Judas Priest-The Ripper Owens years

by WildWorld Wed Oct 25, 2023 6:24 pm

Thoughts on the Ripper Owens Judas Priest albums (Jugulator and Demolition). Personally, I love Jugulator. It's kind of neat hearing the Priest sound mixed with the 90s groove metal sound. Not everything works, but when it hits (Bullet Train, Burn in Hell, Brain Dead) it's excellent. I still wish Halford would play some of the songs from this live with Priest (Burn in Hell would be perfect for him). Demolition on the other hand, doesnt really work. It seems like they were trying to hard to appeal to younger fans and doesnt really have the JP sound. That said, I do like Jekyll and Hyde and Bloodsuckers is pretty cool too.

by TZ75 Wed Oct 25, 2023 7:18 pm

I like both albums. I never understood the hate for Demolition… it’s definitely different for Priest, but it’s at least better than Halford’s Two project (and in my opinion) better than the second Fight album. Demolition has at least an EP worth of good songs.

by MagnusPrime Wed Oct 25, 2023 7:37 pm

I love both Ripper albums. They (along with Halford's Resurrection album) had a huge role in getting me back into Priest and through them, back into traditional/power metal back in the late 90s/early 00s.

Priest have never made the same album twice - (except for AOR and ROS, which were both kind of a mixture of everything they had done previously) - so Jugulator and Demolition are just Priest being Priest and incorporating new influences into their sound.

Those two albums are heavily influenced by Pantera/groove metal in-general, but they're still unmistakably Priest (at least to me).

Jugulator is their heaviest, most brutal album. Really surprised me when it came out. Wasn't expecting something that aggressive from guys who a lot of people had written off as "old-fogeys".

Demolition was kinda like Jugulator meets Turbo (LOL!), but it worked in my opinion. That album got me through some tough times.

Ripper is still one of my all-time favorite vocalists.