Search - Various Artists :: Tribute to Judas Priest

Perhaps the best tribute album I have heard in a while

Sam Allen | Newburyport Mass. | 02/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With one exception, all the songs on this record are worthy covers of another of the great gods of metal: the mighty Judas Priest! Let's take a look. We have everything from black metal to extreme thrash.

1. Helloween-"Hellion/Electric Eye": I have actually heard this in full on one of their fansites, though Andi is not near as good a singer as Rob Halford, he still has a powerful range, and this is a great way to begin.

2. Testament-"Rapid Fire": Chuck can't wail like Halford either (but then again, who can?!) However, this extreme thrash addition to the collection (with death metal growls in place of the falsetto wails) is teriffic, I've actually heard it in full once or twice on Music Choice-Metal.

3. Fate's Warning-"Saints In Hell": The singer of this talented prog-metal band can really scream! One of the best.

4. Mercyful Fate-"The Ripper": This black metal addition to the collection is perfect! King Diamond can wail just as well as Halford, and even with a bit of a gothic ovetone, this is pretty faithful to the original.

5. Strapping Young Lad-"Exciter": Well, whodathunkit? Devin Townsend has a perfect voice to cover this!

6. Doom Squad-"Burning Up": Is that John Bush on vocals? This is not the best, but it still is decent, unlike the next track...

7. Nevermore-"Love Bites": Something is seriously wrong here. I definetely am not in any way denying that Nevermore is awesome. But this cover is about twice as heavy as the original, yet half as fast. Bad.

8. Overkill-"Tyrant": This is not exactly the best on the album, but it certainly beats that awful Nevermore cover. A bit slow though.

9. Kreator-"Grinder": Surprisingly awesome, it's detuned, and the vocals are completely different, but it still works great!

10. Iced Earth-"The Ripper": Don't know why they put the same song on twice (though they are by different artists). Overall, this is pretty good, but of the two versions of this on here, Mercyful Fate's version is better."

A treasure - rarely does a tribute album sound this good.

aria87 | Los Angeles | 07/31/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For the heavy metal gods Judas Priest, a tribute would seem like a bad idea, because many of today's bands lack originality and fail to put in enough effort into making the classic songs sound even better. That is not the case with this tribute album, however, and since almost every band on this record has a large following of its own, it's obvious this record is something special and different, as the artists performing are true musicians that know how to make songs their own while keeping the original sound.When I saw the cover of this record, I knew it would be a great buy because I knew that almost every band listed was played in my CD player every day. With thrash metal bands like Kreator, Overkill and Testament on the bill, I knew this record would have double the energy as the original recording. And wouldn't you know it, I was right. With such melodic bands as Helloween, Iced Earth and Fates Warning I knew that the Judas Priest's original sound would be kept and magnified. Once again, I was right.Stand outs:Nevermore repolished 'Love Bites' and made the song into their own. The sound they created is much heavier and pounding, and yet it retains most of the Priest magic that was in the original. This remake has what most tributes lack - originality.Kreator's version of 'Grinder' is much much more aggressive, and to retain a thrash metal sound while covering a heavy metal band is very hard. Just like Nevermore, Kreator have added originality to their version of the classic song.All in all, this tribute album is one of the best tributes ever compiled. With eery band delivering an awesome performance, the metal gods Judas Priest get a deserving acclaim for years of writing quality music and inspiring artists throughout the world."

Wake the Dead!

exposurslf2kds | 06/07/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As far as cover albums go, this is great. Testaments version of "Rapid Fire" is unbelievable. For that alone you should buy this album. The other great one is Mercyful Fates' "Ripper" cover. There are a few other decent cover's as well, but if for nothing else, buy it for the thundering version of Rapid Fire."