[never_surrender] Sunday, July 13, 2008 5:59:53 PM
First off, all of us posting here are Priest fans and I don't have the right to judge how another fan judges this album.
With that said, I will just try to explain why I dig this as a Priest album and not just as a concept album or a metal opera or anything of that sort.
There is a huge difference between the short interludes in this album and say, a Motley Crue ballad.
These short interludes are not what the 80s hair metal chicks dig, if you know what I mean.
These interludes serve as a light (but still dark in their lyrics and atmosphere) background on which the heavier Priest-like hard-driving songs explode into.
Lost Love is a song which is very emotional but still not a Deff Leppard ballad. It still sounds Priest to me.
I like listening to all the 23 tracks in this record but if I wanted something close to a Painkiller or a Defenders, I will just listen to Prophecy, Revelations, Death (not just 'A tocuh of evil', by God a lot more than that), Conquest, Persecution, and Nostradamus.
Still we are left with Exiled, Alone, Visions, Future of Mankind which sound clearly Priest to my ears. Painkiller was not the only album they put out. They have a huge catalog and all of these songs fit one way or another what Priest sound like.
If you ask me, I would say this album is a shot in the arm for classic heavy metal sounds in a world where the Arch Enemies, Dimmu Borgirs (what in the world is that supposed to freaking mean?) and Avenged Sevenfolds also ply their trade.
