Judas Priest - Olympic Gym, Seoul (S. Korea) - 9.21.08

Posted by Jesse Coy on 10.01.2008

The high priests of heavy metal are unleashed in the east once again. Check out a Judas Priest performance from overseas.

So I’d be meeting this Korean girl who likes heavy metal, which is cool, rather than have no one to fill out that “plus one,” and also to bring someone who would really love the show. She arrived maybe fifteen minutes earlier than I did. We sent text messages back and forth. “I’ll be wearing a black hat and black shirt,” she told me. I grabbed two beers at the convenient store at the metro stop, slamming one down before leaving the station, and then drinking the other while we looked for the Olympic Gymnasium. She’d played guitar in a band, and they played a couple shows. She was the only girl in the band, though, and I guess it got awkward. I was almost hoping she might be a guitar player with whom to make a band.

Asked directions (she did), eventually finding the arena. Asked where to get our tickets once there. It was the press table, quite close by. And then inside we went. If we got there at 7:30, they likely started playing at 7:40, and the show ran until about 9. That sounds about right. They played seventeen tunes. We had a pretty good view of the band in the section next to the sound folks. It definitely wasn’t a packed house, but then again, I wondered how many Koreans were into heavy metal. The stadium itself seemed smaller compared to some others, or more intimate in design. The seats didn’t go as high up to nosebleed levels. It was the perfect setting to see Judas Priest.

Judas Priest… Judas Priest, you say? This would be the second time I caught the band, and the third time for seeing Rob Halford. I saw Judas Priest quite a long time ago when they were on tour supporting the Painkiller album, Megadeth opening for them, and then saw Rob with his post-Judas Priest band, Fight (‘91 and ‘93, respectively). I’d told Jeon that they’d probably do a lot off the newest album, their two-disc Nostradamus release, which had gotten mixed reviews by fans. Before going to this show, I picked it up to gage my thoughts on it, but had only given it a couple rushed listens, my thinking being that I’d get a different perspective upon seeing it live in its entirety.

The lights flickered, went off, and then the crowd erupted. And then out came the band, and out came Rob… which really made me think, we have our five heavy metal demagogues. There’s Bruce, the pilot. There’s Ozzy, the mad godfather. There’s Lemmy, the ass-kicking uncle. There’s Ronnie, the elf. And there’s Rob, the high priest. And for this show, Rob came out looking like a high priest of metal, shrouded in cloaks or robes, as Judas Priest began it all with “Prophecy,” opening track off their new album. So it was safe to assume that the band would roll tthrough their new release, theatrics intact, one track after another. Only, the next track was “Metal Gods.” Soon, off came the cloaks or robes, and then it was “Eat Me Alive,” followed by “Hammer and Anvil.”





It was around then when I figured that I might be wrong with regards to them performing their new album nearly in its entirety. As a matter of fact, the only other new track they performed was “Death,” a very heavy and also longer track, Rob sitting on an elaborate throne of judgment or prophesizing, the sound of the tune almost having an older Black Sabbath doom-laden feel to it, yet building in intensity. The rest was an interesting mix of classic Judas Priest tracks, with a handful of selections I probably didn’t hear them perform the first time I saw them. Really, I didn’t care what I saw, either older material, or the new album in its entirety. I was just happy to catch these legends again.

I imagine that for a band with as extensive a catalogue as Judas Priest (see also Rush or AC/DC), it must be fun to pull out a tune not performed for quite some time, playing it again. Although only seeing Judas Priest one other time, I’m not sure what’s standard performance tunes for them. I have all but two Judas Priest albums (Demolition and Angel of Retribution), so I know all of their material. A few tracks I don’t listen to too often that I heard them perform, aside from “Eat Me Alive,” were “Rock Hard, Rock Free,” “Hell Patrol,” and “Devil’s Child.” Off their reunion album with Rob, they played “Angel,” with its classic Judas Priest “sad wings” reference. That one I heard there for the first time. Beyond this, you had eight more tracks.


I was quite happy to hear both “The Sinner” (I can’t recall if they played that when I first saw them in ‘91) (those were pre-journal days, so I have no record of what they played back then) and “Dissident Aggressor.” The latter was quite interesting for me to hear since my first exposure to that was through Slayer covering it on South of Heaven, and was it just me or did this live version by Judas Priest sound quite heavy compared to the original? They performed “Breaking the Law” and also “Electric Eye,” Rob perched on the second tier of the stage construct for part of that one, as Glenn and K.K. sawed through their guitar bits, Ian kept the bass backbone, and Scott galloped through the drumming (had to reference the rest of the band, seeing as how I throw Rob out there so much).

Ah, classic Judas Priest, like a fine wine… it doesn’t get much better than this. They closed with “Painkiller,” Rob singing in a different style, almost a lower range. Then again, it’s a bit hard to hit that banshee-like level that he had on the original recording. Not too long ago, I ranked that track as one of the all-time best album openers, and I still feel the same way, even though it closed out this show. Of course you knew an encore was coming. Out came the band, and out rolled the motorcycle, in attendance for “Hellbent for Leather,” and then “Green Manilishi,” which may also have been when Rob came out with the Korean flag to the wild and enthusiastic cheers of all in attendance.

The third encore was “Another Thing Coming,” which began after Rob tested the crowd, having them imitate his vocal doodles just like you hear him doing on Priest Live, or you may have experienced before if you ever saw the band live (that I remember him doing in ‘91). My only complaint, being pretty happy with the song selection, might be that I could’ve used a few more tunes. But concerts tend to end (and start) a bit earlier in Seoul, likely making sure that everyone catches the metro back home in time, as I’m sure that’s how most folks, myself included, made it to the show.

The 411: Just to summarize, the concert felt a little short (by maybe two songs), but had a great selection, was set in an interesting location, and there was no rust on this heavy metal machine.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]