Judas Priest: A Touch of Evil
A Judas Priest live album comes with certain expectations. They will open with “The Hellion/Electric Eye,” Rob Halford will go through his customary stage raps (“Breaking the what?”) and they will close with “You Got Another Thing Coming.” A Touch of Evil is Priest’s fifth live album in their 30 year career, not counting the concert films and the Metalogy box set. Instead of rehashing Priest: Live, A Touch of Evil is comprised of album cuts and recent songs. A Touch of Evil is not meant to be an introduction to Judas Priest, but a treat for longtime fans.
A Touch of Evil comes storming out of the gate with “Judas Rising,” the standout track from 2005’s Angel of Retribution. The band is in top form, especially guitarists K.K. Downing and Glen Tipton. Their guitars are in lock-step, never deviating from the main riff. The playing is cold and clinical. Priest does not sound like a band, but a mechanized machine. The rhythm section of drummer Scott Travis and bassist Ian Hill is just as devastating. Hill and Travis never receive the attention that Downing and Tipton do, but they put the heavy in Priest’s metal.
The musicianship is great, but the star of Judas Priest has always been Rob Halford. The Metal God can still hit the high notes, but it doesn’t seem as effortless as it used to. Halford’s deeper voice makes him sound more menacing, especially on “Beyond the Realms of Death.” Halford doesn’t pretend to be the young man who made Stained Class. He adapts the song to his new range. The emotion is still there, and that is what matters. The final scream still made the hairs on my arm stand up. Halford is a masterful interpreter.
A Touch of Evil is for the devoted Priest fan. These songs aren’t just album cuts, they are deep album cuts: “Dissident Aggressor” from Sin After Sin, “Between the Hammer and the Anvil,” from Painkiller and the PMRC-bating “Eat Me Alive,” from Defenders of the Faith. The band also cherry-picked the two best moments from last year’s Nostradamus concept album, “The Prophecy” and “Death.”
The biggest problem with A Touch of Evil is that it doesn’t feel like a real concert. The tracks fade out at the end, which makes it sound like a mixtape of live performances rather than a complete concert. The two seconds of quiet between each destroys the illusion. The crowd noise is also suspiciously rowdy and loud, as if they were added in post production. Although the performances are great, they never feel spontaneous. Priest’s machine-like efficiency is its greatest asset, but also a minor flaw. They never extend a solo or deviate from the notes on the page. A little improvisation never hurt anyone.
At this point in their career, Judas Priest could have easily released another greatest hits live album. By filling A Touch of Evil with current material and album tracks, they have made a late period live album that is actually worth listening to. A Touch of Evil is not for newbies, nor is the definitive Priest live document, but it does serve a worthwhile purpose. A Touch of Evil shows the defenders of the faith that the Metal Gods are still capable of delivering the goods.
January 31, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Every time I’ve seen Priest they have had that machine-like precision which gives you exactly what you want, no less but no more. Ah well, we can always look back to Unleashed in the East to remember a time when they would let their hair down.