Alexis' Judas Priest in Madrid concert review

When I decided to go to Madrid as an exchange student, I knew that living in that city would give me the opportunity to attend more concerts than I could ever dream of in Puerto Rico. The amount of Rock bands that come to play in Spain is truly overwhelming, and even the most ardent music lover is bound to miss a few shows. However, one I could not pass up on was the mighty Judas Priest. Arguably the best Heavy Metal band of all-time (and certainly my favorite), they’re not called the “Metal Gods” for nothing. With numerous classic albums to their name, Priest has composed anthems that have managed to transcend the Metal genre in terms of popularity.

After strong opening sets by UDO and Blind Guardian (hearing Udo’s band rip through “Fast as a Shark” was a particular highlight), Priest took the stage a little before 10 pm with their classic “Rapid Fire”. The band’s (as well as the crowd’s) energy level was extremely high. Scott Travis pounded the drums like a madman, the guitars were sounding extremely heavy, and Rob Halford’s voice was on point. “Metal Gods”, “Heading Out to the Highway”, and “Judas Rising” followed, and they were all great performances, especially the latter. I would’ve preferred “Freewheel Burning” over “Highway”, but it’s a minor complaint. “Highway” is the more popular track between the two, and if I had to bet on which one they’d perform, I would’ve put my money on the bigger hit.

At this point, the band decided to take it back to their first three albums. I was surprised (and slightly disappointed) that they played “Never Satisfied” off their debut album, Rocka Rolla. That record is not exactly a career highlight, to say the least. “Whatever, it’s just one song. The next ones will be better”, I thought. Priest then proceeded to play “Victim of Changes”, “Starbreaker”, and “Diamonds & Rust”, so I was right, to an extent. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to hear them, but they are all songs one would expect them to play. I would’ve loved to hear “Dissident Aggressor”, a song so heavy for its time, that Thrash pioneers Slayer covered it years later.

While all this is going on in my head, I realized that something very disheartening was happening right before my eyes - new guitarist Richie Faulkner sucks. It’s not that he can’t play K.K. Downing’s riffs and solos effectively; it’s that he has absolutely ZERO chemistry with Glenn Tipton. Now that K.K. is out of the group, the two-headed axe monster he created with Tipton is completely gone. Faulkner and Tipton do not play off other at all; they are clearly two separate guitarists who happen to be in the same band. When K.K. was up there, watching him play with Tipton was pure magic. They traded solos and riffs with ease, and even their body language suggested they were completely in tune with each other. Now that Faulker is in the band, the two guitar players just stand on the opposite corners of the stage and go through the motions.

As if this weren’t bad enough, we’re about an hour into the show, and it is painfully clear that Halford’s voice does not have the same power it had at the beginning. The show hit its low point when the band “performed” their classic “Breaking the Law”. I’m still in shock from what I witnessed at that particular moment. As the band started to play the song and the crowd began to sing the words, Halford elevated his microphone stand to about 8 feet and proceeded to enact the song’s lyrics with hand gestures. I payed 65 euros to hear this mother fucker sing, and instead I’m hearing thousands of Spaniards scream the words in broken English. Needless to say, I was pissed. Extremely pissed. “Step on my kicks by accident and I’ll pop a cap in yo’ ass” pissed. I don’t know if this means I’m too naïve, but I thought “maybe this is just something to get the crowd involved and he’s going to sing it after that”! Nope. Instead, the band left the stage and Scott Travis started to play a very average drum solo. I could tell that would lead into “Painkiller”, so being the huge Priest fan that I am, I kind of forgave Halford for taking “Breaking the Law” off. “Painkiller” is an extremely difficult song to sing, especially at his age, so I can’t blame the dude for needing a breather. But, fuck, not during “Breaking the Law”! Oh, well.

When Travis finally played the intro to the song, it was another disappointment. He slowed the tempo down considerably, which made the song lose much of its heaviness and attitude. Also, Halford’s break didn’t do anything to help his voice, as he was straining throughout the whole performance. His body was completely leaned over as he screamed the words into the mic. It could be seen by some even more naïve than me as a “Metal” pose, but I knew he did it because it was the only way that he could get out what little power he had left in his voice.

The next moment was also a major let-down. After leaving the stage for a while, Halford emerged with the Spanish flash draped over his shoulders and led the crowd to a series of “whoa yeah” chants. Amazingly, his voice sounded great! This also pissed me off. WHY COULDN’T HE JUST SING BREAKING THE LAW INSTEAD OF DOING THIS CRAP?! Ugh.

The last songs the band played were “Hell Bent for Leather” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’”. These two are undisputed Metal classics; so of course, they had to fuck them up. Halford’s voice was so gone at this point that he SPOKE the chorus to both songs instead of singing them. For a guy that’s so into having the crowd sing, he made it damn near impossible to sing along when he changed the melody of the songs to fit his faded voice. “There’s maaaanyyyy whooo triiiieeed to prooove thaaat they’re faaasteeer, but theeeyyy diiidn’t laaast aaand they diiieeed as they triiiiiiieeeeed” became “There’s many/who tried/to prove/that they’re faster/they didn’t last/they died/as they tried”. LAME!

After finishing the set with random screams that seemed totally forced and unnecessary, as if to prove he “still had it” (if he truly had it, he would’ve skipped that crap and just sang the songs correctly), the band returned to play “Living after Midnight”. Perhaps not surprisingly, that was one of their best performances of the night. The song is pretty easy to play and sing, and always gets the crowd pumped up due to its simple structure and catchy melody.

In conclusion, I was very disappointed by this show. Some might say that they’ve been doing it for more than 40 years, so it’s obvious that they won’t sound the same as they at the height of their fame and glory, and that it’s my own fault for getting so overexcited. It’s a fair point, but I saw Aerosmith in 2007 and Iron Maiden in 2008, and those guys totally kicked ass. Bruce Dickinson and Steven Tyler have been screaming their lungs out for about the same time as Rob Halford, and they still sound amazing. While I can’t blame a 60 year-old man for being past his prime, I still expected more out of this experience. It hurts me to give the show a four out of ten, but I’m afraid it’s the only score that can do it justice. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go blast “Exciter” on my iPod and act like this never happened.

4/10