JUGULATOOOOOOOOORRRRR
Well what can i say. I havent been a life long fan of these guys but i've accummulated all of there albums over the years and have heard each one a million times and i believe that this one is the best. . Songs such as dead meat,decapitate,burn in hell and jugulator in my mind are old school metal classics,no nonsense just straight forward metal. . . I also love the fact that this album is heavier sounding to my ears then any of there other stuff in my opinion and i know that this era of priest with tim owens doing vocals was seen in some areas as being 'nu metal' possibly because of the fact that as i stated earlier i think they down tuned there guitars a little alot of people quickly jumped to the nu metal conclusion but i believe its just amazing straight forward heavy metal. . I also prefer Tim Owens singing then Rob Halford's,but hey thats just my opinion. . . It was this album that made me go back and check out priests's back catalogue,i heard this album and was stunned at how heavy it was,a must have for any heavy metal fan.
3.5 Stars...My First Listen
I should also mention in advance that I heard Jugulator for the first time this morning after having just bought the remastered Hell Bent For Leather yesterday . I realize that I'm jumping the gun a bit here; not having listened to this more than once so far. I hadn't heard HBFL itself in about twenty three years, and was overwhelmed by the terrific quality of the album as a whole. . . but that's a different review.
It probably goes without saying that Hell Bent For Leather is such a superior album to this. . . in fact, I'd rate ALL the Halford-led Judas Priest albums (save Turbo) over this release. But I must confide that this is definitely an above average album.
But. . . Judas Priest?
No.
The Pantera-isms abound here (a couple of nods to Slayer as well) both in the vocal and riff department). I must say that the most disappointing influence here is the absysmal Alice in Chains aping, the latter influence most noticeable on the strangely overrated Cathdral Spires. What are people hearing here? This song is mostly awful. If you want a track that by itself is probably worth the album, spin Bullet Train. Sounds the most like killer Priest, but also has some refreshingly unorthodox production tricks which make it easily the best track on the album.
I ended up being charmed by Owen's vocals before the the last track here. I expected a "Painkiller"-stuck clone and got instead a singer whom has caught my interest. Not only did I like his voice, I didn't miss Rob Halford's voice on any of these songs. But then, these songs are pretty much NOT Rob Halford/Judas Priest-style songs, are they now? In fact, I noticed the similarity of many of these tracks to the later (HUGELY Priest-influenced) band Primal Fear.
Jugulator, like Dio's Angry Machines, was released when Bush was ruling the charts (let me hope none of you remember those fools). Alice in Chains and Pantera had sold many millions of copies of albums. Priest seems to have listened. . . not just to the bands listed above, but to their much younger new vocalist, as well as their record company. It happens. Unlike Dio, they actually did pretty darn good.
For something that's not really a Judas Priest album (did I mention that already? laughing).
A New Heavier Priest
Although I grew up on Judas Priest's music, I am really only a fan of simply good heavy and brutal music, who believes 'Jugulator' was a refreshing direction for this band after all the nonsense they went through in the early 90's (e. First of all, those who are Judas Priest 'purists' who stand by their 'It's not Priest without Halford' attitude' will not like this album, and that's understandable. g. , Halford's departure, the James Vance court case). Interestingly enough, I remember having heard mentioned somewhere that on this recording they sounded like many of the bands that they helped influence themselves. So what's wrong with that? I think it's great. (sort of like those bands gave Priest a thumbs-up, so now Priest is giving them a thumbs-up in return - very cool!) Also the band sounds a bit like they've been 'set free' in a way, more aggressive than ever. See, I've always noticed that the 'classic' Judas Priest sound usually consisted of guitars recorded at a certain level and general tone with respect to the drums and vocals. On 'Jugulator', the guitars are very noticeably brought up to the forefront of the soundstage, louder, in-your-face, more distorted, and for the first time downtuned (something a lot of thrash and death metal bands typically do). Personally I can't get enough of this sound. All the tracks on this album rule. As for the Ripper himself, he surely `delivers the goods' without question. I definitely enjoy listening to this album as much if not more than I do to any other album in their catalogue (and I have everything since 'Rocka Rolla', much of it on vinyl). I would even go so far as to say that I would prefer having Ripper back rather than seeing the direction Judas Priest are presently heading in with their latest release with Halford, 'Nostradamus'. 'Jugulator' is sure-fire winner, which deserves to the appreciated in it's own right, and not necessarily compared to the Halford-era sound. Buy it, crank it and enjoy!.
Have you got a gun, do you remember well....
Finding Ohio native Tim Owens in a Priest cover band was the stuff of legend as well and Priest made the gutsy move of trying to show the metal community that they were still a force, with or without the "Metal God". To continue without living legend Rob Halford on the mike must have seemed like an impossible task for Judas Priest in the mid-`90's, a decade when they and many classic bands of their ilk were rendered irrelevant by the grunge/alternative revolution. `Jugulator' appeared in the fall of 1997 and however deadly serious the band's music was on `Painkiller', the new record was downright scary and impossibly heavy! Opinions have varied over the last decade on the true merits of `Jugulator' - its derivative, lyrically terrible, trying to hard to be true metal, but I think this is because the record was compared to past recordings (obviously inevitable). Taken on its own merits, it is a darn good heavy metal album. Is it classic Priest? I don't know but it shouldn't matter, because you'll either like this album or you won't based on the songs. I personally love "Death Row", "Burn in Hell", "Blood Stained" and the title track although I do agree it is a weak twin sister to "Painkiller". Pantera and Slayer's influences seem to float through the disc which is not a bad thing but it is now the grasshopper teaching the master. Again enjoy `Jugulator' on its own terms as real metal was very hard to find in the late `90's. .
great music but trying too hard to be tough
they deal with themes such as death penalty and such, but "real" Priest deals with partying, riding motorcycles, and "heavy metal". I loved the music and singing on this album, but, Priest was trying too hard to be tough and "metal" (note: not 'heavy metal').
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