To follow up the genius monster Jugulator and the brilliant double live album ´98 Live Meltdown, Demolition should prove to be a quite surprising release. It takes some time to get into the album, having a lot of 6-minute songs that need some listening to really unfold. As on the last effort
Tim Owens handles the vocal job with intensity, feeling and his special raw voice.
The album has many good songs; let's look at some of the best ones:
Machine Man is a combination of classic Priest and some new influences; here I'm especially thinking about the distorted guitar effects, fitting in rather well. The mid-section melodic break is fantastic and the heavy drive coming from the hard guitar riff and ultra tight drumming works out just right.
One On One is a riff-dominated groover with a basis that could shake even the hardest fundament. At first the chorus seemed rather simple but it quickly develops into something very strong. The distorted guitar effects are stretched to the limit, some of them worked pretty well though. Not the most varied track but it hits damn hard and Tim's voice sounds awesome in these types of songs.
The dark aspect of this album reaches its climax with the one of a kind
Hell Is Home. The way the atmospheric beginning is coupled with Tim's spellbinding lyric-lines is beyond belief, simply pure magic and very sing a long inviting (have accepted that many times myself).
The lyrical side dealing with social stigmatising is something I think every Metal head can relate to, at least to some degree. A special but brilliant song.
Jekyll And Hyde is a short but nevertheless varied track featuring exciting guitar parts and a cool up-tempo ending section.
A big plus are the slower songs of the album.
Close To You is extremely moving, dealing with feelings of loss delivered by a magnificent lyric. The great sensitive guitar solo and cool tight bass is other successful elements.
Lost and Found is fantastic ballad type of song lead by a genius acoustic guitar rhythm. The mellow electric guitar part being a highlight together with the melodic chorus and the fantastic sedative dual solo spot.
And again some songs clearly lack the quality we know this band is capable of:
Devil Digger follows a very tiresome and predictable path, never really getting interesting. The experimenting guitar parts and sounds don't advance the song and seems more to float around aimlessly. The groove is pretty hard but still an uninspiring track.
Subterfuge is a very weird song that becomes too reliant on a chorus that contain a monotone drive and a tame rhythm. The minor cool details from guitars and drums are some of the best working aspects.
Cyberface is another song that is simply too strange to be really working. A long and not very well structured cut with a chorus and rhythm that is much too simple. The drum and bass collaboration is pretty cool, but overall this is nothing special at all.
The rest of the songs are all solid and good tracks and my overall impression is that Demolition is a very good album with just a few songs lacking behind the rest.
Seen from a lyrical angle this is some of the best Priest writings, dark, relevant, emotional and identifiable.
Tipton and K. K. have some great riffs, but the classic twin solos are more remote and also missed to some degree, anyway their solos still kick ass. The guitars are used more to create atmospheres and grooves, coming out quite successful on most occasions. You got to hand it to these world-class legends that they still know how to make things innovative and interesting. Scott Travis handles his drums with great solidity but also has the ability to add some cool refinements to the picture. Ian Hill is the power plant we have gotten used to, his playing is not quite as fantastic as on Jugulator but still very vigorous.
Summing up: Very good and solid metal with a couple of fantastic slow songs and some surprising elements that for the most part are well working, once again showing that Priest has the insight to successfully mix traditional with modern.
Written by
Tommy Friday, March 26, 2004
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