The Mosh Pit 06.27.08: When Music Heroes Disappoint You

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 06.27.2008

This week the Mosh Pit looks at how your music heroes can disappoint you with the right (or wrong) album. For me, it’s Judas Priest’s Nostradamus. But the real story is in the journey, and it’s one every music fan can relate to.




Greeting to another Friday, another date with the weekend, and another addition of the eclectic mix I call the Mosh Pit. This week I'm going to step back and comment on the new album from Judas Priest. Some people love it. Some people don't. Some are average on the whole thing. Besides giving a review on the album, I'm going to explore why I reacted to the album the way I did. Along the way, maybe we'll discover a few things bout the albums we love and the music heroes that created them. More importantly, what they actually mean to us.

But First – Fun with comments!

To Ben – Per your request, their will be more interviews with the cat. I'm also working on getting him one of those "offensive" COF shirts…

To AndrewCrow – Rock On. I'm with you the whole way. I'm cool with people believing something, but if you get in my face about it then all's fair in love and war. Way to go man.

To Ashish – I haven't forgotten you! The feature I promised is a few weeks away,



Grab a drink and let's do this!



Judas Priest And Nostradamus : Opus Or Failure


OK. I've had a lot of time with this album, and it's time for a call. How is it? The question really is – How could a Judas Priest album require so much work to wrap your brain around? This packs a few blistering songs, some great solos, and… a lot of mid-paced songs that are decent… and a lot of interludes… super-production… and a symphony…

What?

Man, when I first put this in, I was so geeked after the first couple of songs. Great twin solos, pounding choruses, Rob shrieking is steel heart out, it was Priest baby! But things then went into a comfortable rhythm of decent to good songs, but something was off… And then it hit me. Where was the energy? "Touch of Evil" is a great Priest mid-paced song, but it has energy that takes the atmosphere and charges it with excitement. Buckets full of bombast if you will. But somehow that energy was lacking on these cruising tracks. These songs play well. Rob is a natural for this style of music. The original bad-ass twin leads do some really cool work. But… There is a level of energy that is missing. Is it the material? Maybe. It might be the meticulous production. I mean, lets be serious, there is huge swaths of this album that could have come from a computer. And anyone who knows me or read my reviews knows how I feel about that.

Or maybe it's because the album feels safe. The original leather metal gods are exploring a whole new subgenre of material, but it has been done to the point of exhaustion in Europe. Bands like Blind Guardian and Rhapsody (before "Of Fire"), have nailed the symphonic power metal album, and as a concept album no less. This is a good enough addition to that canon, but not better that what has been done. This does not breaking new ground like the original leather clad warriors have done many times, but visits terrain safely covered by many bands for years.

Many bands do that however, so why would it bother me that Priest is doing it?

I can't fault the performance, even if it is well scripted under the eyes of post-production. The guys sound good and like I said, Rob still delivers. He's what? Pushing 60 and can still go there. I mean, Damn. Sure, he is a little restrained, knowing where he can push his voice. But it's done so seamlessly with the music, or in other words, properly, you won't notice. He's still the man, and as a professional vocalist he uses his voice to the maximum of its ability – Which still craps on 99.8 % of society from the height of several miles.

Still, it's good, but something was just bothering me about this album. Good music is good, but why does good seem to disappoint me with the mighty Priest?

Is it the concept itself? Well, Nostradamus as a man is an interesting subject. Whether you buy the hype or not, he's probably the most famous guy to predict the future that we still talk about. And he did live in interesting times and had an interesting life. But does this really live up to the gold standard in concept albums that are based on famous people: The Chemical Wedding. Well… No.

And that is when it hit me. I kept comparing this album to other albums that were the best examples of what Judas Priest was doing with this one. I don't do that with other albums necessarily. I compare them to the genre as a whole. But this was Judas Priest. The band that once defined the modern state of the art metal band. People look up to Judas Priest precisely because they were the gold standard in metal, and dammit that's what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting Sad Wings of Destiny II or even Painkiller II, but something between those epic genre defining albums and their last release would have been about right.

But Priest took a left turn at the middle of this decade's European metal scene and did something completely different. Once past that, what they did give me was an album that didn't measure up to what I expect from this band. This band is one of my heroes in music. Few bands I would cut above the mighty Priest, musically or historically. And when a band means that much to you, you set the bar high. Why not – they're your heroes… They can break it like many times before. Right?

Is that the fault of us fans? I mean, do we raise some people so high on pedestals that we set them up to fall? I probably defeated myself with this album, wanting more than what I got – Priest simply working in the twilight of their career to do something interesting and different. And aren't us critics the first to bitch when a band doesn't take chances or advance their sound?

I think the thing that really bugs me is the simple fact that I feel disappointed. Nostradamus is a decent symphonic power metal album, and can be safely added to the existing collection of such albums on my CD rack, but when I want to hear a Judas Priest album there will be half a dozen albums I will automatically want to listen to before this. That was the case before, and nothing has changed.

Did I set myself up for failure? Or is this album really just disappointing. OK. I better pull the rod out of my ass and look at this with a critical, unbiased eye ear.

How do you rate an album critically when you're biased because of the bands legacy and what it means to you? It could be 8 out of 10, but in a catalog with so many 9's to 10's, and one arguable 10+ industry defining album, things lose perspective. Solid doesn't cut it when your idols are supposed to blow you of your feet.

Well, here are 10 things' I noticed when listening to it:

1. Musically, this album is solid. Not as many fast songs as I would want, a surprising amount of ballad-y type songs.

2. I wish the production wasn't so shiny and stainless. I know that's typical for modern power metal, especially symphonic power metal, but I still demand metal to rattle cages. That's a little disappointing.

3. Rob Halford is still a vocal god.

4. The subject matter is solid, but I'm not getting the connection to make it a concept album. It comes of more like a loose theme.

5. The interludes loose there appeal over the two discs. Interludes serve to diversify an album and tie components together in a story. That's why they are used heavily in a concept album. They are convenient to advancing the plot without using a song for what is effectively a minor part of the story. Its job is to bridge the action. The issue is, with this album not coming off as a concept album, the interludes loose their purpose and become cumbersome and pointless feeling by disc 2. That and there is so frick'n many of them.

6. The symphonic parts range from great to average; these include the interludes which doesn't help their case.

7. The album itself is smooth and well written.

8. Kudos to the band for really doing something different. Can't blame them for rehashing terrain they have already covered.

9. Would it have killed them to number the damn songs in the book? It took a few plays for me to learn which track kicks off the second disc, and that was through osmosis.

And the most important thing is…

10. When I get to the end of disc one, I'm not motivated to put in disc 2. It's more of a "I'll listen to something else and throw it in later…"

And that speaks volumes.

So how do you rate an album that is good enough to make you want to give it a few more listens to get to know it, but doesn't motivate you to listen to the second half? 6? 7? Is it really average when you want to check some songs out? Is it good when you aren't motivated to finish it?

The final test is replays. And the sad fact is I just don't see myself playing this very often. That fact puts it at the better end of average – 6.5

But the real thing is that, despite the fact I keep pulling for this album (it's Priest for fuck sake!), I'm disappointed. Well that 6.5 is one reason. But at the end of the day, even average albums by bands you love will grow on you. One of the greatest things I've learned about reviewing, ironically after I reviewed many albums, was when I came to 411. Our editor Mitch Michaels sent an email about reviewing standards that had this line: "Always balance the good with the bad. Sometimes an album's misses can make it even more essential".

So true. I'm a huge fan of Rush and their golden era. Actually, I love their first 10 full lengths, more than the typical Rush fan. One album is Caress of Steel. It's a cold, dark, pretentious mess of muse that was panned universally when it came out. I'd give it a 7 or 7.5, but that was after getting to know it. All those over-progressive and dark philosophic rambling tracks developed a certain charm over time. It's the lowest rating I'd give an album from that era, but the point is I didn't like it the first time I heard it. But the misses gave the album a charm that grew on me for its uniqueness.

Could this happen here… Maybe – Maybe Not.

When you love a band, they have the potential to easily disappoint you when you hear something that doesn't live up to the image you have of them. But they also have a way of getting you to give that album a second chance (or even a third or fourth…).

Will I give this album a second chance at a later date? Yes. I know I will. I recently pulled out Priest's Turbo to give it another run through (It still stinks, save the title track).

But nothing still matches that moment of disappointment when the mighty shakers who define music in your world, fail to deliver. It's happened to me. It's happened to you. You move on and find great new albums and hopefully new favorite bands to add to the list. Someday, the band that disappointed you might put out an album that reaffirms life, just like Painkiller made up for Turbo.

Any always – always – remember that you still have those albums that made the band so great in the first place. There is only one Sad Wings Of Destiny, and no one can take that away. The thing to remember is that the reason an album is an all time favorite is precisely because it's that damn good to begin with. 99.9998% of the population isn't going to release something that will match it; otherwise you wouldn't hold it in such high regard in the first place. Sadly, that also means the very band that delivered your classic album in the first place. Metallica never came back from the 80's. Pink Floyd never topped Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall. And Judas Priest will never top Sad Wings of Destiny.

That's probably a good thing. I'm sure God has rules against mankind being exposed to that much awesome outside of paradise.


Encore

OK folks; time for you to sound off. Drop me an email or hit the comments section and let me know what you thought of the new Judas Priest album.

Even better, how about dropping a line about some of your favorite bands and when they finally pulled out an album that disappointed you.








The Set List

Lists are cool. Lists are fun. Here is the list of what has been rocking out in my headphones. New and old, here is what has received the most plays from me this week.



1. Opeth - Watershed

It's still dominating the CD player, and I'm not sure if picking up something new would have mattered. There is a lot going on in this album, and playing it just unlocks more secrets. I think this bad boy is going to make a lot of people's best lists this year, and the top of them at that. I'm not to that point, Death Angel delivered a ton of awesome in Killing Season for this album to overcome and gain top honors. But that's me. Still a damn excellent album.





2. Moonspell- Night Eternal

This one started out good, but is growing on me more so. It's was a bit jarring on the first listen to see that Moonspell has stepped slightly away from their blackened muse to paint a more atmospheric goth picture on the edge of those darkened lands. What I really dig is that this isn't your typical mall-goth crap, but real gothic in structure and principle. Not campy, just haunting. Add in a little of the old extreme soundscapes and you have what is probably the best extreme-cross over to mainstream-albums that few will ever hear about.






3. Kataklysm - Prevail

Some how, I cut off this in the No. 5 position last week. Still playing it. Still loving it. Still thinking we would have taken out the Taliban in the Middle-East if we would have dropped the pure tonnage of this recording on the hills they're holed up in. Bunker buster my ass. Kataklysm sends them packing off to their God for sorting out. Thank Iommi for extreme metal bands that kick ass in all the right ways – In principle and musically.







4. Testament - The Formation Of Damnation

This one needed a few spins, but I'm pretty impressed. Full throttle thrash that reaches into some groove and death, giving just enough depth to add variety to the head banging experience. Who am I kidding… I'm just happy to see Alex Skolnick kick some major ass, again being the metal carnivore he should be.






5. Judas Priest - Nostradamus

Well, I played it a lot last week, and some more this week. So here we are. Sadly, I don't see this getting enough replays to ever be on this list again.






Final Thoughts

Keep it real, and play the music you love. Even when it's someone elses disappointment. Then play it on...