6 years after their previous studio album, the 2008 double-disc conceptual Nostradamus (which we at ConcreteWeb never got to review), Judas Priest is finally back with a new studio recording! In the meantime, the band not only did a couple of world tours, but also took some very dire decisions!
But let's look at things in a chronological order, shall we? February and March 2009 found the band touring the UK and Ireland (with support from none less than Megadeth and Testament) and from there touring progressed to several venues in Sweden, before continuing to Lisbon (Portugal), Milan (Italy) and Paris (France). From June through August, the band toured North America with Whitesnake (who pulled out halfway due to Coverdale contracting a serious throat infection) to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of the British Steel album (each gig finding the album's material being played in its entirety, with some other JP songs thrown into the set as well). July 2009 also saw the release of a new live album entitled A Touch Of Evil: Live, with material culled from the band's 2005 and 2008 world tours (review by colleague Erik, posted 22/09 of that year, can still be found in this website's Archive section). In May 2010, singer Rob Halford announced that the band had been offered a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, but “...we've jut never been there when they wanted to do the ceremony...”, and at the same time revealed that further touring for the Nostradamus album was still being considered.
In December 2010, the band dropped a quite disturbing announcement, stating that their Epitaph World Tour (which was to start somewhere in 2011, to last through somewhere in 2012) would be their farewell tour, and in an early January 2011 interview Halford actually confirmed that the band would stop altogether. However, in another interview which took place later that same month, he changed his previous statements, saying that the band was actually writing new music, and that touring in the future would be done on a smaller scale. Then, on April 20th, the band announced that guitarist K.K. Downing had quit Judas Priest (leaving bassist Ian Hill as only remaining founder member) due to differences with the band and management causing a breakdown in their relationships. As his replacement for the Epitaph World Tour, the band cited Richie Faulkner, of Lauren Harris's band. He has since become an official JP member.
Returning now to the material that had already been written, in an August 2011 interview Halford had stated that the basis for some 12 to 14 songs had already been constructed, and that the new album might be released in 2012. Possibly to tie over the fans, the band released two compilation albums that same year, Single Cuts arriving on August 22, and The Chosen Few (the track-list of which was chosen by other iconic Heavy Metal musicians) being released in October. In another interview, a year after the aforementioned one, Halford stated about the upcoming new studio album: “...I'm of an attitude it'll be ready when it's ready...I don't think we're going to slack off, we're determined to do a lot of work and be just as dedicated as we've always been and take a lot of care and attention with the songs. We're not going to just bang this one out, so to speak...”! The band eventually sent out a Christmas 2013 message, that the album would be released in 2014 and, while at the March 2014 Ronnie James Dio Awards in Los Angeles, Halford announced that the final mastering sessions for the album had just been concluded.
On April 28 of last, the band posted the album's title track on their official website (www) judaspriest.com for streaming, and to further augment anticipation for the album's release the band also did a press conference on May 26, where guitarist Glenn Tipton was found stating about the album's material, “It's a quite mixed bag. Really, there's more sentiment on this album. In a way, it's also our farewell album, although it might not be our last one,” (there we go with thàt again!) concluding with, “There's some anthems on there, which pay tribute to our fans”! In hindsight, the band's tension building tactics paid off, as Redeemer Of Souls sold almost 32,000 copies in its first week after the release, earning it a #6 position on the Billboard 200 charts in the US (the highest position ever for a JP album after Nostradamus, which made #11). (note from the reviewer: info for the above culled and re-written from the band's page on Wikipedia, where things are explained with more details). In Sweden the album went all the way to the top, and in Norway it went to #7, while it only went to #17 in Denmark. Coming closer to our own little country, the album only went to the #26 position in Holland's MegaCharts, and in our own country it went to #37 and #46, respectively in Flanders' and Wallonia's Ultratop charts.
What's all that mean? I have my own opinion about that, and since you're reading this anyway, I'll be glad to share my viewpoints wit you. As you may know, JP's music is basically based on a Blues Rock, and their debut album Rocka Rolla is even rather Hard Rock geared, but not without some Metal elements. As the '70 progressed, the band also followed a slightly more “progressive” style, as featured very prominently on their 1975 and 1977 albums Sad Wings Of Destiny and Sin After Sin. With commercial success not coming, the band, which had in the meantime signed to a major label, eventually adopted a more simplified style for the British Steel album, which catapulted the band into stardom, especially fairing well with the US side of their fans. In essence, the band had adopted to the US style of Metal, and as time went by, and more albums came into existence, I guess quite a good portion of the more demanding European audiences felt JP was simply repeating itself! Looking back at the current album's charting, I might conclude that in Scandinavia the metal audience is somewhat less critical than in our part of Europe, but then in Belgium other factors come into play, really! Still, that the album fares less good in Scandinavia, than it does in Holland, gives that silly notion of mine a reason of validity.
So, what's left for me to say here? Thanks to a couple of surprise tracks in the latter part of the album, namely the very Bluesey “Crossfire” and the album closing ballad “Beginning Of The End”, I allowed the album couple more spins in the cd-player, rather than judging its contents at face value after the first initial listening sessions I gave it! The conclusion I reached is that the album grows on one with multiple listening sessions, for in spite of of the songs' build-up being mainly based on riffs, each song also has quite some nice lead guitar parts. Of course, with the years Halford also goes into Operatic mode a bit less than he used to, but he proves over and over again that he càn still reach those high notes, and sustain 'em! In the end, I can only say one thing: well done, and the Deluxe version of the album not only contains real nice booklet, but also a bonus disc with 5 more songs which admirably fit in on the offering on the album itself!