Judas Priest: Unleashed in the East : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Originality obviously doesn't count for much in the heavy-metal sweepstakes: Molly Hatchet are boogie men in the best Dixie tradition, while Judas Priest is an English gang of black-leather droogs who, when they're good, sound like Deep Purple, and when they're bad, like Black Sabbath at 78 rpm. But since excess scores points in this genre, Hatchet's three-prong guitar offensive and Priest's disembowelment of Joan Baez' otherwise sensitive "Diamonds and Rust" can probably be considered pinnacles of the art.

What Molly Hatchet has to come to grips with is the specter of Lynyrd Skynyrd that looms over every note played on Flirtin' with Disaster, its second LP. The band's bludgeoning eighteen-string sound clearly recalls the original Skynyrd front line in the "Free Bird"-like instrumental fade of "Boogie No More," and singer Danny Joe Brown swaggers through "Whiskey Man" and "Jukin' City" with the boozy bravado once displayed by Ronnie Van Zant. But there's something to be said for the unpretentious if unoriginal way Hatchet goes about their business, very much like the good ol' boys it celebrates in song.

On Unleashed in the East–recorded live in Japan in CBS' third bid for the Budokan dollar–Judas Priest simply repeats the same master-race rock found on its last five studio albums. The group has a textbook macho arrogance that's fueled by Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing's fuzz-heavy guitars, and these guys peel off cliché-ridden riffs that somehow support lead singer Rob Halford's bloodcurdling howls of cosmic marauding. Though Priest's pretentions too often gain the upper hand, as in the apocalyptic ravings of "Victim of Changes," the band's fire-eating take of Fleetwood Mac's old and bluesy "The Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown)" show that it makes up in gall what it lacks in chops. But this is still the sound of a new dog flogging old tricks, and all the blood and thunder in the world can't change that.