Greetings, Priest FANS..I emphasize that, since it is apparent that some who identify themselves as such are fairweather friends who are only fans "when" and "if" and under certain conditions. As a musician (hip-hop) artist, I find this album to be spectacular, not just because it is Priest but because we are in a culture right now that is anti-creativity. Musicians are fashioned and buttonholed to keep doing the same thing. Especially older bands who are invited to rest on their laurels. If anything, this album shows that Priest are still "hungry" for new vista. I especially invite naysayers to go back to Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings and you find the harmonicas, the keyboards, the orchestrated string arrangements and some Priest guitar techniques that even Glenn and KK described as "experiments." These almost all of us hold near and dear to our hearts as the Priest definitive catalog and this was long before the 30 and under crowd discovered Priest in Vengeance. This all looks conspiratorial to me. If Priest does the same thing, they are seen as standing in place. If they change, they are not appealing to the base. Part of this is that a lot of the defining in the mainstream record market is being done by people that were not part of the historical metal culture who only joined it in the commercial period. Priest has never been about commercial, even though from time to time, they had a "hit." I didn't get Point of Entry, but it was Priest and I took it as evolution. Turbo I liked except for the synthesized guitars which were new and again evolution as they were used more effectively as time went on. But the core of the things that made me a Prest fan are present in the new record. History is filled with records like this that were masterpieces that had zero commercial success and then suddenly everybody realized later that something was going on. It's funny to me because I remember Vengeance when YGATC came out and a lot of "true believers" said Priest has sold out. It went triple platinum but took a decade or so to do it. Priest is about artistry. Real metal is about that to. The minute metal or any form of music becomes what the masses are into today, its doomed. I watched my intellectual, socially conscious hip-hop turn into stupid, juvenile drug-laced rants and fake gangsters. From Rakim Allah to whoop dere it is. I could have bought in, but I committed to my music. 20 years later, I'm still here as that mess slowly fades. Priest is an inspiration to me for that reason. In 2009 I will release my 15th album MiddleMan, a Biblical concept album with lots of symphony and metal elements. It won't be commercial and it's different from my typical style, but it's the best I've ever done as an artist. I respect Priest across genres for coming out "all guns blazing." And as hard as they try, they will never take away the title Judas Priest have earned anymore than those of us in hip-hop no matter how "hard-core" can forget a group from New York rapping to a Chic remix. Without them, I would not be here. I might do a different style, but my hats are off to the masters. Priest isn't about making a hit or even one mega-album, but the catalog, the discography, the duration. I'm heading out to the highway in August to see them at Verizon and I'll be there if I'm all by myself singing along with my favorite "artists."
DP Da Reapa Priest FAN..4eva. |
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