Judas Priest – Firepower
Epic Records
http://judaspriest.com/

Rating: B+

The Mighty Priest are back!

Metal’s most beloved icons have released their best album since 2005’s Angel of Retribution.

This sucker is heavy…it’s loud and it’s full of firepower.

The album’s title track shows a band that refuses to sit back and ride off into the sunset. No way…Priest are too damn cool to do that. There will be no drinks on the beach with umbrellas in them for these leather wearing, turn it up to 12 pack of guitar toting musicians.

They are in this for the right reasons…and other than Ram It Down they always have been.

This album is no exception.

Firepower consists of 14 new tunes that each pay tribute to the band’s classic styling, yet still prove they are still the God’s of Metal in 2018.

“Lightning Strike” is just Priest…plain and simple. Even without KK there. Richie Faulkner actually kicks ass in Ken’s role…something this writer did not see coming on this album or 2014’s Redeemer of Souls.

Each song has its own personality and is heavy as hell.

“Spectre” is one bad-ass tune. This is pure JP. “Evil Never Dies” is a Nostradamus sounding tune…more modern sounding than some of the others. “Guardians” is a very European, soft, melodic intro to one of the strongest tracks on the album, “Rising From Ruins.”

“Traitors Gate” is not only a great metal title, it is a great metal tune. This is another one that changes moods and tempos. “No Surrender” has a more pop metal edge to it and will evoke the Priest mid-1980s era.

The album ending “Sea of Red” is an epic tune that is more morose than many Priest songs. The gothic backing vocals fit perfectly with the metal molten rhythms and razor sharp solos.

The mix of classic versus modern Priest may be due to two producers battling it out (actually working together) on the album. They each brought out the flavor of the band they love. 

Andy Sneap has worked with Accept, Saxon, Opeth, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Exodus, Megadeth, Kataklysm, Kreator among others. Tom Allom, of course, was the bands producer as far back as 1979 and stayed with the band through most of the 1980s. 

Rob Halford discusses the dual producer role on the album.

“Tom Allom has got this classic metal thing. Andy is a bit more of a 'modern metal producer' but his thinking is a little bit different to Tom's. And I think to get this balance between that classic old school metal to what Andy's world is was just a remarkable coalescence."

Firepower  is a real metal album, it is organic and it rocks the way albums used to rock.

Priest has not made a clunker since reuniting with Rob Halford over a decade and a half ago. Each album has had great moments…this one has the most since Angel of Retribution…but unlike that album, this one has no weirdly odd tunes like "Lochness."

Sorry…I could not resist a poke at the slimy sea creature!

My point is this…Firepower has only really powerful tunes.

The final word of this review is to simply send all of Classic Rock Revisited’s prayers and sympathies to guitarist Glenn Tipton, who is struggling with Parkinson’s Disease.

Hang in there Glenn! 

We are with ya!

Track Listing
01. Firepower
02. Lightning Strike
03. Evil Never Dies
04. Never The Heroes
05. Necromancer
06. Children of the Sun
07. Guardians
08. Rising From Ruins
09. Flame Thrower
10. Spectre
11. Traitors Gate
12. No Surrender
13. Lone Wolf
14. Sea of Red

By Jeb “Lochness Lives” Wright