War Of Words

In some ways, this could have been a Judas Priest album. Since it was the first disc that Rob Halford worked on after his extended tenure in that group, that is certainly understandable. Clearly, he was most likely still aligned in that musical vein and a lot of the sounds here represent that fact. However, there are definitely some differences. First, you can hear a rawer, almost punk-ish aggressive texture on much of the material ("Nailed to the Gun" comes to mind). Next, Halford shows a wider range of vocal styles here than he did with Priest. In fact, there are several points where he sounds like Alice Cooper, and he tries his hand at the more guttural death metal vocal style. The lyrical content on the album has a maturity that Priest seldom, if ever, achieved as well. The recitation of the First Amendment during the title track is brilliant. In some ways, it's too bad that this group only lasted a couple of years. They had a lot of potential. The stunning power ballad "For All Eternity" alone is worth the price of admission for this part of their voyage. ~ Gary Hill