Angel of Retribution - Judas Priest

Judas Priest is reset to the way they were in 1990 when Painkiller came out. Rob Halford is back in the band, and while I enjoyed the stuff they did with Tim Owens, he wasn't quite Rob Halford. In early 2005 Angel of Retribution comes out, and it's a classic return to form for Priest. This sounds like what would have come after Defenders of the Faith if we could have stopped them making Turbo. :) Anyway, it's a good mix of the classic Vengeance/British Steel feel of Priest, mixed in with the much harder stuff (like Painkiller) that came afterwards. A good metal album, lots of solid stuff. The single Revolution took some flak from "Priest purists", saying it was too commercial. Bah - some of their greatest hits are commercial in nature (..Got another thing coming, Living after Midnight). Everything on the album is listenable, except for one track - the last one. Lochness. It's yes, about the Loch Ness Monster, and it's really long, and in my opinion really bad. I didn't care for that track at all, but fortunately, it's the last one the CD. The only downside I can think of is there's no "killer app" track - no track that will stand out as one of the all time Priest classics. But what is here is good solid metal in the Judas Priest tradition. The disc is definitely worth a pickup - no doubt about that, especially if you've been a Priest fan in the past.

And speaking of "CD", I bought this as one of those new DualDisc discs. It's got a "CD" on one side, and a DVD side on the other. The DVD side has some footage from a concert they played in 2004, as well as new interviews with the band that were nice, plus the album in 5.1 Surround sound. The "CD" side has the album as it would appear on a normal CD. I say "CD" side, because technically these dual discs aren't really CD's - it's close, but not quite. As such, there's some players that won't play it. The CD drive in my home computer doesn't play it, and the CD player in my truck doesn't - the latter being fairly annoying. I like the idea from a value added standpoint, but from a personal reality standpoint, it bugs me that I can't play it on two of my CD players. :(