#patrick lachman

“Screaming in the Dark” was one of three new studio tracks tacked to the end of Live Insurrection, acting as something of a victory lap for the Halford band after the warm reception awarded to Resurrection.  And as the only newly written studio number (the other two were refurbished from unused Priest demos), the tune was sort of a bridge between Resurrection and Crucible, leveraging the trad metal framework of the former with the increased bite of the latter.  And with the chugging central riff over which Rob Halford literally screamed in the dark the entire time, it felt like a natural predecessor to Crucible’s “Betrayal”.  Halford as a band wasn’t a commercial juggernaut, and years later Rob would claim that he only started it up to show his former colleagues in Priest he was ready to make traditional heavy metal again in hopes of them taking him back. This was unfair to the band, because the songs and performance were all there, and “Screaming in the Dark” was a killer banger in its own right.

2002

Patrick Lachman was a long way from Halford (and a very long way from Damageplan) when Gargoyle released their self-titled debut in 1988, but numbers like “Nothing is Sacred” offered an early example of the writing and playing he would deliver for the Metal God’s namesake band some 12 years later.  The Oregon band played a slightly more straightlaced version of the American power metal that was pioneered by Jag Panzer and Helstar a few years earlier, and Patrick’s brother Tim Lachman had one of those crystal clear soaring voices that was somehow both of the times and also already slightly out of vogue.  “Nothing is Sacred” was perfectly well-executed power metal for the time, though this kind of music wouldn’t really be recognized as such for another 20 years or so, by which point Gargoyle had long since ceased to exist and Patrick Lachman moved on to more lucrative and much dumber pastures.

Resurrection was highly entertaining, albeit rather on the nose, and apparently by design: Rob Halford implied it at the time, but was explicitly clear years later, that the record was intended to signal to the members of Judas Priest that he was ready to come home.  But with his metal bonafides reestablished, and with Priest not immediately welcoming him back, the Metal God came into the second album under the Halford banner ready to make something more individual, as well as more of a band effort, and Crucible’s title track immediately paid off on both fronts.  Although “Crucible” was written by Halford and producer Roy Z., the track showed how locked-in the Halford band was with each other: every player had ample opportunity to shine, and each seized the moment, from Ray Riendeau’s jazzy bass groove to Bobby Jarzombek’s masterful double-kick and cymbal accents, and even though Patrick Lachman and Metal Mike Chlasciak didn’t have a chance to solo, their guitars charged with metallic fury. And even if Rob was still wishing he could return to Priest, he delivered some of his greatest vocals here, utilizing every aspect of his range and penning surprisingly sharp lyrics, to say nothing of that scorcher of a chorus.  The whole band sounded inspired, and “Crucible” was really one of the best metal songs of 2002, and if anything made a stronger case for Rob Halford’s relevance than the more traditionally minded Resurrection.

Resurrection was a comeback and statement of intent for Rob Halford, striking a note of defiance in the face of irrelevance in its resolve to lean into the sound of the icon’s past.  From top to bottom, his first release under the Halford banner spoke of perseverance and resilience, with “Saviour” closing the record in appropriately triumphant fashion.  The track was a fine capper in its studio incarnation, and even more stirring on the subsequent Live Insurrection, where it aptly summed up the Metal God’s will to reclaim his perch among the genre’s foremost voices and figureheads.  Patrick Lachman and Roy Z.’s writing recalled ‘80s Judas Priest without feeling like a self-conscious throwback, instead coming across as a natural traditional metal banger and finding that sweet spot between mid- and fast-paced.  But most of all, there was Rob Halford, not only singing with a clarity and focus that he hadn’t shown since Fight’s War of Words, but also writing with a similar sense of motivation and lucidity, and in the end, “Saviour” simply sounded timeless.

2001

2000

Whether he was inspired by his new collaborators, or possibly sitting on a backlog of unused ideas for what might’ve been Fight’s third album, Rob Halford recorded so much good material for his first go-round under the Halford moniker that even Resurrection’s leftovers were top-shelf.  “Hell’s Last Survivor” was a bonus track on Japanese pressings of that record, and was every bit as strong as the cuts that did make the album: Patrick Lachman and Metal Mike Chlasciak were a sterling guitar tag team, Roy Z.’s production buffed everything to an efficient sheen, and of course, the Metal God himself came through with an impassioned vocal that screamed, cajoled and stood defiant as ever.  Roy Z.’s stated goal at the beginning of the Resurrection was to showcase the power of Rob’s voice, and “Hell’s Last Survivor” did just that, reminding us all that Halford the man remained the standard by which all metal singers are judged.