Resurrection

12/19/2000 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Jim Derogatis

Many metalheads had written off the phenomenally potent voice behind Judas Priest following his two albums with Fight (which attempted to thrash-up his sound and really weren't that bad) and one disc with Two (an industrial-dance experiment released under the aegis of Trent Reznor, which was just plain awful). Now Rob Halford comes roaring back like a Harley at full throttle, returning to his roots with an intense collection of vintage Priest-like metal, and apologizing for the detours of recent years ("I walked alone into a Fight/ No longer standing in satanic light/ I tried to look too far ahead/ And saw the road go to my past instead"). This could be heard as the pandering of an aging rocker desperate to reconnect with his core audience, if it wasn't for the fact that the music's so goddamn vital. Halford's voice has lost none of its rumble-to-a-screech range, and if his band-for-hire doesn't quite approach Priest's six-string godliness, it nonetheless delivers a solid wallop on songs such as "Twist," "Saviour," and "Made In Hell" (the sort of roots-of-the-metal community anthem that Manowar specializes in). I'm giving the devil's horn salute now, just thinking about them.