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Judas Priest – Live in London As the title blurb says LIVE IN LONDON is the only live video documentation of the era where Ripper Owens took over the mic from ‘metal god’ Rob Halford. Ripper joined Judas Priest in 1996 and subsequently sang on two studio albums, two live albums and this dvd. 1997’s JUGULATOR is an ultra-aggressive piece of brutal molten metal, unique to all other Priest albums, which naturally turned some fans off, but who can deny that it has some great stuff on it like “Blood Stained,” “Dead Meat,” “Brain Dead,” “Decapitate,” “Bullet Train” and “Cathedral Spires”? Every single one of these songs are mandatory Priest tracks. As for 2001’s DEMOLITION, it’s heavy as all get out and totally modern-sounding. Both disks tower in the Priest catalog.

LIVE IN LONDON was recorded 7 months into their DEMOLITION world tour on December 19, 2001, at London’s Brixton Academy. The dvd features 19 concert songs and 6 soundcheck songs. Three songs appear in BOTH the concert and soundcheck footage — “Desert Plains,” “Running Wild” and “Turbo Lover,” but 3 tracks are EXCLUSIVE to the live soundcheck — “The Sentinel” (which skips the last third of the song), “Machine Man” and “Lost and Found.” Hence, the total of live songs on the dvd is 22. These 22 songs and the 11 albums they originally appeared on are as follows:

SAD WINGS OF DESTINY (1976): “Victim of Changes” and “The Ripper.”
SIN AFTER SIN (1977): “Diamonds and Rust” (the superior acoustic version).
HELL BENT FOR LEATHER (1979): “Running Wild” and “Hell Bent for Leather.”
BRITISH STEEL (1980): “Metal Gods,” “Breaking the Law,” “United” and “Living After Midnight.”
POINT OF ENTRY (1981): “Desert Plains.”
SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE (1982): “Electric Eye.”
DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH (1984): “The Sentinel.”
TURBO (1986): “Turbo Lover.”
PAINKILLER (1990): “Touch of Evil” and “Painkiller.”
JUGULATOR (1997): “Blood Stained” and “Burn in Hell.”
DEMOLITION (2001): “One on One,” “Feed on Me,” “Hell is Home,” “Machine Man” and “Lost and Found.”

COMMENTARY: The stage design and costuming are very fitting for this modern era of the new millennium.

As for Ripper Owens, what can I say? He’s a killer metal vocalist. He properly mimics Halford on the 70s & 80s material and effortlessly performs the songs from JUGULATOR and DEMOLITION. He’s way younger than Rob and therefore gives a youthful jolt to Priest’s image, members and performance. Some criticize that he lacks Halford’s charisma and that he seems uncomfortable here and there. Hey, cut him some slack. The only reason he seems careful during the opening song “Metal Gods” is because he obviously doesn’t want to fall off the precarious platform and ruin the concert (and video). Ripper isn’t Halford; he has his own flair and does a fine job. Even if you’re an uber-Halford fan and hate the sight of Ripper, you’ve got to admit he does a highly respectable job fronting the band. But is he uncomfortable? Ripper toured the entire world TWICE with Priest before performing this gig and so had it pretty much down by this point. Regardless, how could he possibly have the same confidence and natural-ness of Halford who was with the band since day one and has over two decades more experience? At least when Ripper was in the band they were 100% heterosexual. (That was a joke).

One person criticized Glenn Tipton, suggesting that his stage antics are forced near the beginning of the setlist. I didn’t see it. He looked like he was having a good time and ‘getting into it’ for the fans. Would such criticizers rather he just stand there like an emotionless statue?

One thing that really impressed me was the British crowd. Man, these fans know how to have a blast at a metal party! You think the Japanese fans of RISING IN THE EAST are great? Wait to you see these Englanders jam to the music! They’re the best. It really makes you want to be there.

SETLIST POSITIVES: The dvd (or cd) is a must for anyone who’s a fan of the Ripper era. As noted above, seven songs from JUGULATOR and DEMOLITION are performed live here. Although “Machine Man” doesn’t appear on the concert footage, the band plays it live during the soundcheck; also, the opening part of the song plays over the dvd menu.

“Blood Stained” from JUGULATOR is the most brutal song on the setlist and obviously a great live piece. Unfortunately the only other song they perform from JUGULATOR is “Burn in Hell,” which is fine except that there are so many worthy tracks on JUGULATOR that would kick axx in the live setting, like “Dead Meat,” “Decapitate,” “Brain Dead” and “Bullet Train” (some of these titles are ridiculous, huh?).

Another positive of LIVE IN LONDON is the inclusion of such rarely-heard-live cuts as “United,” “Running Wild” and “The Sentinel.” I especially enjoyed seeing “United” performed live. It’s simple, but somehow infectious & motivational and definitely a great crowd-pleasing anthem.

SETLIST QUIBBLES: Why does EVERY live document of Judas Priest HAVE to include “Breaking the Law,” “Living after Midnight” and “Electric Eye.” they’re all fine songs, especially “Eye,” but they’ve all been played to death. Why not take ‘em off the setlist and include some great Priest songs that are rarely if ever heard live like “Tyrant,” “Dissident Aggressor,” “Dreamer Deceiver,” “Saints in Hell,” “Stained Class,” “The Rage,” “Solar Angels,” “Bloodstone” and the tracks from JUGULATOR noted above?

THE CD VERSION: There’s also a cd version of LIVE IN LONDON and it includes 5 songs not included on this dvd — “Heading Out to the Highway,” “Grinder,” “The Green Manalishi,” “Beyond the Realms of Death” and “You’ve Got another Thing Coming,” as well as the 30 second intro “Hellion.” “The Sentinel” also appears during the concert, as opposed to the soundcheck. Unfortunately “Machine Man” and “Lost and Found” do not appear on the cd (but, again, they appear on the soundcheck here).

THE SOUNDCHECK: Why even have a soundcheck section? Soundchecks are usually boring because there’s no audience and therefore the band just boringly goes through the mostions; after all, why ‘perform’ if no one’s there? If this useless soundcheck feature was eliminated there would’ve been space for the five songs noted above that only appear on the cd version of the concert.

FINAL ANALYSIS: LIVE IN LONDON is a mandatory purchase for Priest fans, in particular those who favor the Ripper era. It’s also great for those who are curious to see how Priest performs without the ‘metal god’ (Halford). The enthusiastic London crowd is a highlight. The selling point for me is the appearance of songs like “Blood Stained,” “Feed on Me,” “Hell is Home,” “Machine Man,” and “United.” : This is the one and only, or rather the ultimate DVD from the metal gods themselves! It was recorded at the legendary Brixton Academy show in London in December 2001. The live show track listing features quite a few songs that haven’t been played live for quite a while including Turbo Lover and Desert Plains. On top of that, the DVD features tons of behind-the-scenes material, rare footage, interviews, soundcheck footage, and lots more! Touring to support their 2001 album Demolition, Judas Priest blow the roof off London’s Brixton Academy during a 90-minute performance showing off their current lead singer, Ripper Owens (original vocalist Rob Halford left in 1992 to pursue a solo career). The rest of the band remains intact–the dual guitar attack of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, and the powerful rhythm section of bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis–but the soul of Priest is the leather-lunged Owens, who leads the quintet through an inspired set, mixing tunes off Demolition and Jugulator (the 1997 album that introduced Owens) with classics like “Breaking the Law,” “Living After Midnight,” and the finale, “Hell Bent for Leather.” Also included are a 20-minute featurette, “Demolition Time,” featuring band-member interviews, and 25 minutes of sound-check footage, including versions of songs not part of the actual concert, “The Sentinel” and “Lost & Found.” –Kevin Filipski Judas Priest – Live in London

• Judas Priest – Live Vengeance ‘82
• Judas Priest – Rising in the East
• Electric Eye
• Live in London
• Jugulator

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