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296: JUDAS PRIEST's Invincible Shield | Album Review
26 Plays6 months ago
Reviewing JUDAS PRIEST's album Invincible Shield! 🛡
#judaspriest #robhalford #ianhill #invincibleshield #metalpodcast #heavymetal #classicmetal #metal
PODCAST THEM DOWN - https://linktr.ee/pctd https://patreon.com/podcastthemdown
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Topics
00:00:00
Speaker
Tim, I think it's awesome that you brought us on to talk about Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. Like I know we did Ravenous before you and I did the original Ghostbusters and like I'm just so sick of YouTube putting middle-aged men on my thing, telling me how Invincible Shield is the greatest album since
00:00:24
Speaker
Tonight, I'll broadcast them
Excitement for Judas Priest's New Album
00:00:26
Speaker
down. We are talking about Janus Priest's new album, Invincible Shield. God damn it. He did it again. Hey, Metal Nation. It is I, Tim. This is Invincible Shield. This is also Invincible Shield. That's right. And that is Doug. And that is Matt. And this is Podcast Them Down. And it's fucking time to talk about this fucking amazing album.
00:00:53
Speaker
I, it was so long. Damn it. I had to buy a second copy, but we'll get to that. We'll get to that. This is a CD review. I wanted to be clear about that upfront, not part of our discography review. This is an album review. Got it? We're not going to talk about Emily Aline Lin's Yeoman performance as Melody. Okay. So,
00:01:18
Speaker
as usual during our CD reviews. We have to fill out all the parts of the spreadsheet because this is podcasting down so it's very spreadsheet centric.
Exploring the Heavy Metal Genre
00:01:31
Speaker
So we need to define Judas Priest's genre for the album, Invisible Shield. Well, yeah, for the album. For the album. It's the operative phrase, heavy metal.
00:01:42
Speaker
I'm not hearing any dissent. Ah, that's heavy metal. You don't want to throw more qualifiers on there. That's fine with me. We start off with the famous melody from the Rush song, Tom. Oh, no, no, no. See, the album starts off with this synth intro thing, then goes into a dream theater riff.
00:02:02
Speaker
that sounds exactly like a song from Systematic Chaos.
Musical Influences and Era Elements
00:02:07
Speaker
And then it goes into, again, it gets all nice and heavy and Panic Attack kicks in, which is another Dream Theater song, by the way. So I think they've been listening to Dream Theater and kind of Osmost a few things into it. It doesn't last after this, the random Dream Theater.
00:02:27
Speaker
this is like i mean we'll probably talk about this all all record but it's like every era of judas priest folded that is exactly that would be my one sentence review of this album they managed to make it new and yet acknowledge everything they've ever done all at once so it starts yeah it starts very 80s
00:02:47
Speaker
Yeah, very turbo. I mean, this is a fantastic opening song. The lyrics are kind of dumb. They don't always do great kind of social issues, lyrics, with their kind of blunt approach.
00:03:02
Speaker
All right. So the album moves on with the serpent and the king. I wrote, fuck yes. And so this is, um, it's got like a painkiller era feel except for the chorus. I'm not sure what that's supposed to be. I'm not complaining about it, but it's, uh, it's, it's more primal, primal fearing. Uh, the solos are solid. Uh, it sounds like they've been listening to everything Ripper's been doing lately.
Christian Themes in Lyrics
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah. Well,
00:03:30
Speaker
I'll say a lot of the the lyrics are very like Halford, like the Halford solo projects. And there's sort of like this song and some of the others of Christian allegory. Where do you get that? Gates of Hell, Devil in Disguise, as God is my witness.
00:03:49
Speaker
serpent and the king. And probably the time to talk about this would be like crown of horns, but there is this narrative that Halford's kind of getting a messianic complex and confusing himself for his Metal God persona. Admittedly, confusing yourself with God is a fairly metal problem.
00:04:13
Speaker
I can't argue against that. This is a good song again. Painkiller esque and with possibly one exception that we'll get to in a while. Every song on this record, I've seen people on the Internet say this is the best song. This is one of their best songs of all time.
00:04:32
Speaker
which is quite impressive. But yeah, I don't have too much to say. It's your excellent song. Like most of the songs on this record and most of the songs on the last record, it's short, punchy to the point. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, it's very well processed or produced in the sense of like they took their time to make this album because what? It's been six years since the last one. So they clearly didn't just throw this together. Yeah.
00:05:01
Speaker
The band is night and day compared to where they were before they started working with Andy Sneap. Not just the production attributes, but commercially too.
Revitalized Sound and Production
00:05:15
Speaker
Firepower and Invincible Shield really take the pre-sound back into a broadly accessible, not power-metally direction. Something that's satisfying to everyone.
00:05:27
Speaker
I've seen it asserted and this is probably true. They're the first band, commercial signed band to release two heavy metal records 50 years ago. We'll see what they're like live, but they do not sound the least tired of this record. There's a digital crispness here in the recording where strangely parts of it feel fresher and more raw and young.
00:05:58
Speaker
than like the 70s records. I mean, part of that is technology, but there's an energy here. There's not like a slowing down. It's also Andy Sneap, the producer slash guitarist that they brought on. And yeah, like this blows all of the other... Yeah.
00:06:16
Speaker
albums just from a production standpoint. It blows like new crappy Iron Maiden. Metallica sounds overproduced, but this sounds just. Somehow this is more overproduced, but doesn't feel it's not like distracting. Yes, exactly. And then everything is audible. Like you can hear the bass the entire time and that's difficult to do and make it sound good.
00:06:41
Speaker
I think he's given him a kick in the ass from effort, like making them try and making them do commercial things. It's like fire powers, they stripped it all down. It was almost kind of groove metal at points, very simple riffing, and now they've reintroduced all the priest elements and built the sound back up while retaining that, the super commercial core. So let's jump into Invincible Shield, the song. I love this song.
Highlight on Track: Invincible Shield
00:07:11
Speaker
Fantastic. The amazing buildup, lyrics that are both fantasy and kind of allegory for adversity in life, like all the priest complexity, great lead work, a really wonderful song and really wonderful title track. Yeah. From a technical standpoint, the layered vocals are perfect. The choices they made to layer the vocals
00:07:37
Speaker
are really good. The guitar has enough slop that it sounds real, but it doesn't sound sloppy. They didn't take the surgical, exactly perfect take, which if you did that, it makes everything sterile and just not sound live. And this actually sounds alive.
00:07:59
Speaker
and uh just from a songwriting thing they they get the uh harmonized leads by the end which is really you know that's you got these two slash three fantastic guitarists i like hearing hearing them use them well whereas iron maiden has three guitars and don't know how to use any of them
00:08:18
Speaker
Let's move on to Devil in Disguise, perhaps.
Track Analysis: Devil in Disguise
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, another strong opener. It's weird because these are the four tracks. I mean, I agree that Panic Attack is the best opening track, but I could see you starting the album with any of these and being off to a good start. It's like, again, good energy, good attack. It's just like, there it is.
00:08:39
Speaker
Well, if you opened with Invincible Shield, I think it would have been too on the nose and too good right out of the gate. Devil in the Skies goes back into that 80s sound. I forget if it's a phaser or a flanger. There is a difference. And some guitar nerd is going to be so mad that I don't know what it is and I got it wrong.
00:09:03
Speaker
But they did that, and then they got the early 80s Judas Priest kind of grew. This is almost kind of dirty. And just in and out, four minutes or something. Yeah. The only thing about this song, he says Fran tick, tick, tick, tick. Was that an intentional reference to the Metallica song where he also goes Fran tick, tick, tick, tick.
00:09:30
Speaker
They are publicly big fans of each other, so I expect it was. But yeah, a nice little nod. They made that line work better than Metallica did.
00:09:39
Speaker
Yeah, just kind of occupying the same spot as like Evil Never Dies or Neuromancer or Necromancer in the last record. Kind of darker, cartoony dark, but also this allegorical level and very commercial sounding. I also like the vocal effects. They did a good job filling in all the space. So like, he's a devil and then it echoes devil, devil. Yeah, that's
00:10:04
Speaker
I love it when when they make good decisions like that, when anyone does. And, you know, Judas Priest is the top of the heap and they're doing it right. And I just when I hear the examples of when it happens, I got them pointed out.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like there's nothing wrong with aggressive recording studio kind of production decisions when it works. Absolutely. Absolutely. When you hear it. So we come to Gates of Hell.
Song Analysis: Gates of Hell
00:10:35
Speaker
I love this song. The weed opening is fantastic. Amazing hooks in the chorus. Counterpoint. Yeah, it's not evil enough for the title. Gates of Hell.
00:10:45
Speaker
But Judas Priest has done this before. They have like an intense title and then don't really match it in the music. I'm thinking specifically of the 70s albums, but otherwise it's a great song. It's just they should have softened the title a little bit. I also like when Rob Halford says purgatory.
00:11:06
Speaker
And well, just like we were talking about, I know it's over produce question. No, slick sheen elevates this type of track. And it absolutely does. You know, one of the only criticisms I've ever seen of Andy Sneap, that all Andy Sneap production jobs sound the same, but that's not a critique. If you have one best way and that's your best answer that applies to everything, nothing more mental than that. Yeah.
00:11:35
Speaker
He's doing it how it should be done. Just load the new config file into your new project. Yeah.
00:11:44
Speaker
That is the dream. Yeah. So it's a real great song and we have lyrics are kind of about our world of metal. I have noted. I really appreciate the solo throughout this record. I already mentioned it before, but they, the songwriting on the solos is good because it's not, it's not boring. It's not overly technical or at least not in a bad way. And so they managed to write interesting solos that go somewhere and aren't just like notes.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like talk about walking out slash making an amazing choice with Richie Faulkner who's we're
Crown of Horns: A Mixed Review
00:12:22
Speaker
going to be talking about his stuff in a few years when we get to it. Unless he has another heart attack on stage. His heart exploded during painkiller and he finished the song before going to the hospital where they ironically put him on painkillers I'm sure.
00:12:40
Speaker
All right, so we come to, if anything, the most controversial song on the record, Crown of Horns, which is not really a power battle, but it sort of takes that place. Yeah, I'd say it's a semi-ballad. It starts with a weird solo for no reason, which again...
00:12:57
Speaker
Judas Priest has done before, so it's not out of the ordinary for them. I think this album needed this right here. It's a nice change of pace and mood right where it needs to be to keep you engaged in listening to the whole thing.
00:13:17
Speaker
Disappointed that there wasn't enough horns in it. I wanted like a Chicago big horn break in it just to play around with the title and I was disappointed that didn't happen.
00:13:32
Speaker
I think you could make it work, like some orchestral thing, something. Doug, I haven't heard the controversy about this song, but I really like the chorus. What's not to like about this song? I mean, it's a change of pace. It's sort of ballad-y.
00:13:53
Speaker
I would say the messianic tendencies I've kind of referenced earlier. I didn't read the lyrics. A crown of horns. He's kind of putting himself on the cross a bit and or putting metal on the cross. This is just standard metal fair to me. I don't see what the big deal is.
00:14:17
Speaker
Well, I was gonna say with the other thing about the lyrics and this is a good song like I think in the 72 seasons review I talk about how to me metal is kind of a lark, right in terms of lyrics like I don't listen to metal typically for the deep emotional connection or because I'm trying to echo
00:14:38
Speaker
things I'm dealing with. But I remember saying when they first put up the video, the YouTube comments were like, thank you, Judas Priest. My father died five years ago today and I was thinking of ending it. And then I got this song and I cried and
00:14:58
Speaker
I feel so good now. Thank you, Judas Priest. And like you see comments like that on all these songs, Priest, these big bands, even if like what I say is true of a lot of metalheads. And I don't take that as a given. Like the hard rock audience really finds meaning in this stuff. And this kind of song would seem like especially so.
00:15:20
Speaker
Good job, Judas Priest. Absolutely. I have nothing bad to say about this song. Okay, next track, as God is my witness. Well, we open with the opening bit from Weather Rebel, basically. Yeah, yes, exactly. We do. And I really get primal fear vibes on this one.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yeah, not not a bad thing, but yeah, there's a in this song. There's a great bridge because the between the leads and the vocals like shift gears into this higher, even higher energy like it starts off.
00:15:58
Speaker
It starts off heavy but then it just goes to this other level and then towards the end of the song they switch to a triplet feel which is like the whole song is just straight sixteenths but then when they go to the triplets it's just like yeah they squeezed everything they could out of out of the juice of the songwriting here and I think the song works great. I have one significant quibble
00:16:22
Speaker
Is it? I mean, yeah, but the song is fantastic. Yeah. And the lyrics doesn't sit right with me. Unless this is some like British thing, the phrase is God as my witness. That's what people say. Not as God is my witness. Exactly. Are you googling the phrase, Matt?
00:16:47
Speaker
I am because it's interesting. There's a Kenny Rogers song also called, As God Is My Witness. There seems to be two variants. One is with God as my witness, the other is as God is my witness. So the is is the one that appears in Gone with the Wind, for example, as
00:17:13
Speaker
So I have a sort of false memory and or I've heard the width taken off and it sort of stated short. It's very interesting. Anything else on this? Yeah. Again, we talk about these commercial lyrics that are both metal and like you can see how people connect them to their own struggles in life.
00:17:36
Speaker
And there's some really, uh, defiance makes me climb the highest mountain to freely breathe the air that I demand. If I can crush the nightmares of oblivion, the tide will turn and bring me back to land like that. That's both metal as shit and something like you can apply to your own life. Um, next song trial by fire. I feel like I've heard this intro before where it's like,
00:18:03
Speaker
they fade in with kind of guitar tapping something. But then it kicks in in 3-4, which I think is odd for Judas Priest. And it took me a minute to
00:18:20
Speaker
Like right off the bat, you know, something's different just just from the way the drums are accenting
Trial by Fire: Dynamic Energy and Storytelling
00:18:26
Speaker
things. So went back, counted it in three, four or six, eight, however you want. We'll get it. And but by the time it gets to the chorus where it says basically the they're playing the band hits a note and tassel and Helper goes dry by fire. Oh.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yes. I keep thinking they've used all their tricks. I'm waiting for the song that swings and misses, but they keep hitting dingers. I love this song. This is a great song. Just overperformed in a way that's generous to the audience.
00:19:09
Speaker
Which, right, totally is. And again, when we're talking about the lyrical tricks, this is one of the ones that's sort of more purely telling a story, but still in a way that's very relatable to the adversities you're feeling in your own life.
00:19:25
Speaker
There's a doctor out of the park yet again. All right, so then Escape from Reality comes. Totally new vibe for this record. It's very, like, Dehumanizer-era Sabbath. Yeah, so here is where they hit a foul tip for me.
00:19:43
Speaker
I don't think the clean guitar works in the verse. So in the verse, it's going like, but there's like this clean guitar and maybe it's just the chord choices they made. I don't think it works.
00:19:57
Speaker
If they just muted that channel, I think the song might be better. Chorus, if you told me this was Primal Fear, I'd believe you. But one of the lesser Primal Fear albums. Then you get that bridge part where he's doing his best Ozzy Osbourne. Which they've done before.
00:20:17
Speaker
back in the 70s trying to be Sabbath-y sort of. Yeah, and it's definitely, the bridge definitely has a Ozzy Osbourne solo early 80s. Yeah, more solo than Sabbath, yeah.
00:20:33
Speaker
feel to it. Yeah. Oh, and I wrote my notes, uh, phaser on vocals, weird, and sounds like Ozzy frowny face. Remember that time we saw Halford and Ozzy? Yes. Yeah. And he opened with the video of him just saying profane things, intercut with pop culture scenes and all the gas station attendants from Essex and Dundalk were eating that up. Oh, this is so good.
00:21:01
Speaker
Yeah, so this is the first song where I go, uh-oh. It's not bad. It's just nowhere near as good as anything that preceded it, which, as I said, all were 10 out of 10s, you know? Yeah, I like it. You know, even on their more recent records, they have a history of a couple of more doomy
Critique on Escape from Reality
00:21:23
Speaker
songs. I mean that in a more commercial doom Sabbath sense. Yeah.
00:21:27
Speaker
I'm perfectly okay with them trying something out as long as I don't like it when, um, uh, anathema is a perfect example. They tried something out for the optimist and it didn't work at all, but it lasted the whole album. So the whole album is unlistenable.
00:21:44
Speaker
Which one was a Morgan Angel who did the industrial metal album in like 2011? It was I. It was whatever album I was. It was terrible. The next song, Sons of Thunder, wants to be a Hammerfall song. I think it's about riding motorcycles at night, which is probably the least safe time to ride motorcycles.
Sons of Thunder: Energetic and Catchy
00:22:06
Speaker
But then again, you are living after midnight. And you need to get to and from places.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, and they do the like the accept style gang chorus, which sounds great. And it's not the first time they've done it, but but yeah, yet another good song. Now, this song and Giants in the Sky, Tom Allum co-produced. He was the guy who did all of their 80s records and was credited as a co-producer on Firepower, which may explain why this sounds like a Firepower song, like super stripped down.
00:22:41
Speaker
Well, but it doesn't explain the, uh, I was going to say album closer, but it depends on how you look at it. It doesn't explain giants in the sky. A remembrance to our fallen rock giants. This song sounds down tuned, but I don't know if it actually is. Oh, and there's, there's such a weird, he says never be forgot.
00:23:06
Speaker
That's wrong, right? It's forgotten, isn't it? Never be forgotten. Huh. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's a British thing. Yeah. Uh, the, the chorus in this is great. I was just about to get to the interlude.
Giants in the Sky's Unique Placement
00:23:19
Speaker
Is that what you're talking about in the middle when suddenly an acoustic comes in and then there is a clean guitar solo.
00:23:26
Speaker
As I was listening to this, I was like, why is this song last? The song doesn't need to be last, you know, it doesn't sound like a closer. It sounds like a brief, a brief, like catch your breath and then we're going to hit you with the with the album closer. But then the end justifies its position on the CD. It's got the drawn out finale ending of the song.
00:23:55
Speaker
and drum fills and then Halford screaming.
00:24:00
Speaker
But, you know, they've learned their lesson because this is the, you know, the lock nest territory, but they get in and out and live less than six minutes. Just a little over five. Okay. So that is the end of the CD unless you bought it at Target. The first of the bonus tracks, which we consider canon. Do we?
00:24:25
Speaker
i think we discussed them i think we can't well oh yeah are they canon that's a good question i was just gonna steamroll it and it would it would um i i like it when bands do this um perfect example uh demons and wizards put out the second album and then had all these had all these bonus tracks that were better than a lot of the songs on the album
00:24:50
Speaker
And that priest has done this before, and it really bothered me then, but Onom, what's it, the 2014 one, Redeemer of Souls.
Debate on Bonus Tracks
00:25:00
Speaker
They just, you know, if you bought the deluxe version, you got an extra, it was either six songs, five, six, seven songs, all of which are, there may be a tad more commercial, maybe a tad more 80s, but it's just like they didn't make up their mind in the
00:25:13
Speaker
on the track order or even the tracking of the record so you make up your own mind and it kind of annoyed me that this is any of these songs could have been on the record maybe they are on the record.
00:25:28
Speaker
No, I think if they're contrary to my definitive statement earlier, I think they are, they don't count as being on the album. I don't know where they would fit well. Not all of them. Fight of Your Life in particular, because it has this weird bridge part. And we should note this is a fight of your life.
00:25:52
Speaker
Oh, different from Fight for Your Life, which is the original version of Rock Hard Ride Free. And I think we'll hear that on Killing Machine. It's mostly a good song. I can kind of see there's some of the vocal deliveries aren't as solid as the rest of the album. Some of the song choices are a little less perfect as the rest of the album.
00:26:17
Speaker
I don't know the technical term, but I really like it when they pull the note down in the opening.
00:26:25
Speaker
I forget the part. It's very like hard rock. It sounds like the the the rift to American truck simulator is like Yeah, I think it's a guitar but yeah that is called something I don't know what it's called. Okay Vicious circle is the second bonus track. I like this one. It's it's uh
00:26:48
Speaker
I know what I'm trying to say. It's got kind of that dirtiness to it. And it's got the more sort of interpersonal adversity type lyrics that, again, I think make this record broadly commercial and sit well. I do think this is sort of the slightest song on the record. Like I have no issue with it, but very like a pro forma weed break.
00:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I think this could have made it. You could have slipped this in the record and it would have been fine. Maybe they didn't want two short songs, you know? Yeah, exactly. Three minutes. Okay. And then finally, the Lodger. This one's weird. I thought it was a bonus track.
00:27:33
Speaker
There is some backstory. So as we know, part of the code of metal is you write your own stuff, except priest is so metal sometimes they don't and take these chains on screaming for vengeance. Some heads are going to roll and
00:27:53
Speaker
I think this guy, Bruce Halligan Jr. wrote those two songs. And this is a long leftover from the 80s that they recorded. I'm assuming it was probably commissioned the same way for the twin turbos sessions, hence the synthy feel.
00:28:10
Speaker
I do like it, but it's different and not in a way that maybe would justify including it on the record. It's not that good. But we've got these pulpy lyrics about a man who's stalking the killer of his sister. That's pretty metal. That chorus is just weird though. It's very un-Judas Priest. Yeah. There's something about it that feels off to me. I don't know what it is.
00:28:40
Speaker
i do like the line vengeance is mine said the lodger yeah yeah well i don't know i almost like the awkwardness of the lyrics like i think it's a word lodger it is sort of a outdated way of saying whatever they were trying to say all right uh that's all the music let's score the music i don't want to go first
00:29:03
Speaker
Jesus. I will if I have to though. I have to be the middle-aged man. This is the greatest record since 2005 or 1990 or 1984. Their best record in a long time, probably since the start of the comeback,
Album's Overall Strengths and Scores
00:29:27
Speaker
uh 2005 at least uh and i think if you like the more commercial judas priest sound this might even exceed painkiller to you oh jesus that's a statement uh uh i'm gonna start with 10
00:29:44
Speaker
10. I wrote down my scores before you gave yours, so I couldn't change it after you gave yours. How about Matt? Maybe you should go. Okay. I'll go. I mean, this is a very well-made record. I like almost all of it. It's certainly
00:30:07
Speaker
refreshing to hear. So many bands even younger than this have just faded out into shitty do recorddom. I can't give this a 10. I will give this a 9.5.
00:30:28
Speaker
Oh, well, turns out I split the difference at nine point eight. It gets an A plus. It's an A. Yeah. Plus on the curve. Yeah, they're pretty. It's almost a flawless record. OK, presentation.
Album Presentation and Artwork
00:30:45
Speaker
So in terms of presentation, I don't love the cover except the colors is very vibrant. That's pretty cool.
00:30:53
Speaker
Um, but like there's nothing going on. The shield is blocking something from behind it, which is not how you use a shield. Great point. I love how people don't like this cover and that makes me love it. Well, but I like the design, but this should be the back of the CD.
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah, once we're done with the cover, talk about the rest of the art. I kind of like the affronting, the want nature of it. And they they revived the weird tribal Judas pre symbol from the revolution single 20 years ago. Yeah. It reminds me of when Anthrax had that pentagram that made an A. I liked that.
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah, and so the artist is Mark Wilkinson, who's done all of their covers with only a couple exceptions since Ram it Down. He did the last two Maiden records as well and other work for Maiden, but his actual background outside of Priest is like Prague.
00:32:05
Speaker
Hint, and he's a digital now, but he was a airbrush guy, especially. So he's always gotten this vibrancy and can do psychedelic type stuff quite well. And yeah, I probably not his choice to depict a shield smashing the lens, but we're what he's tasked with. They knocked it out of the park. Yeah. So the back of the CD.
00:32:35
Speaker
Kind of a kind of boring. It's it's a night angel holding a shield, a sword and no invincible shield. And there are sparks flying off those. He's thrown the shield. It's like his shield is occupied.
00:32:52
Speaker
Yeah, and he's got long flowing hair coming out of his helmet. He does have the Judas pre-symbol on the forehead of his mask helmet thing. Okay, okay. Yeah, it's kind of neat. It's just like, okay, whatever. And then inside, now I'm holding the scourge of my CD collection.
00:33:13
Speaker
And that is a digi pack. So this is the digi pack inside. There's a snake. So I guess that's the serpent. And then instead of the king, they doubled down on that tribal symbol thing. Judas priest trident. Yeah. And then the booklet, the booklet is just like wall to wall lyrics, you know, covers up, covers up all the, all the artwork. See, I haven't opened this crap.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah. So, so when Doug found out I got this, uh, he goes, Oh, you didn't get the target one. I was like, what do you mean the target one? Yeah. You could pay extra and you could go to a target store where they have this nice booklet one. Still no jewel case version, which is really what I want.
00:34:03
Speaker
This is way better than the Digi Pack. So I will let you go through the art inside the booklet where stuff is less covered up by the lyrics in the lead. Yeah. Well, I think we, as a podcast, broadly advocate for a picture per song. You don't have to do it, but it's a nice touch. It's appreciated.
00:34:25
Speaker
We do get that and we get this nice sort of Crusader art tied with the Invincible Shield theme with the credits. It's a panic attack. We do get, it looks like imagery from Doctor Who. I was thinking it's awfully close to just being zombie artwork.
00:34:47
Speaker
It looks like David Tennant in the center here, and then it looks like the Hammerfall singer, and then on the other page that looks kind of like the Camelot singer. Does. Could it be them? And then Serpent of the King, we do get, we get the Serpent on one page and the King on the other. Pretty, pretty good.
00:35:08
Speaker
All right. Straightforward. Yeah. Kind of a wicked Prague King. Or like Ed Guy or something. Yeah. Yeah. Since I brought them up, fuck to buy a Samet. All right. Invincible shield. You got your invincible shield. No notes. Yeah.
00:35:33
Speaker
uh devil in disguise we do get a devil i he's wearing a fancy suit so i wouldn't call him in disguise but uh all right well gates of hell i i love it when they go literal so gates of hell has a demon with wings standing in front of some gates yeah no notes
00:35:56
Speaker
Okay, points off for crown of horns where there's no crown of horns. We just get Jesus in modern clothes parting the skies above some kind of Blade Runner-esque city. If that is indeed Jesus and not the dude from the Big Lebowski, I appreciate that Jesus is wearing boots, jeans, and a leather jacket. That's pretty metal. God is my witness.
00:36:25
Speaker
A warrior angel in armor. Gabriel. No notes. Fine. Straightforward.
00:36:35
Speaker
trial by fire it's a very commercial image of a person this looks like a bad late 90s action movie poster i i do like the artwork for escape from reality great artwork and then sons of thunder this looks like um what's that mood the metallica movie oh yeah it does
00:36:58
Speaker
Where the roadie has to go get like Lars and Evian or something. I forget what it was. Oh man. Giants in the sky. It's some kind of like a golden age of science fiction, uh, styled art. Yeah. It's, it's like a world of the world's type deal, but not really. And then for the bonus tracks, they just kind of punted it. There is a larger sort of array. I'm assuming that is the larger.
00:37:27
Speaker
Vicious circle. They just like ran the contour filter on their tribal thing. That's kind of a circle, whatever. Yep. Uh, there is a, uh, yeah. And then the rest is pretty much the same, but there is a comic bookie version of the invincible shield in the inside cover here. Yeah. So, uh, I think it's worth the extra money to not have a Digi-pack and the have and be able to see all the art. Um,
00:37:58
Speaker
Yeah. And there's a bunch of different vinyl versions of this. And I think like one of the seven of them has the bonus tracks. Most of them are just alternate versions of the cover. And I doubt these are band decisions. I don't think it's the band who made us go to Target.
00:38:17
Speaker
I'll tell you the worst the worst iteration of this is demons and wizards bring them up again three their third album the one right before that came out right before a certain someone did a certain something they got cancelled yeah
Vinyl and Cassette Versions Discussion
00:38:32
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, you could get, so it was a monochrome cover and the main version was blue, but he was selling, uh, you could get the red one, get the purple one, get the green one. And they were all on different finals and was so dumb. There was literally the only difference in the art was the color. That's it.
00:38:55
Speaker
I'm hoping Judas Priest for their vinyls changed more than maybe. I hate to say it. I don't think they did. It was so surreal. I'm sure the kids now, this is completely normal, but you go to the Judas Priest page and there's like five different vinyls and then it's like a limited edition red cassette. It's like, oh yeah, and a CD. And that's like the eighth option to buy the record.
00:39:21
Speaker
If you really want it to sound good, sure. Oh yeah. Okay. It, the vinyl covers are
00:39:30
Speaker
Um, slightly more effort than that. So if you buy like the pink vinyl, the fire around the shield is pinker, but it's not just a matter of rotating the hue. It looks like it's just the colors that are changed, but it's not heavy handed. Here's the blue one, you know? Yeah. I do dollars for this album on cassette. Wow.
00:39:53
Speaker
Man, people want cassettes now, it's crazy. Why? They haven't made a good cassette player since the 90s. Your dad had a cassette. Yeah, that was a professional one made in the 90s. And I have it now and it's a Denon and it was made for broadcast and it's great.
00:40:11
Speaker
I have, I've taken one point off our score for the panic attack video. I didn't watch it. Priest does this thing. They did it for revolution too, where they just, they take a live footage and they cut it to a new song that isn't the song they're performing and try and fake it. And I hate that. Any other deductions from the presentation before we give our presentation scores? Um, no.
00:40:41
Speaker
You have deductions from me.
00:40:43
Speaker
Um, if the only available copy was the digit pack, I would crush this thing so far down, but I'm liking the book. I'm going to give the presentation an 8.5. Yeah, I can, I can live with that. The problem with the book is still like, you still have that sleeve that the CD goes in and that's just begging for it to get some dust in it and get scratched up going in and out. You know, that's.
00:41:11
Speaker
It's not a good design. Stop doing it. All right. Presentation score, Doug and Matt. I'm going with 8.5. Like you, I don't really like Digi packs. I like the little bookie guy. Why can't they all be the little bookie guy? Uh, eight. Okay. Trueness slash metal score without hesitation. It's a 10. Yeah. Uh, it's a 10. Sorry. You put the 10 in the rungs trying to be contrarian, but it's a goddamn 10. Wow.
00:41:41
Speaker
We have a, I didn't think the, the tier CD would have been remotely beaten, but it happened. It had a very short reign at the top. Yep. Yep. Excellent. All right. Well, are we sharing the scores this year? Nope. Are we a Patreon? That's for Patreons only.
00:42:02
Speaker
Well, how about this? I'll, I'll share a different album score. So ministry, ministry, Hopium for the masses got a 5.92 overall score. And this got nearly twice that nearly twice that. All right. Anything else before we, we, uh,
00:42:24
Speaker
We ride our motorcycles into the night because we're under or whatever. Can we talk about fucking frozen empire now? All right. Until next time, metal nation, make sure your shield is invincible. And if you're riding your motorcycle at night, please wear a helmet and use your headlight. That's fair.
00:42:54
Speaker
Remember that thing in Pennsylvania law where you, you only had to wear a helmet if you had a motorcycle license, but you could legally ride a motorcycle without a license. I think they fixed that loophole, but that was a real thing.