Judas Priest

Live in London (SPV)
By Martin Popoff

Classy but bare bones, Judas Priest‘s Live In London DVD comes housed in an oversized plastic jewel case and includes a professional 12-page booklet that restates the band’s Ripper-branded years. Once inside the disc, all one gets is the live show plus a “Desert Plains” soundcheck, as well as some load-in/backstage footage, this stuff portrayed in pro-shot black and white. The concert, however, is worthy testament to Ripper’s capabilities in a live environment, the man unfortunately trapped in an era where the band has forgotten how to write. However, we do get Demolition‘s best track, the Dio-dastardly “Feed On Me,” as well as “Hell Is Home,” also a decent and daring idea from that plodding album. The sound is perfect, the guitars afire, Ripper executing his cool, ever-so-slightly rock-ironic stage moves, his effortless highs, his comfortable growls, looking the cogent cross between office supplies salesman and aging, thinning gangsta, only the opening track’s silver mirror long coat fitting badly on this stage presence maven. Fully 19 tracks are proffered, with five from the Ripper years, a ton of hits of unarguable genius, a notable no-show being “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” which blows anyway.
(www.spv.de)