Rant n' Rave With John Nagle

Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson once likened Judas Priest’s live sound to “Being in the center of a mechanized Panzer assault.”  I wouldn’t be one to argue with Mr. Dickinson, but that’s a lot of noise.  Yes, Judas Priest are the “Metal Gods”, but louder than Mötorhead?  Louder than Nine Inch Nails or Megadeth?  Highly unlikely.  I was wrong.

Sitting in the handicapped box at Merriweather Post, my jaw was on the floor.  Each note that KK Downing, Glen Tipton and Ian Hill played seem to slam against the base of my skull.  They were in lock step with each other, just like on the records.  Each note and solo was perfectly synchronized, for massive effect.  Rob Halford could no longer hit the devastatingly high notes that I first heard when I bought Sad Wings of Destiny as a teen, but his voice is still a weapon.  The final scream of “Freewheel Burning” almost made my head explode.  It was awe-inspiring.

Judas Priest and Iron Maiden are The Beatles and Rolling Stones of traditional heavy metal.  You can like both, but ultimately you have to choose a side.  Although I got into Judas Priest first, I have always been on the Maiden side of the fence.  To non-metal fans, Priest and Maiden is basically the same band.  They share many of the same characteristics: Five piece, British, tandem guitar riffs, and a bombastic vocalist.  It wasn’t until last night that I figured out the difference between them.

Iron Maiden is all about finesse and flash.  Bruce Dickinson is able to hit ungodly notes as he bounds across the stage.  Dave Murray and Adrian Smith play in tandem, but also solo freely.  Maiden’s songs are complex epics that sometimes go past the ten minute mark.  Maiden has a killer stage show, and pull out all the stops to give their fans their money’s worth.

If Iron Maiden is about finesse and flash, Priest is about precision and power.  Factories were a recurring motif of the stage show.  The curtain depicted a vast landscape of steel mills, and the lasers depicted a worker pounding out steel.  Priest’s music is a reflection of this industrial landscape.  Downing and Tipton don’t have time to play free flowing solos, because time is money.  “Breaking the Law” is overplayed on the radio, but it is devastating live.

Tipton and Downing’s tandem playing is the canvas for Rob Halford’s voice.  The most admirable thing about Halford is that he has acknowledged his age.  He sings in a much lower register than he used to, which makes him sound more menacing.  It’s not about menace, but about the suggestion of menace, which is much more frightening.  The first two lines of “The Ripper,” are genuinely scary with the lower range.  People have criticized Halford for his lack of movement onstage, but it would have been completely out of character for him to start sprinting across it.  Halford didn’t move much, but his gestures said everything.  Again, it was all about suggestion and mystique.  When he pointed at something, you paid attention.  The stage show also reflected this idea.  It was Spartan compared to Maiden’s tour last year, but they certainly pulled out all the stops.  When Rob rode onstage on his Harley Davidson, he got the loudest cheer of the night.

Priest and Maiden are two very different bands, but they had one thing in common.  The crowd was behind them from the first song to the last.   Everyone came together as “One united nation of metal maniacs.”  No matter how many shows I go to, seeing 15,000 fists in the air never gets old.