HALFORD - MADE OF METAL

HALFORD

MADE OF METAL

METAL GOD RECORDS - 2010

http://www.robhalford.com

The notion of a brand new studio album from Rob Halford really brought a smile to my face when I heard about it.

I love him in Judas Priest but I have found his Halford releases to be just as good and in some cases better than some Priest releases.

While I do think Made of Metal is a good album, I do have to say that I was just a bit disappointed. Perhaps this is due to my own high expectations, but I didn't totally love this album.

The majority of the tracks on the disc are unsurprisingly fast paced and in your face. There are a couple of mid-tempo numbers like "Heartless" and "I Know I Stand A Chance." Both were okay but didn't really stand out that much to me.

The song "Matador" uses crowd noise at the beginning and end of the song but I can't say for sure if this was a "live" track or just noise added into the mix. The song was pretty good though.

Other cuts like "Fire and Ice", "Like There's No Tomorrow", "We Own The Night" and "Twenty-Five Years" were all decent.

"The Mower" featured Halford in full throated scream, reminiscent of some of his best screaming (for vengeance perhaps?).

The lead off to the disc was "Undisputed". A fiery rocker with some killer musicianship. And it was killed for my own personal taste with an abysmal chorus that made it sound like the song was pandering for a boxer or a MMA fighter to use it as their theme song.

The title track was another song that featured great music, but the lyrics simply struck me as being silly.

I loved the song "Speed of Sound". It just throttled you as it sped by. "Thunder and Lightning" started off with a slightly slower groove but kicked it up through the song.

The funniest thing about the material is my favorite song on the album is the one that sounds the least like what you might have come to expect from Halford.

The song "Til The Day I Die" kicks off with this slow guitar sound that would have you thinking of the bayou or some bluesy club at 2am. It goes that way through the first lyrical verse before an edgier rock sound comes in before that slower bluesy feel returns to close out the song. I kid you not when I say that it is one of my favorite Halford songs period.

Made of Metal is a good album, but at least for me, I think it is lacking a little something. But I do recommend anyone reading this definitely check the album out and decide for yourself.

I'd say this ranks as a 4 out of 5 stars.

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Permalink Reply by Niels (Mod) on October 7, 2010 at 3:21am

I WAS going to post a video from the album on VOTW a couple a weeks ago, but I thought the video was very booring, so booring that I thought it was a fan-made video, but the song (the title song?!) was good.