Judas Priest, Firepower ; A Review (2018)

Judas Priest, Firepower; A Review (2018)

By: Erreh Svaia
Rock N Roll Animal

Nothing new or exceptionally relevant on Judas Priest new record Firepower, in fact it is certainly a retreat toward their commercially successful 80s sound, no surprise that they are finally bringing back their 80s producer Tom Allom, Firepower is a conscious attempt at leaving innovation or transcendence, and moving towards familiar territory, for me it's a wasted chance, when I think of my favorite recent Priest record I always think of 1990's Painkiller, featuring a powerhouse drummer like Scott Travis, the band were hungry at trying new things and proving themselves worthy among the Thrash Metal or Speed Metal crew that they were key in creating, unfortunately, KK Downing replacement Richie Faulkner rather than pushing Priest forward the way Travis did, seems more into exploiting nostalgia, big problem is that even Firepower is a new record, it already sounds old and outdated, the production is retro, as it reproduces some of the worst excesses of the era, the band sounds not willing to try something else but simply replicate their 80s sound in a really unsympathetic way, Firepower is more Ram It Down rather than British Steel or Screaming for Vengeance and that's its main failure, it's not even on par with true Priest classic like 70s Sin After Sin or Stained Class, undisputed masterpieces that were only slightly matched by its ferocity by the aforementioned Painkiller, a direction now neglected by the band.

JP enters an apparent comfort zone which makes singer Rob Halford shine at some moments, he nearly steals the whole show, although never matches Painkiller's level of intensity,  but the overall feel is that the band is redoing themselves once again and beginning to sound boring and lacking ideas, of course, they thrash in the best way possible with songs like the title track with their rabid guitars and brutally precise drumming, with Halford on top of it all, with a great pace broken by too much melodic distractions, Lightning Strikes for example echoes a variety of sounds previously heard on past Priest records, close at some moments with the spirit of the aforementioned Painkiller but a little pale in comparison as guitars tend to sound rather tame, while other like Never the Heroes are rather boring, or pointless like Guardian or Rising from Ruins excessive use of melody or Children of the Sun, which sounds rather primitive even for Priest, there's no doubt that JP knows how to rock, noticeable on tunes like the hard rocking Flame Thrower, whose twisted melody is pure genius, or the abrasive riffing of Traitors Gate, which sounds the band really trying at least for a few minutes, Firepower might satisfy the band's more dogmatic fans, those who are satisfied with the band simply redoing themselves again and again, but for heretics like me, who wish to hear the band trying harder and really challenging themselves Firepower is truly mediocre, unsatisfactory and very disappointing, for a musical legend like JP, Firepower is not on pair with the best they have done, and is hard to believe that their best days are behind.