Judas Priest
Metalogy (Columbia/Legacy) Dig the leather out of the closet, because Judas Priest is back. After years of denying reunion rumors, Rob Halford has finally reascended the metal altar and reassembled all the sacred ingredients: the duel-piston drive of guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill’s low-end bass, and the beating of Scott Travis. (Dave Holland is busy heading to the slammer.) It almost feels like a Chinese Democracy. Dropping just prior to the Priest’s worldwide tour and upcoming full-length, Metalogy is the stalwart Metal Gods’ first box set, a 4-CD/bonus DVD tome wrapped in metal and leather. Revving up the hog with “Never Satisfied” off 1974 debut Rocka Rolla, the first disc races through Seventies metal perfected by the time Priest released Hell Bent for Leather in ’79. The second chapter of Metalogy floors “Hell Bent for Leather,” “Breaking the Law” live, and “Living After Midnight,” all of which ground the 19-song disc of fan favorites. Disc three includes an unreleased demo cut and blasts tracks off ’82’s killer Screaming for Vengeance and ’84’s Defenders of the Faith, the finale jumping from ’88’s Ram It Down to Ripper Owen’s late-Nineties Jugulator. When added to the DVD re-release of 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance Memphis concert, Metalogy is yet more proof, if more was needed, that the Darkness ain’t got nothin’ on Rob Halford and Judas Priest.
This article appears in May 7 • 2004.