Published on May 21, 1998
I’ve always said that the live album is the most difficult thing
for any band to master. The dynamics of capturing a live
performance and its energy onto a cassette, vinyl record or CD
almost always guarantee that something will be lost in the
translation — after all, you can’t see the stage show on a
record.
For some reason, heavy metal has always been that much harder to
capture. These shows thrive on the stage performances from the
musicians as well as the interaction with the crowd. For many live
albums in the metal genre, they end up being a case of “you had to
be there”.
Such is the case with
Priest…Live!, the second live effort from British metal
legends Judas Priest. Touring behind their mold-smashing album
Turbo, an album guaranteed to spark lively debate among
metalheads about its significance, Rob Halford and crew went out to
live up to their leather-and-steel image they constantly
portrayed.
Part of the problem is, it doesn’t always sound like their heart
is in the performance. The album’s opener, “Out In The Cold,” is
probably one of the better tracks off
Turbo, but the delivery sounds like the band is going
through the motions. The vocal harmonies aren’t as sharp as I
remember the studio version being (though I admit it’s been a long
time since I dug
Turbo out of the Pierce Archives). In fact, many of the hits
that Priest is known for, such as “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'”
and “Breaking The Law” sound like they’re rushing through songs
they’re sick of playing.
Another difficulty to my ears is that the band almost
exclusively concentrates on two or three albums for songs in this
live set. The earliest they stretch back to is 1980’s
British Steel, though they chose to pull most of the
material from
Turbo,
Defenders Of The Faith and
Screaming For Vengeance. Admittedly, the band is able to
inject some extra life into some of the numbers from
Turbo – “Turbo Lover” is much better than the
synthesizer-laden version — but others, like “Rock You All Around
The World,” really fall flat.
Some of the numbers here do smoke, such as “The Sentinel” and
“Metal Gods” — in fact, the songs that shine here might be the
numbers that only the diehard fans would know the moment the
opening chords were played. Songs like “Electric Eye” and
“Freewheel Burning” are wonderful surprises — I actually wish that
Judas Priest would have thrown a few more hidden nuggets on this
one.
Of course, the biggest difficulty with
Priest…Live! is converting the overall feel of the live
show to the album — something which is rarely accomplished. I miss
seeing the interplay between Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, or Dave
Holland pounding on his drumkit, or seeing Halford ride on the
stage on his Harley. (There is an accompanying home video release
— which I don’t have in the video portion of the Archive.)
The diehard Judas Priest fans, naturally, will see this album as
a work of art — more power to them. However,
Priest…Live! is an album that is strictly for the
fans.