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Judas Priest
Retribution (Single)
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You probably didn’t feel any different when you woke up this morning, but for fans of the band Judas Priest, every day is like an Advent Calendar window toward Christmas. Blasphemy! Blas for – you, Blas for everybody in the room!
But you have to understand, if you’re a fan, the upcoming CD “Angel Of Retribution” really is like a second coming. Departed vocalist Rob Halford is back in the fold and the classic triumvirate of Halford/Tipton/Downing is intact. Surely you’ve heard the background of Halford’s acrimonious departure after the “Painkiller” release, how the band handpicked Tim “Ripper” Owens from a Priest cover band and rocketed the group back to... well... honestly, it didn’t rocket anyone anywhere. The resulting discs “Jugulator” and “Demolition” just weren’t that good, with only a smattering of decent tracks between them. Add to this that their laundry was pseudononymously (?!) aired in the Mark Wahlberg / Jennifer Anniston cinema classic “Rock Star”. Cry not for the Ripper; he’s found a home with Iced Earth (but keep him in your thoughts ‘cause they run through vocalists like sheets of Charmin).
Back to Priest, there had been rumors of reunions as there always are in these things. Bands are reforming all the time and it doesn’t mean a thing. Van Halen reformed with David Lee Roth for two bonus tracks of a Greatest Hits package. They reformed with Sammy Hagar for three bonus tracks on, shockingly, another Greatest Hits package. The subsequent tour has been stormy and not as profitable as anyone hoped. File this under ‘underwhelming’. The same goes for the upcoming Motley Crue reunion tour, which is self-admittedly a ‘trotting out the oldies’ package and will likely be brief. Press reports of unflagging tension between bandmates have already cast an ugly shadow over the works. That Judas Priest not only managed to get back together and record is not the feat – the real feat is the mutual amiability and respect all the members have presented as the public face. It’s as if they’ve concluded that this really was how it should have been all along. Thank God someone on the inside finally said what the audience always knew.
And so the first real fruit of this labor has been released to rock radio stations all over the world, the single release “Retribution”, which is farther than any Ripper-fronted tune ever got and is even farther than some of Halford’s last stands with the band. For the publicist, this is what is regarded as a cakewalk. It doesn’t hurt that “Retribution” is a pretty solid tune as well. No, it doesn’t have the fist-pumping catharsis of “You Got Another Thing Coming”, but it doesn’t have some of the latent silliness of “Rock Hard, Ride Free” or “Leather Rebel” either. It’s just a consistent, driving tune anchored without unnecessary flashiness. It is closer to the sound between “Screaming For Vengeance” and “Defenders Of The Faith”, and this is a good thing. I wasn’t a big fan of “Painkiller” and the cartoonish histrionics in the Ultrapitch that was Halford’s metal squeal. The guy has a great voice. Just check out the ballad (you heard me) “Last Rose Of Summer” from “Sin After Sin”. Well, the squeal might be on the album but it isn’t here on the single and that alone gets the listener interested.
And in the IPod era, that’s what you really need – the breakout first single; not so amazing that the rest of the album will look like a scam in comparison, but a song good enough to keep kicking around in your head awhile, just long enough to buy the full disc. “Retribution” does this very well and based on it, I may have to look into “Angel Of Retribution” when that last little window on the calendar gets flipped over.
