Halford - Made of Metal (2010)

Tracklist:
1. Undisputed
2. Fire and Ice
3. Made of Metal
4. Speed of Sound
5. Like There's No Tomorrow
6. Till the Day I Die
7. We Own the Night
8. Heartless
9. Hell Razor
10. Thunder and Lightning
11. Twenty-Five Years
12. Matador
13. I Know We Stand A Chance
14. The Mower

Better Than I Expected – 8/10

A new Halford album… what could we expect from the Metal God at this stage of his career? Would it be as heavy as his previous two solo efforts? Will it be as cheery as Winter Songs? Will he continue what he did on the latest Priest release? When “The Mower” was released I had almost lost hope for a decent album. It seemed obvious his voice was gone; the live performances were dreadful… how the hell could a next solo release from Rob Halford be good?

Apparently, I was very mistaken about the Metal God. His voice is not gone; it’s just as good as it has been on a release like Painkiller. Only his high-pitched trademark screams are not as good as before, but hey the man gets older too and luckily there’s only one track with these screams and that would be “The Mower”, a track full of bland low e-picking and directionless screams. But apart from that, Rob Halford is absolutely not a has-been singer. He sounds so alive and fresh on here, at times you’d even forget he is close to 60 years old. At tracks like “Hell Razor” he even sings like he did in the 70s. Combine these fresh vocals with a very fresh sound of the instruments. Unlike on Crucible or Resurrection, the main focus is not a heavy guitar-sound. Made of Metal sounds very much like 80s Priest classics like Screaming for Vengeance or Defenders of the Faith. Tracks like “Speed of Sound” or “We Own the Night” might as well have been Priest classics. I think a lot of people who hear this album will feel this should have been the previous Judas Priest effort, and not Nostradamus, even though I really liked that one. This is also the first album to feature tracks that have been written entirely by Rob Halford. Mostly he co-writes them with his band mates. Talk about his band-mates, they are in great shape too. The album is full of inspiring riffs and terrific solos, especially on “Fire and Ice”.

Unlike the previous solo efforts, this album does not begin with an in-the-face heavy killertrack, but with “Undisputed”, featuring lyrics about boxing, Halford presents us the intro to a more melodic release with still enough power to fill your veins with adrenaline. A track like “Fire and Ice” sounds like an Yngwie Malmsteen classic, probably due to the neoclassical riff combined with the epic vocal melodies at the chorus. The title track is quite a standard track with a four-chord chorus and monotonous verses, but later on we’ll be pleased with superb tracks like “Speed of Sound”, “Like There’s No Tomorrow” and “We Own the Night”. “Till The Day I Die” is a real stand-out track. It’s very bluesy and clearly shows Halford’s interest in the genre. With tracks like “Heartless” and “Hell Razor” the album collapses a little. These tracks suffer from less originality and have a ‘been-there-before’-feel to them. With “Thunder and Lightning” Halford gives us another epic with certainly one of the finest choruses on this release. “Twenty-Five Years” is the only ballad on the album. It lasts seven minutes and perhaps that is a little too long for this song, but then again, it’s a good track and a very personal song. With “Matador” we get another track about racing, but it has these very catchy melodies and even reminds me a bit of “Nostradamus” in the chorus. The final epic “I Know We Stand A Chance” could’ve been expanded upon, but it’s a good track and should’ve been the last track. “The Mower” closes the album, and surprisingly the song is a grower. It’s obviously the least interesting track of this release, but the quality of the album lifts this song up and makes me able to enjoy it even if only a little.

In short, Made of Metal is nothing like Resurrection or Crucible in terms of sound. It sounds a lot more like 80s Judas Priest with a dash of new Halford. Were you disappointed with Nostradamus? Do you want some more kickass old school metal? Then you’ve got to listen to this record, ‘cause it’s Made of Metal!

Strongest tracks: “Fire and Ice”, “Like There’s No Tomorrow”, “Till the Day I Die” and “Thunder and Lightning”.
Weakest tracks: “Heartless”, “Hell Razor” and “The Mower”.

Halford - The Mower [Single] (2010)

Tracklist:
1. The Mower












What’s the fuss? – 3,5/10

There’s absolutely no reason for you to hold on to your seats. Nothing exciting has happened in the past few weeks and now we’re even starting to worship songs that are in fact ships lost at sea lead by a broken compass. And as soon as this compass tends to point north for only a few seconds we immediately convince ourselves that the Metal God is back. He is not. Only now, we are sure that he is gone for good.

This song is different from other Halford releases in terms of sound. It’s also the first time a Halford song begins with narration. When we’re done telling bedtime stories we receive an outburst of heaviness and the guitar and bass drums smoothly fire a round of bombastic heaviness. Not really original, but never seen before at Halford. Then, our beloved vocalist Rob Halford comes in. The last time he used his convincing screaming falsetto was on the Crucible record in a song like “Betrayal”. We heard him at two Priest albums and a holiday record since, and wise men have already concluded Rob Halford to be too old for this. Yet he manages to release a studio recording such as “The Mower”, this one, featuring his high screaming falsetto. Except, there’s something wrong... it’s even painfully wrong. It doesn’t go as fluent as ever before and this just seems as an obligation to the fans. The man is old, but still doesn’t want to admit it. His screams do reach his notes, with the help of some studio editing, but it truly sounds as if the man squeezed it out of himself, thus giving his last breath.

Alright, the rest of the song. Well, it pretty much doesn’t really get interesting. The bombastic salvo of guitar and bass drums continues to merge with Halford’s deathscream to the mid of the track. At that point, the song speeds up a little and lets Mike Chlasciak and Roy Z give us a one note palm-mute riff. In the meantime they sometimes play some random powerchords and Halford screams a bit maniacally and out of control. After a while the drum becomes bombastic with its tom-toms and the noise continues. Then the guitarists enter with a mediocre riff and a non-impressive guitar solo sounds through the speakers. And so it goes on a little with some variation in the drumming pattern and some more headaching screams from our has-been Metal God. Frankly, at the end it even starts to become a little cool, but that was only just a few seconds before the end, which is celebrated with a grunt from Halford?! Anyway, I guess it’s pretty clear now that the track is not really a reason to bang your head, unless you would bang it to the wall, but I assure you that deleting the single will be more helpful to the situation.

In short, this is quite a boring song that could sound impressive if you never heard Robbie Halford or metal before in your life, but for experienced listeners this should be a real letdown. If, however, the upcoming Halford IV album features inventive material in the same style, I could still be interested. But “The Mower” ain’t doin’ it for me.

Halford - Resurrection (2000)

Tracklist:
1. Resurrection
2. Made in Hell
3. Locked and Loaded
4. Night Fall
5. Silent Screams
6. The One You Love to Hate
7. Cyberworld
8. Slow Down
9. Twist
10. Temptation
11. Drive
12. Saviour

Resurrected... and left for dead again – 4,5/10

After a few adventures with relatively unknown bands like Fight and Two, Rob Halford returns to his roots with his new band Halford, or so they say. If you listen to Resurrection I do hope you don’t hear Halfords roots, for that would mean opera, something Rocka Rolla-ish or whatever Judas Priest was doing in the 70s. I don’t hear anything of that sort on this album. With this album, Halford did get back into the picture with a mixture of oldschool metal and a modern touch. The most important aspect of all is whether this combination works for Halford.

This release features some very heavy metal, distortion in every corner of every song. Apart from the heavy guitars, Halfords voice is rawer than ever before or after and at times even too raw for its own good. And furthermore we have the drummer adding his own definition to the word ‘heaviness’. Bobby Jarzombek uses his double bass drums wherever he thinks it’s necessary. I do think the band had a little too much faith in their vocalist and therefore were a bit sloppy on the songwriting department. While this album certainly has its moments, there are some terrible songs on here and most of it is pretty forgettable as well. Songs like “Night Fall”, “Twist” and “Temptation” have a nice theme overall and perhaps a nice riff or two, but don’t have enough content to keep me listening. The forced epic “Silent Screams” has its moments but it’s very poorly written and sung at some moments, especially the heavy part. On the other hand, this album does contain “Resurrection” and “Made in Hell”, which are two kickass powerful songs with good riffs and great vocals. To gain a better view of the album, we will go a bit into details.

The album opens with the title track, which is just a damn good song. It starts off mysteriously, with suddenly Halfords shrieking vocals screaming and then the riffs come in and the drums. A great way to open the album and the chorus is very powerful, with Halford continuously singing with his high-pitched voice, the only time Halford does that throughout the entire song. Then there’s “Made in Hell”, another great powerful song. This one is more oldschool in sound but still kickass nonetheless. Here we are already given a sign that our dearest Rob likes to sing with the rawest voice ever and that is one of the reasons this album will start to irritate. “Locked and Loaded” is terrible. The way the song begins, with Halford singing ‘I’ve got no sympathy’ like he is Mr. Cool Guy, is really awful and the awful riff doesn’t add anything either. Then there’s “Night Fall”, it's not a bad song per say, but it doesn’t have ‘it’. I guess the chorus is semi-catchy, but it doesn’t do it. “Silent Screams” is, as mentioned before, a forced epic. It starts off with arpeggiated chords, like all wannabe epics do, and the whole band joins in on the slow chorus. It’s actually not that bad a ballad so far, but Halford wants more and they add a fast aggressive part in it where Halford sings with the rawest voice ever and that just sucks! This really ruined an otherwise okay song. Though the return to the slow chorus is really great, this song will not reach the status it could’ve had. A notable but unmemorable collaboration with Bruce Dickinson on “The One You Love to Hate” is extremely heavy but in the end not so very spectacular. With “Cyberworld” as a quite enjoyable song mostly due to its fast-paced drums and cool outro, we are entering the more balanced second part of the album.

Though this side is more balanced, it doesn’t mean it’s more enjoyable. There're just no more outbursts of coolness and sadness (with one exception which we’ll get to later on). We have a few songs ahead of us that mostly all have a nice chorus but are quite basic in structure and very stripped down. “Slow Down”, “Twist”, “Temptation” and “Saviour” all fall under this category. It’s meaningless to discuss them all separately, since there’s nothing more to say about these songs. They’re okay, fine, but I would count them as filler material. One thing is worth a mention though: on “Temptation” on the bridge we have a clear hint towards Priests “A Touch of Evil”, for using the exact same melody and way of singing there. Then we get to the final abomination of this album... “Drive”. Though bands have sung about sex before, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a lyric so damn dirty before. As this one uses the comparison to driving a car, ‘I got you under my wheels now baby’, this is really awful. Not to mention the music is awful too, with Halford singing with full distortion on his voice again and the riff being terrible as well. This is terrible and too low a quality for a man with the reputation of Metal God.

In short, this album is very forgettable and there’s nothing spectacular about it. Get the first two tracks somehow and perhaps listen the other tracks once, but that’s it. The rawness of Halfords voice ruins most of the songs and with the majority of the songs being very basic in structure and filler material this album is not worth your money. Go check out some other Halford albums instead, like Crucible or Winter Songs. This is collectors only.

Strongest tracks: “Resurrection” and “Made in Hell”.
Weakest tracks: “Locked and Loaded” and “Drive”.

Halford - Winter Songs (2009)

Tracklist:
1. Get Into The Spirit
2. We Three Kings
3. Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel
4. Winter Song
5. What Child Is This
6. Christmas for Everyone
7. I Don't Care
8. Light of the World
9. Oh Holy Night
10. Oh Come All Ye Faithful



Metal and Christmas combined properly – 8/10

When I first heard that our dearest Metal God Rob Halford had some plans to release a Christmas album with the Halford band, I really gave up on the man. Every time I seem convinced the man has lost his voice, and when you see his live performances I am totally right, but somehow in the studio he manages to sing decently. Then there’s the choice of Christmas songs; despite three new songs he chose seven Christmas classics we all know but that almost never are done on other metal Christmas albums. How come? I’m very glad he did not choose to cover the most commercial songs like “We Wish You a Merry X-mas” or “Jingle Bells”. Instead, the man chose Christmas tunes with truly beautiful melodies that are fit for metal versions than those happy commercial ones. But how did the Halford band deliver those songs and is the album any good?

Opening track “Get into the Spirit” is not a Christmas classic, but a brand new Halford track through and through. We have the typical Halford heaviness and riffs and the band is doing great. Rob Halford however can no longer reach the “Painkiller”-heights here, but he does try to sing high-pitched again. This results in a Mickey Mouse parody. He swallowed helium to get this weird voice, and no matter what people say, this is not even comparable to what Halford does on “Betrayal” or “Resurrection”. He tries to do what he no longer can. And frankly, the Mickey Mouse Halford is actually quite funny in the end, leaving this song as okay. It’s really saved by Halfords backing band. Other self-written tracks on here are “I Don’t Care” and “Christmas for Everyone” and they are the weakest of the songs present on this release. The first sounds like some cliché 80s metal song with the cheesy Christmas ambience you’d expect metal to deliver and the second is a very wrong and awkward piece of... music? It’s fucking abominable! Cheesy bells ringing, horrible vocals and terrible arrangements. Didn’t they listen to it before they got it out as a single for Christ’s sake? Ah well, luckily we have a few traditional Christmas songs that always sound good, even when Rob Halford puts his fingerprints on them.

And damn right that is! First Christmas tune we’ll come across is “We Three Kings”, and boy this song sounds powerful! There is this terrific guitar riff added to the song and a firm double bass rhythm to accompany, not to mention the great solo. The only weak thing on this song is Halfords vocals, which are very low. I know his range is decreasing rapidly, but he could’ve at least sung as if he enjoyed himself? Then there is “Oh Come O Come Emmanuel”, another one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time and this one they can be proud of. This time we don’t have a Halford spoiling the vocals-department and we have a really successful conversion. One of my favorite songs on this album must be “Winter Song”. Even though this song is more pop-oriented in arrangements, this is by far Halfords best vocal performance and it is such a great ballad! We still have a few Christmas songs converted to metal left to discuss, but I’ll cut it short. The other songs are beautiful. They might not be total metal arrangements, but the band plays it so well and Rob Halford sings real well on his normal voice. Especially “Oh Holy Night” deserves a mention and so does well-chosen album closer “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”. There’s really a powerful ambience on this album and the entire band performs great.

In short, the Halford band created a great Christmas album. Even though it goes wrong on a few songs, the others make up for them. This release is one of the more gentle Halford releases ever and shows a whole different side of the band. And although the man sounds weak at some points, Rob Halford convinced me that he can still sing beautifully and full of emotion. This is my new favorite Christmas album and I highly recommend this to those who are interested.

Strongest tracks: “Winter Song”, “Oh Holy Night”, “Oh Come O Come Emmanuel” and “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”.
Weakest tracks: “Christmas for Everyone” and “I Don’t Care”.

Rob Halford - Silent Night (2009)

Tracklist:
1. Silent Night











Holy shit and what the hell?! – 8/10

Now Rob Halford has got himself into the Christmas spirit with his recent “Winter Songs” album, he has been searching his archives for an old 1992 recording of the classic Christmas song “Silent Night” and released it as a single. What I was expecting from this song was a release in the same style as “Winter Songs”, or at least something in the vein of rock music, but this song is not that. I must say it was a rather pleasant surprise.

When the song started to play I was like ‘what the hell?’ Could this really be Rob Halford? I thought he was a metal addict? No really, this is Rob Halford. What we have is actually only Halfords singing and some very modest backing instruments that are hardly heard in the beginning. This is a really peaceful performance with Halford holding the notes long and vibrated and sings with full emotion like he could in 1992. On the background we have cute little Christmas bells ringing which gives the proper ambience and on the foreground we have our dearest Metal God chanting enchantingly beautiful in a way that I’ve never heard from the man before. As we reach the end of the recording Halford starts to record more tracks, containing backing vocals to be substitute to the lack of instruments, which gives the most splendid effect.

In short, Rob Halford really recorded himself a Christmas song in a Christmas spirit. We get to hear a whole different side of the Metal God here and I like it. This I was not expecting, but it’s a pleasant surprise indeed.

Halford - Crucible (2002)

Tracklist:
1. Park Manor
2. Crucible
3. One Will
4. Betrayal
5. Handing out Bullets
6. Hearts of Darkness
7. Crystal
8. Heretic
9. Golgotha
10. Wrath of God
11. Weaving Sorrow
12. Sun
13. Trail of Tears
14. She (bonus-track)
15. Fugitive (bonus-track)
16. Rock the World Forever (Japan-only)
17. In The Morning (Japan-only)

Halford’s voice for the last time – 7,5/10

Crucible is, besides being the second album of the band Halford, unique in many many ways. Not only is it the heaviest album Rob Halford ever recorded, but it’s also the last album with Halford’s trademark high screams at decent quality. Face it, on the Priest albums following this one he rarely gives us a high scream that even sounds good. He is getting old and this is his last optimal performance. Apart from that, this album received remarkably less applause than its predecessor Resurrection, and when looking at both albums, that surprises me quite a lot.

This release tends to follow the same path Resurrection did, but then with a whole new dimension. Where I thought that the previous album had way too many filler material and was too cheesy for words at times, Crucible shows us a collection of strong songs with a flashback to the 80s at some (“Rock the World Forever”) but with an overall powerful ambience. In short this album contains more of the good side of Halford: heaviness, great riffs, more high-pitched screams and a great piece of songwriting. And above all this album has a great ballad, which is either “She” or “In the Morning”, depending whether you bought the European or Japanese edition respectively. There is a “Resurrection”-esque song in the shape of the enormously catchy and aggressive “Betrayal”, a few mid-paced songs with ongoing flow like “Hearts of Darkness” and “Heretic”, a few slower songs like “Golgotha” and “Crystal” but also some downright speedy and killer anthems like “Handing out Bullets” and “Wrath of God”. After the intro “Park Manor”, which sets a good ambience for the rest of the album, we are immediately faced by the title track. “Crucible” starts off with a bass intro, which quickly evolves into a mid-paced song with a killing riff, with traditional Halford vocals on the main. The highlight of this song might well be the epic theme just after the chorus, with keyboards highlighting the evil melody. Halfway the song speeds up into a heavier part, which reminds a little of “Silent Screams”, the epic that featured on Crucible’s predecessor. Apart from “Crucible”, “Golgotha”, which is a slow melodic song, also contains this speeding up in the middle.

There often are pretty monotonous verses with the melody bursting out in the chorus, like on “One Will”. The riff of this song is not the most original one, but what save the song is the chorus and the instrumental pre-chorus. Absolute highlight of the album is “Betrayal”. As mentioned before, this song is immensely catchy and aggressive. It’s fast, furious and very raw in sound, with the main riff almost randomly dropping a few low e-string picks, with the bass drums joining each pick, hence creating the best riff off this album. Not to mention the very high pitched vocals by Rob Halford. This is the last song ever recorded by the man that features this kind of vocals, which actually is very sad. The guitar solo is also very notable here, with very catchy backing chords. “Handing out Bullets” features one of the most heavy drums of all time, and it’s standing out for the two Halfords singing here, one in a high-pitched voice, one in a normal voice. That creates a great effect. I always thought this song was part of a duo together with “Wrath of God”, which is also extremely heavy in drums, although the latter does not feature the two Halfords.

Another song that needs mentioning is “Weaving Sorrow”, and with that song we come to the bad side of this album. I’d prefer to compare this song to “Locked and Loaded” from the Resurrection album, it’s very similar in style. The riff sounds less original and more brutal, and it has a more 80s sound overall. Halford sings like he is Mr. Tough Guy, which he actually is, but not if he sings like it. It just doesn’t work, and the uninspired chorus isn’t really helping either. To get back to the more positive side of the album there are pretty odd surprises near the end of the album. “Sun” has an odd riff and very odd singing melodies in the verses, but somehow it works. Especially the great guitar leads right after the verses really add things. Album closer “Trail of Tears” is quite epic, and the chorus is so beautiful, leaving a trail of tears on my face when realizing that his voice is gone after this album. The bonus-tracks you might gain on this album are great, no matter what version you have. The European and Japanese versions both have one great ballad, “She” and “In the Morning” respectively, and one average rocker, “Fugitive” and “Rock the World Forever”. Although my preference goes to the ballad “She”, mostly because Rob’s voice there reminds me of good ol’ times, the other is also really worth listening to.

One last subject I’d like to focus on is Halford’s vocals. Since this is one of his solo albums, he should be the main attraction. On this album his voice is already in his old days, like on Resurrection, but he can still do everything with his voice. He can still go sky high like on 1990’s Painkiller album and, although not as much as before, he can reach quite the notes on his normal voice. He’s raw and clean, aggressive and sensitive. I’d say it’s a very good vocal performance. This is the last album of which I can truly say that.

Strongest tracks: “Betrayal”, “She” and “Sun”.
Weakest tracks: “Weaving Sorrow” and “Crystal”.