Angel of Retribution

Rob Halford is back with Priest

Why this wasn't on the front page of every paper, I don't know.
This is almost as important as a zombie sighting, yet it got
very little press coverage. I think the press is more
concerned with bands and entertainers who suck.

So they have a new album out. It's really cool, having a DVD
on one side and a CD on the other. The DVD contains all the
songs plus live footage of the band in Spain and Italy.
Unfortunately, there are no hot Italian actresses in the video.
Maybe the band is unaware that Italy has hot actresses. I'll
have to let them know.

The music - the best album since Painkiller. That's not saying
much considering their two studio albums without Rob were
mediocre at best. It's nothing against Tim Owens, he's a fine
singer, it's just the compositions sucked without Rob. As you
already know, Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford, and KK Downings wrote
all the music, so without Rob, they lost 1/3 of their creative
team.

Guitarwork - Excellent. They finally brought back the dueling
guitars and guitar harmonies, something the 90s didn't have.

Drumming - Fantastic. Scott Travis was sorely needed to keep
Judas Priest up to date. Geez, the band's like Spinal Tap.
Travis is their 6th, and best, drummer. He's also one of the
few straight up drummers that I'd let in the zombie compound
because he's upstanding and responsible, qualities that you
just don't find in drummers nowadays.

The voice - Well, I heard Rob, like Geoff Tate, goes easy on
his voice live. On the record however, he's still Rob. There's
a reason Luciano Pavaratti said he "has one of the ten best
voices in the world." The only singer I've ever seen who
pushes their voice in as many directions as Rob Halford is that
singer from Faith No More. Rob does some amazing things with
his voice.

Songs - Ten songs, all ten good. My favorite songs were Worth
Fighting For, which should be a top-twenty single if it weren't
for the fact that nowadays, record companies only push bands
who deserve to be zombie food, and Loch Ness. The latter uses
some serious dissonance in their opening riff, which both
Zombieslayer Jr and Mrs. Zombieslayer didn't like too much.
They also used a very Sabbath sounding riff, which is okay with
me since Sabbath and Priest are the two bands who gave us modern
heavy metal. Sabbath however to this day call themselves heavy
jazz and it was Priest who were the first ones to fly the heavy
metal flag. It was Priest who flew the heavy metal flag when it
went out of style, and it will hopefully be Priest who will
bring it back in style. The album also has a ballad, Angel,
which was Mrs. Zombieslayer's fav song on the album. Of course,
a true zombieslayer never admits in public he likes ballads,
since the zombieslayer has no time to be soft and cuddly while
preparing for the upcoming zombie plague.

Overall, excellent album. 9 dead zombies out of 10.