Heavy metal continues to thrive as one of the genre’s pioneers recently demonstrated. Firepower, Judas Priest’s 18th studio album, debuted at #5 on Billboard’s 200 — their highest charting album fresh out of the box. Although longtime Priest axe man Glenn Tipton recently retired from the road due to complications from Parkinson’s disease (of which he was diagnosed a decade ago), he lends his guitar prowess and songwriting abilities to Firepower. Add the licks and Rob Halford’s piercing pipes, and it’s Priest at its finest.
The rumble of the title track falls easily into drummer Scott Travis’s hard snare snap on “Lighting Strike,” with its blistering pump. “Evil Never Dies” has singer Rob Halford’s reaching for the high-end with a devilish tone. A few tracks in, and you’ll stumble upon “Guardians,” a short piano and guitar string instrumental that segues into “Rising From Ruins,” a punchy mid-tempo number. You can’t help but to admire the versatility of this record.
The monumental “Traitors Gate” sees some dramatic double guitar picking to balls-out riffing between Halford and Richie Faulkner, with Ian Hill’s bass locked in to Travis’ drums. There’s the jangly, pop thrash, big chorus shouter “No Surrender,” followed by “Lone Wolf and “Sea of Red,” which gives Halford his biggest opportunity to bite his way round a vocal. As a whole, Firepower is a solid, heavy and hard reminder of what Judas Priest is, after nearly 50 years, still capable of.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
