Halford—Metal God Essentials Vol.1

Details

Halford: Metal God Essentials Vol.1 (2007) features fifteen (15) of teh metal god’s most influential solo recordings, original demonstration recordings of Fight (1992) and Halford (1999) are featured alongside electrifying heavy metal tracks from the metal god’s recent releases.

Bands

Halford (tracks, 1–6, 9–12, 14, 15)

Rob Halford—Vocals
Mike Chiasciak—Guitar
Pat Lachman—Guitar
Roy Z—Guitar
Ray Riendeau—Bass
Bobby Jarzombek—Drums
Mike Davis—Drums (tracks 11, 12)

Fight (tracks 7, 8, 13)

Rob Halford—Vocals
Russ Parrish—Guitar
Brian Tilse—Guitar
Jay Jay—Bass
Scott Travis—Drums

Tracks

CD

All tracks by Halford, except where stated.

Resurrection
Made in hell
Screaming in the dark
Golgotha
Silent screams (1999 demo)
Crystal
Into the pit (Fight)
Nailed to the gun (Fight)
Slow down
Locked and loaded
Forgotten generation
Drop out
War of words (Fight)
Sun
Trail of tears
Hypocracy US mix

DVD

Resurrection: behind the scenes
Live insurrection: behind the scenes
Made in hell
Betrayal
In the morning
Silent screams
Never satisfied
Forgotten generation

Review

I was obviously aware of Rob Halford from his work with Judas Priest, but until a few years ago I hadn’t really listened to much Judas Priest — except for British Steel (1980) at my mate’s house when I was a teenager, and the occasional track on the Radio One Rock Show with Tommy Vance or Planet Rock — or any of Halford’s solo material, either as Fight or Halford.

A few years ago, I wandered into Fopp record store in St Andrews (sadly no longer there. The record store, I mean, not St Andrews!) one lunchtime and there were a couple of Halford CDs on sale for a ridiculously cheap price: Resurrection (2000) and Crucible (2002)—which I reviewed back in January.

I hurried back to my office, gave them a listen and was pleasantly surprised: I loved them!

This CD/DVD package with its stereotypical ‘metal god’ cover and name is a compilation of tracks from the two albums I have plus K5 – The War of Words Demos (2007) by Fight. Nothing from his industrial metal band featuring John 5, however: 2wo. The DVD contains a couple of short behind the scenes home-movies plus single videos and live footage.

The whole thing is as you would expect: screaming guitars, screaming vocals, crushing riffs, melodic and sensitive ballads in a way that only heavy metal bands can create, and plenty of leather and pointy chrome studs!

What more is there to say? It’s Rob Halford! It’s real metal!

Conclusion

As I already own most of the songs on this compilation I can’t see myself pulling this CD out too often, but I certainly recommend it as a great introduction to Halford’s solo work.

The lingering question I have about Metal God Essentials volume one, however, is… will there be a volume two?

Review score: 95%