After another long silence (although not as long as the silence between "Painkiller" and "Jugulator"), the 'PRIEST is back with yet another killer slab of unbelievably heavy METAL!!! I remember some people claimed this album was "Nu Metal" or "Mall metal" (or whatever you want to call that shit!), but other than 1-2 riffs, there's not any hints of that garbage anywhere on this cd (at least I can't hear any!!). Actually, there's alot more of a classic JUDAS PRIEST feel and sound to many of the tracks. Imagine a mixture between "Defenders Of The Faith" and "Painkiller", with some hints of "Jugulator". One of the main things I noticed on this album is about Ripper's vocals. He has alot more range than before and less of the Halford-esque high notes, clearly he's developing his own style with his vocals. Though, at times, he sounds alot like Ronnie James Dio (especially on "Feed On Me"). Favorite tracks are always hard for me to choose, but I'll bite the bullet and say "Hell Is Home", "One On One", "Close To You", "Feed On Me", and "Devil Digger". I have a very strong feeling this will be the best release of 2001 (so far it is, as of November)...

© 2001 bathym