Judas Priest : A Touch of Evil

There are a few metal bands that even the hippest of hipsters can’t mock, those that exceed the genre’s limitations, that add something, that do something other than just be another metal band.  Metallica used to be that band, back in the day, but more recently it’s been newer acts like The Sword and Rob Crow’s Goblin Cock.  A few old-timers held out, usually British originals, but Black Sabbath got lost in Ozzy Osbourne’s over-exposure & legal issues between its members.  But one act that’s kept up is Judas Priest.  And they show why on their blistering new live record, A Touch of Evil.

Even Judas Priest has had its ups & downs, most notably in the 1991 departure of lead singer Rob Halford.  But he rejoined the band in 2003, and they’ve put out two studio records (most recently 2006’s concept album, Nostradamus), and now their first live album since Halford’s return, A Touch of Evil.  Live, drawing from their extensive songbook, Judas Priest are able to balance all the elements of heavy metal, from the guitar wails to marching processionals, pseudo-sacrilegious to more straight-forward hard attack.  Halford is a natural frontman in his cheers of “Are you ready!?!” at the start of both “Between The Hammer & The Anvil” and “Prophecy”; age hasn’t slowed him down a bit, only adding to his scary resemblance to either Robert Englund (i.e., Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street series) or Tobin Bell (i.e., The Jigsaw Killer from the Saw series).

Like any good (or bad) metal, the songs on A Touch of Evil can run on a bit long, which is what makes shorter pieces like “Hammer & Anvil” and opener “Judas Rising” superior to longer tracks like the titular “A Touch of Evil”.  But the mixture of different records makes a concept song like Nostradamus’ “Prophecy” stronger, when standing alone, and not one of many about the famed seer.  Judas Priest has always stood a little above other metal acts, and A Touch of Evil shows why.