enjoyable way makes for a more interesting episode, which I think this provides. You have the breaking down and hard line review of the album in the preceding sector. And there are parallels between this album and Priest’s live albums of their past. However, much like those Priest live albums, I adore this album. What I know to be real and what I know to be doctored merges for me in a listening experience that continues to bring me nothing but joy. Yeah yeah, those certain songs have their unreality elements about them, but when I just sit down and put this album on my stereo, everything about it sounds wonderfully awesome. And I come back to something that is becoming a more regular response on episodes about albums like this. That no matter what the circumstances, if an album brings you joy, then it doesn’t matter if it has been altered, even slightly. And in this respect, I am not including the recent trend of AI inspired or produced albums, because they aren’t ‘real’, they are based on nothing but computers playing god. Some of the tracks here may not be live as such, with the crowd added in to give it the same atmosphere as the other songs, but the album to sit down and listen to is brilliant. Musicians played their instruments to create this album, even if editing may have enhanced them.
It was an interesting time in metal. Bruce and Adrian had returned to Iron Maiden, and the band was back on top of the world. Many felt at the time, with the success Rob was having, that it was only a matter of time before Judas Priest pulled a similar trick. The fact that it took so much longer to come after 2001 allowed us to have one further chapter in the album trade off between Priest and Halford, the success (or lack thereof) for both perhaps finally bringing the scales back in order. But that is a story for another episode.