The 16th album from these British heavy metal icons.
The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars and vocals.
Don Airey added keyboards and there was also a choir and a symphony orchestra involved here.
This is the final Judas Priest with the classic setup of K.K Downing, Glenn Tipton, Scott Travis, Ian Hill and Rob Halford. Both guitarists has now retired from the band.
Why reviewing only one Judas Priest album in this blog ? First of all, this album is a prog metal/rock album and a classic concept album.
It has indeed a great deal of symphonic prog influences.
Judas Priest is a no-nonsense heavy metal band. Indeed, they are one of the founders of the genre and were first with the twin guitar sound, leathers and most of what is today the heavy metal sound and life.
So how did Judas Priest manage this switch to symphonic progressive metal and a concept album ?
I am very surprised how good this album is. It has surpassed my very low expectations by many, many country miles.
Rob Halford sings like a god. The opening proper song Prophecy is one of their best ever songs. Yes, I liked this band a lot in my youth and is starting to appreciated them a lot more in my old age. Prophecy is a great track.
Ditto for the title track too.
Not everything here is good. Some of the stuff reminds me a lot about Iron Maiden, their rivals in the scene.
Most of this album is good to very good and this double CD comes as a surprise. And it deserve to be reviewed here as it is a proper progressive rock/metal album.
It is also a very good album indeed.
3.5 points
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