Well said, Bud. You know, Rob is still THE Metal God. Always will be. He is also very human. He has put that wonderful instrument of his through hell for over 30 years. There is just NO way that ANYONE could come out of that unscathed.
Watching Rob and the Priest live is an awesome experience. They are icons. Veterans. They bring it every night. They are the best. There are some songs that Rob sings that still make the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up! He knows what he is doing. I figure they keep Painkiller in the set because it is just so darn popular. They play it and people go nuts. Always.
I have seen him do the song live twice since he returned to Priest and his vocal is as you said, all over the place. He makes the song come alive no matter what but, vocally, it is a far cry from 1991. That is a fact. Of course, I feel the same way about the end of Victim of Changes, too. They do that one MUCH better than PK but it is still far from the way he did it in the 70's and 80's... just as one would expect. A 60+ year old man is going to have a different voice than he did at 25. Especially after decades of HEAVY use! One "Aging Rocker's" opinion, of course.
I'm keeping my criticism to a minimum because all I'm seeing is youtube videos and I know it will sound
much better live but I agree with Freeze. If you just focus on the vocals you'll hear that Rob's all over the place
on this one and some parts just sound bad. He can still sing. I saw him twice last year and he sounded pretty good..
Maybe they should just put this one to bed. (It's overdone anyway.)
