Redeemer Of Souls is Judas Priest’s best album in nearly 25 years.
Reeling from the near-universal disdain for the ambitious Nostradamus, Redeemer is straightforward, the sound of Priest returning to form, cherry-picking stylistic highlights from their formidable past. At points throughout, Redeemer nods to Painkiller’s thrashing power, to British Steel’s streamlined trad, and to Stained Class’ semi-progressive feel. After a quarter century of sub-standard fare, this latest album is a conscious effort to recapture the spark that characterized Priest’s remarkable eight-album streak of classics. (A statistic for which I’m rightfully overlooking and forgiving the mostly mediocre Point Of Entry.)
Redeemer Of Souls is Judas Priest’s best album in nearly 25 years.
Priest fans have been waiting for something like this, holding out hope that the band would right the ship after flailing about for two decades. Since Defenders Of The Faith in 1984, Priest has seemed unsure of their direction, with only Painkiller’s furious return as a high point after the pop metal of Turbo and the drum-machine-driven dreck of Ram It Down. Post-Painkiller, Priest returned to floundering: Halford split, and the Ripper years are a complete write-off, equal parts directionless and misguided, with only the throwaway live releases showing any semblance of why Priest matters. Parts of the post-reunion Angel Of Retribution were promising, although more of that disc is forgettable than isn’t; maybe two songs from Nostradamus’ unbearable 102 minutes approached even the lower reaches of the band’s best. With each disappointing release, fans crossed their fingers for Judas to rise again.
So here we are with another new Judas Priest album, and the buzz has been almost exclusively this: Redeemer Of Souls is Judas Priest’s best album in nearly 25 years. That sentence is enough to get the metal world’s attention, and with good reason. When they’re firing on all cylinders, Judas Priest is arguably the greatest metal band of all time.
So Redeemer Of Souls is Judas Priest’s best album in nearly 25 years.
But before you get all a-tingle about it, that statement comes with a caveat, and it is this: Being Judas Priest’s best album in nearly 25 years still doesn’t mean Redeemer Of Souls is a particularly great record.
Sure, it’s a return to form, but it’s more superficial than superlative. Redeemer plunders Priest’s past to mold one mega-Priest seemingly calculated to appeal to all fans in equal measure, down to including a bluesy number for those who hold Rocka Rolla in high regard. (And you should – that’s an underrated record.) And if it worked, if the songs were uniformly good and the performances fiery, then I’d be the first person to hail this as the new Priest album I’ve been wanting since I first wore out copies of Defenders and British Steel ages ago.
But that’s not the case, and so Redeemer comes off as half-cocked, really good in a few places, but tired in many more. Fittingly, at times, the band sounds tired in equal measure: Halford’s voice is still strong in his lower and middle registers – his godly falsetto is now ragged and throaty, where once it was crystal clear and piercing. He uses it sparingly on Redeemer, but when he does, it only serves to remind how great that scream once was. For the most part, with a few exceptions, Tipton’s riffs are acceptable, functional, nothing special. New guitarist Richie Faulkner replaces founding member KK Downing, a sticking point with many longtime fans, and while KK’s absence is unfortunate, Faulkner’s arrival proves to be a non-factor in any significant manner.
In the end, it’s hard to say if these songs are boring because the performances aren’t interesting, or vice versa. It’s also ultimately a moot point, each factor feeding the other and the end result the same. Opening track “Dragonaut” is solid enough, the most promising of all the tracks previewed before release and among Redeemer’s strongest. Lyrically, that one’s another in Halford’s long list of mythical protagonists; musically, it’s a power-thrash tune that could’ve fit snugly on Painkiller. Thereafter, the album begins a steady progression downward, with a slight improvement during the ripping “Halls Of Valhalla” and late entry highlight “Battle Cry.” As much as Redeemer is Priest chasing a Priest of the past, occasionally it hints at outside influence. With its jaunty triplet feel, vaguely historical theme, and melodic lead guitar motif, “Sword Of Damocles” sounds like Priest doing Dance Of Death Maiden; the mid-tempo “March Of The Damned” sounds like their take on Ozzmosis-era Ozzy. (You can determine for yourself which of those is the better of the two.) After the first few tracks, excepting “Dragonaut,” “Valhalla,” “Battle Cry,” and the unexpectedly bluesy “Crossfire”(which is memorable because it’s surprising, not because it’s good), Redeemer rocks pleasantly and indistinctly through track after track of decent and interchangeable Priest.
Like Nostradamus before it, Redeemer Of Souls is also overlong, though certainly not as much as that double-album disaster. This one’s only 62 minutes, but it feels much longer, especially in its weakest moments. If you get the bonus disc, you get an additional five songs that didn’t fit the feel of the album proper. Not one of them is particularly brilliant, of course, but none is awful, just more of the same, and if there’s one thing Redeemer Of Souls doesn’t really need, it’s more B-grade tracks.
Produced and mixed by Tipton and Mike Exeter, Redeemer also suffers from a muddy, bass-heavy sound that lends the guitars a certain thickness while depriving them of any sharp edge. They’re less carving and biting than they are a dull wallop, buried beneath a cloud of low-end rumble. It’s a problem most noticeable during the ballads, particularly in the heartfelt-but-corny “we rock for the fans” bonus track “Never Forget,” in which Ian Hill’s bass often overpowers the guitars.
Everyone wants this album to be great, including me, but I can’t say that it is – it’s acceptable, certainly better than the few before, but nowhere near the greatness of the glory days. The fact that it’s listenable feels like a massive success compared to Nostradamus, but, when the newness wears off, Redeemer remains squarely in the lower middle section of Priest’s catalog. It’s tied with Point Of Entry in terms of quality – three great tracks and the remainder is filler, some better and some worse, but all just middling. In the pantheon of Priest, it’s ahead of the worthless Jugulator and Demolition, the ridiculous Nostradamus, the pathetic Ram It Down, the half-hearted Angel Of Retribution, and the lame-but-at-least-catchy Turbo, and below all others by a significant margin.
But, yes, Redeemer Of Souls is Judas Priest’s best album in nearly 25 years.
