Halford - Made of Metal

I think the first Fight album has some killer riffs.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Alex Dee Rokket wrote:

If you look at Priest's back catalog, you won't find too many downright serious lyrics.

Um... how'bout pretty much anything on SAD WINGS OF DESTINY? SIN AFTER SIN?

thank you.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

The NASCAR angle is an attempt at American attention and potential license tie-in's...

As big a fan as I am of Rob Halford in general, the more time goes on I just prefer Priest to anything else he does.

I think he and Priest are best together but I do like Resurrection a lot and the first Fight cd.

Listening to it now.
Not his best but a few sweet headbangers all the same. I'm satisfied if not overwhelmed.

Haven't picked this up yet. I was waiting to find it cheap somewhere. After he released a christmas album last year I kind of lost it with him so I didn't really expect this to be all that great. Even the album cover kind of makes me not want to get it.

Priest, in general, started dumbing down their music for the lug headed metal fan (like me) with the release of British Steel. Sad Wings through Stained Class are brilliant, and the awesome Hell Bent For Leather was sort of a transition album- imo.

I do like how many of the classic artists like KISS, Ratt, Halford and others have returned to writing albums for their enduring fanbase, fans who have been there from the beginning and aren't interested in hearing their favorite bands interpretation of "what's happening now". Bands like AC/DC and Grave Digger have survived a long time being loyal to the sound that hooked us in the first place.

Should be arriving in the mail tomorrow. I'm a fan of the guy but I have to admit I don't like any of his solo stuff other than the first Halford album and I enjoyed Winter Songs just for the novelty of it. What I've heard from Fight and Two isn't very interesting.

I think Halford without Priest is a severely weakened act but I'm still looking forward to listening to this with my own ears.

I assumed he already had some type of deal in place with NASCAR. When Buckcherry did "Highway Star" for NASCAR, they showed clips of the video and played the song during the broadcasts. My ex was the NASCAR fan so I don't know if they've been doing that for Halford at all because I have happily stayed away from listening to those boring 4 hour broadcasts.

JBall_Z wrote:

I do like how many of the classic artists like KISS, Ratt, Halford and others have returned to writing albums for their enduring fanbase, fans who have been there from the beginning and aren't interested in hearing their favorite bands interpretation of "what's happening now". Bands like AC/DC and Grave Digger have survived a long time being loyal to the sound that hooked us in the first place.

Yes, thats great, and i respect bands like that.

The main problem with this album is filler. I don't understand why artists today find it nessecery to strech albums to over an hour with half-assed songs, many classic metal albums were less that 40 minutes. Songs like "I Know We Stand A Chance" and the 7 minute long "Twenty-Five Years" are just aweful IMO and take away far more than they give to the album.

I actually like the cheesy NASCAR lyrics and such, there fun. The lyrics I hate are the 4 or 5 love songs. I mean what the hell? This is METAL not Celine Dion, the closest thing I ever want to hear to a metal love song is "I F*ck Like a Beast"

Dispite my complaints there is a kickass 40 minute metal album in there once you get rid of all that nonsense:

01. Undisputed
02. Fire and Ice
03. Made Of Metal
04. Speed Of Sound
05. Till The Day I Day
06. We Own The Night
07. Hell Razor
08. Thunder and Lightning
09. Matador
10. The Mower

Speed of Sound has a nice punchy chorus, Fire and Ice is catchy as hell and Thunder and Lightning is a fun, glam style song. I just wish that Halford cut the crap and got straight to metal!

Man, I went to FYE and Best Buy and neither had it in stock. Bummer, hope they get some in soon.

I want to get it but have to wait until I get paid. Then I have to wait to sneak it in the house because my wife hates when I buy new cds, it makes her complain about the 4 boxes of cds that are sitting on our bedroom floor, and then she say stuff like I need to build a cd shelf, and I hate that

I dont know, I think part of the hidden thing with metal is it is OK to be a bit cheesy at times, and there is no doubt he wanted to have fun with this album.

JP is clearly his prize machine now, and this album feels like he wanted to just go out and have fun and make a metal album, cheese and all. I say go into this lighthearted and enjoy it even on the weaker moments. We are lucky to still be getting stuff from him and there will be a day that wont happen anymore

Cheesy is okay. Those lyrics above take it down a few notches. Haha.

I ordered my copy from Amazon.

Resurrection was the best HALFORD solos album IMO.

Gilbert wrote:

Resurrection was the best HALFORD solos album IMO.

Eyesore wrote:

I think the first Fight album has some killer riffs.

I had a big argument with ToB several months back when I stated the exact same thing. He made the claim that the riffs were too "boring and simple". I flat out don't care how simple they are. They sound good to my ears.

ultmetal wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

The guitar riffs for FIGHT sound like they were written by someone who has played guitar for like 6 months (probably Halford himself I am guessing). I never could get over how boring and generic the guitar work was on "War of Words" although his vocals and lyrics were good.

I see it a little different. The riffs are simple and straight-forward. They are not overly complicated but rather are the type that get your head to banging and your feet to tapping. I don't see "simplistic" as being something that is always bad, and I certainly don't see it as "boring". Sometimes simple is good. You don't have to think about it, you just have to rock! Of course it's all a matter of opinion, but I don't see "War of Words" much different than I see AC/DC, Motorhead or even some Judas Priest. It's not about complicated riffs or superior musicianship, it's just about rockin'.

Simple is not in and of itself bad.

But a lot of simple stuff has already been done because it is so simple. So I think it is tough to write simple stuff that holds up to repeat listens.

I agree that MOTORHEAD and ACDC have written some great simple tunes.

The FIGHT riffs are passable but would've been much improved if they had been tweaked by someone who is a full-time guitar player. You seem to be implying that I want the band to play something like WATCHTOWER or DREAM THEATER to be enjoyable and that is not at all what I am saying.

It's like watching a movie whose plot you've already seen before in many movies before that.

I'd like to say that I find the drumming also very one-dimensional and "going through the motions" on that disc. It's a shame when you have someone as talented as Travis seemingly phoning it in. Especially when the riffs are one-dimensional, the drums could've spiced it up a bit to round things out.

When you take an album like Ressurection it had some killer and some "OK" songs.

Made of Metal is imo mostly consisting of chessy, generic metal songs. For me it's Halford worst work (I don't count the Christmas album anyway).

Add some Keyboards and you would have a standard quality Power Metal album. For some bands that might be ok, but from a guy like Halford I expect more.

just listen half of the CD and i am confused. dunno what to think.

I picked up my copy today, taking it to work to listen to tomorrow, then I will report what I think

Ok it is not as good as Ressurection which is my favorite Halford solo album. However I still like it, there are a couple songs that are different than I expected. There are a couple of songs that I really like. There are a few songs on the album at first listen I would call filler. I don't know if after a few listens if I will like it more but I would as it is I like the album. I may like it more as I listen to it more.

Arrived in the mail today. I'm up to "Hell Razor". Really good so far. Surprisingly so. I definitely like it better than Crucible already. It's not even really metal though. Just hard rock. But I'm fine with that.

Got my copy this morning. Spinned it a bit. Quite good i must say.

Needs more listens of course.

Metal Misfit wrote:

It's not even really metal though. Just hard rock.