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I was interested to see how this would come out. This band is, no surprise, the new project put together by classic Judas Priest guitarist KK Downing, who left his old band about a decade ago, saying he was retiring from music altogether. Like most retirements, it didn't take, so here he is with some hired guns and Ripper Owens back on vocals—I guess to be sure this band has no chance of creating any identity beyond a Priest clone band, which is obviously what the point of this was to begin with.

I was hoping this would be good, but it's just kind of bland. The production is pro, but also safe and featureless. The playing is first-rate, and Downing's lead work is the best part of the whole album. The songwriting, however, is just not very good. The riffs sound recycled from old Priest albums, and when they don't sound like that, they are just boring. Owens is a divisive singer, as some people hate him, but I maintain he is a solid singer who just needs someone to control him, because when left to compose his own vocal lines—as here—he produces nothing but a bunch of screeching and digital effects. Combined with the brain-dead lyrics, Owen's vocal efforts on this album are pretty much just embarrassing.

Downing was obviously hoping to capture that classic feel, but mostly he failed completely to do that. The riffs here have none of the hooky attack of classic Priest, and aside from the admittedly first-rate solos, there's not really much of a reason to listen to this at all.