#halford

Halford - Metal Gods

2wo - Voyeurs Album Promo: Unrestrained! Magazine #4, 1998

Halford - Halford IV: Made for Metal (2010)

Halford - "Crucible" 21/06/2002

Rob Halford was one of the select few artists whose most challenging and “difficult” material was also among their most rewarding.  Crucible was certainly all of those things, as it was not the obvious next step from the deliberate Judas Priest throwback reset that was Resurrection, and for that matter it only came to exist because Priest wouldn’t take Halford back and the singer didn’t have anything else to fall back on.  But even as it felt like a willfully obtuse and not especially welcoming record, Crucible also immediately signaled its virtues through its focused musicianship, incisive arrangements and shockingly thoughtful wordsmithing that found Halford not taking the easy way lyrically for the first time in a long time, if not perhaps for the first time in his life.  That was what made “Hearts of Darkness” crush to such memorable effect: it was not inherently accessible, but Roy Z.’s smooth (not slick) production gave the guitars a distinct ebb and flow while the innate power of Halford’s strident tenor provided its own hook.  Best of all, the track showed how the Halford band synced and locked into each other, as the combination of the guitars, Bobby Jarzombek’s near-prog drumming and secret weapon Ray Riendeau’s jazzy bass moved as a single forbidding unit.  “Hearts of Darkness” was traditional heavy metal but not pandering in the slightest, presenting a less self-conscious version of an icon who is often all too aware of people’s perceptions and expectations.