Prepare for my thesis on Rob, Priest, and reunions
The first Fight disc was energetic, albeit a bit repetative. Into The Pit and Nailed To The Gun are good tracks though. The second Fight disc was kinda.. lackluster.. Seemed almost uninspired.
Which leads me to Two... Halford experimenting with the NIN influence. Interesting experiment. Not one that I'll listen to very often, but i'm glad I got it.
Solo stuff.. man, I about freaked when I heard Ressurrection.. it was *everything* that I wanted to hear in a return to form. Rob and co. killed with that disc. It blew away the Priest with Ripper stuff, and even some Priest stuff.
The second solo disc... umm.. I forget the title.. it was decent. Some different influences. Not as classic sounding as Ressurrection. I give it an occassional listen, but honestly I think the last time was well over 6 months ago.
But will the reunited Priest bash our collective heads in? I remain hesitant to get my hopes up. I mean, Painkiller was their coup de grace. It was such a great disc. IMO their finest. Unfortunately, once Rob left, Priest continued and put out two lousy, flaccid discs. Childish lyrics (I realize that at their best they're not deep and meaningful, but they were on par with a 9th grade battle of the bands set.), some kind of nu influence, it just didn't work. I can't blame Ripper - he only sung what he was told to sing.
So will the chemistry take over and they'll deliver a new and inspired piece of work? You can bet your ass that it will sure sound like it. Ressurrection was a dedicated attempt to recapture the classic metal sound, and for the most part it succeeded. Comments by the Priest camp since the reunion have alluded to another classic Priest album. Which means no more nu-influence, no more Pantera-esque grunts (not that I mind Pantera), and more of the sprawling epics, and fast tracks. Give the people what they want. They don't want new territory for a reunion. They want classic.
Which leads me to reunion acts in general.. I would sure as shit like to see a reunion produce a really ass kicking album. Maiden sure hasn't yet. Again, Bruce leaves, they put out 2 crap albums, he comes back and their much anticipated reunion disc is mediocre at best. More repetition, and Harris forgets how to write a decent chorus. Imagine if the chorus to 2 Minutes To Midnight was the words "2 Minutes to Midnight" repeated 8 times. How fucking sorry would that be? It's exactly what happened on Brave New World. Will the new one be any better? Let's hope so.
Another reunion - Metal Church. What a boring and uninspired piece of crap Masterpeace was. They sound like an opener at a local bar. Ho-fucking-hum.
Now the new Exodus... I heard a clip and it sounds really good. I was never a big Exodus fan in the past, but based on the clip, I just may be one in the future.
And S.O.D. - Bigger than the Devil - what the fuick was that? It didn't even sound like the same band. Totally different style, Billy's voice is gone. Whatever.
Slightly off the metal track, the new Jane's Addiction is a decent reunion disc. At least it sounds like the same band. It sounds like they took about 3 years off after Ritual (Instead of 12 or 3). It's not as dark and drug induced as Ritual, but it's a good album nonetheless.
Whew!
I'm about out of breath after that rant. Well, obviously I love metal, and I'm a pretty critical bastard so feel free to yap about all things metal related, and tell me I'm out of my head.