I don’t want to be typecast, but it seems my early role as Sentinel Daily‘s Texan correspondent seems to be hanging around Deep Ellum’s Bomb Factory venue passing judgement on vocalists in the twilight of their venerable careers… tonight The Sentinel meets the Metal God, who rides into town on a wave of social media hysteria having only a few days before been embroiled in the now-infamous ‘phone-kicking’ saga. Whatever your take on that particular story, it hasn’t done a thing to dent the passion for Rob Halford among the faithful gathered here tonight…
My father saw Judas Priest on the Defenders of the Faith tour at The Reunion Arena in Dallas in 1984, when the band’s star was at it’s height in the US. Tonight, in front of around a third of the audience size from that show back in the day, it might be fair to say that we find the band in somewhat reduced circumstances. The faithful don’t care, of course, and greet Rob Halford and bassist Ian Hill like the iconic characters they undoubtedly are. A shaky Necromancer breaks the band in to the evening, followed by a crowd pleasing Heading Out to the Highway, and then the band takes on the first true classic of the evening, The Sentinel. Halford’s voice copes, just, and he hits some impressive high notes at the song’s end. But at this early stage in the evening guitarists Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap just can’t replicate the dynamism of Glenn Tipton and KK Downing in their pomp, no matter how proficiently they execute their respective parts.
Spectre fares better for precisely this reason. This is music that obviously belongs very much to the ‘new’ Priest, and Faulkner in particular seems to thrive on presenting his work to the Dallas metal cognoscenti. Andy Sneap is more reserved but no less effective. All around your correspondent necks are flexed appreciatively!
It’s nice that Priest are revisiting some ‘deep cuts’ on this tour – however the inclusion of a range-testing (Take These) Chains might not be the best choice for the band at this point. Halford just doesn’t manage the vocal modulations required, and though it’s admirable that the band play without any taped backing vocals, the overall result disappoints. Judas Rising fairs better, again prompting breakouts of fistbang mania throughout the crowd. Out in the Cold is a surprise fan favourite – the first really enthusiastic and widespread response of the night occurs in the instrumental middle section of the song, and at last Andy Sneap appears fully connected with the songs and the audience. Is this a turning point for the performance?
Another new song, Traitor’s Gate, trades on the tide of goodwill flooding across the audience; Sneap and Faulkner up the performance ante, and Halford’s vocal shines through, giving a fleeting glimpse of what things might have been like in my father’s salad days; your correspondent throws caution to the wind, puts away his notebook and starts headbanging with abandon! Another deep cut, Starbreaker, is totally awesome, Halford hitting a big note before the solo which sends the audience into paroxysms of slightly-relieved joy. It’s a slightly surprising triumph – but a triumph nonetheless. British Steel‘s forgotten classic, Steeler, is almost as impressive, and the band really click on this more ‘simplistic’ material. It’s brutally effective. Halls of Valhalla is urgent and heavy, Halford starring with some spine-tingling screams, and the early doubts experienced throughout the crowd seem to be dissipated once and for all as the band ram their hard-won advantage home…
Tyrant sends the crowd over the edge and the band heads for home with the fans tucked firmly away in their pocket. It’s the best song of the night – especially when the Metal God spits out the words ‘hideous destructor’! The harmony lead is executed to a tee – although some more onstage interaction between the two guitarists would make things even more appealing I think – but right now the band have earned the right to present the songs however they want!
The best song from Firepower, No Surrender, piles on the pop metal glory; this track really is a throwback to the band’s glory days, and it’s inclusion tonight obviously meets with the approval of all present, but it seems like a mere bauble when set against the grinding grandeur of Victim of Changes, wherein the band, as they did on Tyrant coalesce perfectly to prove again to any doubters just how viable they are as a live attraction in 2019. These guys don’t just cut it, they chainsaw it into little pieces and offer it to our metal-hungry, gaping maws again and again…
All Guns Blazing is a surprise but welcome end the the main part of the set, but there are no such surprises in the encores, when Hell Bent For Leather, Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight are wheeled out amidst scenes of joy and delirium in the cheap seats that Sentinel Daily is happily occupying.
So, after a shaky start and a little time to get warmed up, Judas Priest left Dallas in triumph – make sure you catch them when they come to your town if you can!
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