Fight

Let's face it - even metal gods like Halford are not getting any younger. Performing such intense music for such a long time really takes it's toll on one's body. Halford can still go vocally so that is what counts. Plus his latest Halford recording was very classic metal sounding - even too much so in some places (at least for me - I liked Fight and Crucible).

As for the sound of Fight - today I just checked the remix/remaster of War Of Words and while it is not as bad as I thought it's still nothing special. Halford is WAY too loud in the mix and the drums still lack any punch. The guitars are not as bad as I thought but I really dunno why remaster/remix those tunes. To sell them again?

Infinite wrote:

I enjoy all of Rob's different projects (even Two gets a listen every once in a while), but the guy's kind of a trend chaser. He felt Priest were turning into dinosaurs musically, so he hopped on the Pantera train with War of Words, then grunge came along, and you can hear it's influence on Small Deadly Space (mostly in the dirty, fuzzy guitars) ...

I don't think that's quite accurate, since grunge was already at a peak when War of Words came out (1993).

I see NO grunge influence in War Of Words and only a slight slight (maybe in production) influence in A Small Deadly Space. In terms of riffing or song construction I really so no connections to grunge. I would rather point to later Pantera for influence or even maybe stuff like Helmet.

Then again grunge is such a loose term that it really means nothing. You had Sabbath-metal in grunge (Alice In Chains, Gruntruck, Tad), stuff that sounded like modernized Zeppelin-isms (Soundgarden), Pixies-influenced punk/hard rock hybrids (Nirvana) or just plain old 70's rock in a new guise (early Pearl Jam).

Infinite wrote:

I enjoy all of Rob's different projects (even Two gets a listen every once in a while), but the guy's kind of a trend chaser. He felt Priest were turning into dinosaurs musically, so he hopped on the Pantera train with War of Words, then grunge came along, and you can hear it's influence on Small Deadly Space (mostly in the dirty, fuzzy guitars), then he hopped on the industrial bandwagon with Two (and famously declared that "metal is dead" in interviews at the time), then when that flopped and he realized people were only going to accept him as a metal vocalist, he returned under the Halford moniker (somewhat reluctantly, I suspect), and that signaled his inevitable return to Priest.

That's essentially been my view of his post-Priest career.

As for the "not moving on stage" thing, I don't think it matters...he is a singer after all, not a gymnast.

PLUS...

Now he matches with Ian Hill...who has been nailed to the same piece of stage since the 70's, they just pull the board that he's nailed to off the stage, put it on a cart, wheel him onto the truck and then re-attach him at the next gig.

To derail the topic ever so slightly I heard that Fight were working on a third album. I wonder if any tracks got completed and how would it sound? Would it be the return of the Panthrash of War Of Words or more in the vein of the A Small Deadly Space? Or maybe a different beast altogether?

Speaking of Fight-related stuff - anyone heard the Ohio band Cyanide the original pre-Fight band of Jay Jay and Bryan Tilse?

mc666 wrote:

i also favor Crucible over Resurrection for that matter.

I thought Resurrection was great from day one. My experience with Fight made me leery about Crucible when it came out but I still went out and bought it within a week of it's release. I shouldn't have worried, Crucible is a great release as well.

I really like War of Words and I don't care for A Small Deadly Space. I also have the box set. It's nothing special really, just the two albums and the mutations disc.

Witchfinder wrote:

I really like War of Words and I don't care for A Small Deadly Space. I also have the box set. It's nothing special really, just the two albums and the mutations disc.

Any opinions on the remaster/remix? Especially if you have the old version of War Of Words to compare - and even if you do not what do you think of the remastering job on those CD's?

Zdan wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

I really like War of Words and I don't care for A Small Deadly Space. I also have the box set. It's nothing special really, just the two albums and the mutations disc.

Any opinions on the remaster/remix? Especially if you have the old version of War Of Words to compare - and even if you do not what do you think of the remastering job on those CD's?

I have the old versions of War of Words and Mutations and I prefer the original mixes. Mostly everything is louder with Halford's vocals punched way up. A Small Deadly Space is crap in whatever mix it's presented.

I also have the K5 demos which are only essential for the unreleased tracks.

Witchfinder wrote:

Zdan wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

I really like War of Words and I don't care for A Small Deadly Space. I also have the box set. It's nothing special really, just the two albums and the mutations disc.

Any opinions on the remaster/remix? Especially if you have the old version of War Of Words to compare - and even if you do not what do you think of the remastering job on those CD's?

I have the old versions of War of Words and Mutations and I prefer the original mixes. Mostly everything is louder with Halford's vocals punched way up. A Small Deadly Space is crap in whatever mix it's presented.

I also have the K5 demos which are only essential for the unreleased tracks.

Okay. Thanks for your opinion. I did not notice the supposed loudness of the new mixes - neither on my stereo or on my Ipod. My japanese edition of War Of Words sound much more booming and powerful than the remix.

One thing I noticed about the remix was it has a tamed high end with boosted mid frequencies and... it is loud, Reverbs were drastically reduced and I can even hear Toms that were clearly in-audible in the original release, but having said that, I still prefer the original version, clearly there re-mastering was unnecessary, you can still replicate the same effect with just a few tweaks at the EQ

RE 'Small Deadly Space', I can only compare it to Metallica's 'Load' whereas 'WarOfWords' was the 'Black Album'.....'SDS' did nothing for me even after repeated listens, sounded too lethargic and weak... I guess was too blown away by the catchiness of 'War' ....

I totally agree with SDS and War Of Words - War was so catchy and yet a bulldozer powerhouse sound to it. Really really cool. Plus the original production had that full "tone of hell" guitar tone to it. I loved it when I fist heard it. I hope Halford goes back to that kind of sound sometime in his career.

007 wrote:

mc666 wrote:

i also favor Crucible over Resurrection for that matter.

I thought Resurrection was great from day one. My experience with Fight made me leery about Crucible when it came out but I still went out and bought it within a week of it's release. I shouldn't have worried, Crucible is a great release as well.

my feelings too. I think Resurrection is his best non-Priest material.

mc666 wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Here I am again, thinking a band's "maligned" release is actually good....IMO, A Small Deadly Space is a strong, heavy album. It did not mimic the Pantera-ness of War Of Words, but was still a strong record on it's own.

this mirrors my opinion as well. i prefer Small Deadly Space over War of Words.

i also favor Crucible over Resurrection for that matter.

I also favor Crucible over Resurrection...

Why do you guys keep saying Pantera is thrash? Its far from that. Fight is not thrash either. It's just f****** Heavy Metal!

Anyways, I liked War of Words ok, but the rest falls very flat on its face. Halford is still awesome though!

Lurideath wrote:

Why do you guys keep saying Pantera is thrash? Its far from that. Fight is not thrash either. It's just f****** Heavy Metal!

Anyways, I liked War of Words ok, but the rest falls very flat on its face. Halford is still awesome though!

They had Thrash tendencies and influences, IMO.

Lurideath wrote:

Why do you guys keep saying Pantera is thrash? Its far from that. Fight is not thrash either. It's just f****** Heavy Metal!

Anyways, I liked War of Words ok, but the rest falls very flat on its face. Halford is still awesome though!

I would argue that Pantera's first album could be described as thrash metal. After that sure it's not outright thrash but still has very strong thrash tendencies. I would not say Fight was a thrash metal band per se but they were definitely a "thrashy" band.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

mc666 wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Here I am again, thinking a band's "maligned" release is actually good....IMO, A Small Deadly Space is a strong, heavy album. It did not mimic the Pantera-ness of War Of Words, but was still a strong record on it's own.

this mirrors my opinion as well. i prefer Small Deadly Space over War of Words.

i also favor Crucible over Resurrection for that matter.

I also favor Crucible over Resurrection...

Nowadays I'd say I prefer CRUCIBLE over RESURRECTION as well. Of course, when RESURRECTION was new I was over the moon about it, i.e. "Woohoo! Halford is back!" but when you get right down to it, Rob was simply out-Priesting Priest on that record. On CRUCIBLE I'd say the Halford band was finding their "own" sound.

That said, I still prefer either of those first two Halford records to the stuff Priest has put out since they reunited with Rob. (I can hear you all now... "Ee's a WITCH! BURN HIM!")

I absolutely love War of Words! Have never checked out the other album despite always seeing it used for cheap. Maybe someday

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Infinite wrote:

His present day stage presence (staring at the floor, reading lyric monitors) seems to support this theory. Just my take on it.

I think he has health problems, honestly. He's 60 years old, if you watch him walk he has a slight "hobble" to his gate. I saw him on Jimmy Kimmel and he stood in one spot the whole time, leaning on a cane. Then another time on TV he sang an entire song sitting down on a throne behind/above the drums. I'm thinking he may have developed some sort of muscular or spinal condition...he honestly barely moves anymore on stage...kind of like Mick Mars.

I think the cane and the throne are just props for the Nostradamus album. Didn't see Rob hobbling or anything like that when I saw Priest in November 2011

CraiggyOats wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Infinite wrote:

His present day stage presence (staring at the floor, reading lyric monitors) seems to support this theory. Just my take on it.

I think he has health problems, honestly. He's 60 years old, if you watch him walk he has a slight "hobble" to his gate. I saw him on Jimmy Kimmel and he stood in one spot the whole time, leaning on a cane. Then another time on TV he sang an entire song sitting down on a throne behind/above the drums. I'm thinking he may have developed some sort of muscular or spinal condition...he honestly barely moves anymore on stage...kind of like Mick Mars.

I think the cane and the throne are just props for the Nostradamus album. Didn't see Rob hobbling or anything like that when I saw Priest in November 2011

Agreed, those only seemed to be used during Prophecy. I thought it was pretty cool

The remastered version of Crucible is AMAZING! I hated it when it came out, but after getting the remastered version, I can definitely say I am a fan of the album!

Back to the Pantera thing, there is no way its thrash. It may have thrash elements but its not thrash.

Lurideath wrote:

The remastered version of Crucible is AMAZING! I hated it when it came out, but after getting the remastered version, I can definitely say I am a fan of the album!

Back to the Pantera thing, there is no way its thrash. It may have thrash elements but its not thrash.

Again I would strongly argue that "Cowboys From Hell" is indeed thrash. The others - no. Remember thrash has many many subsets and not all of it has to be balls out fast like Rigor Mortis or Demolition Hammer.

Zdan wrote:

Lurideath wrote:

The remastered version of Crucible is AMAZING! I hated it when it came out, but after getting the remastered version, I can definitely say I am a fan of the album!

Back to the Pantera thing, there is no way its thrash. It may have thrash elements but its not thrash.

Again I would strongly argue that "Cowboys From Hell" is indeed thrash. The others - no. Remember thrash has many many subsets and not all of it has to be balls out fast like Rigor Mortis or Demolition Hammer.

no way is Pantera thrash. metal for sure, but not thrash. CFH (like Power Metal) was just more traditional metal influenced & less "core" than their other albums.

i like Pantera, btw. they're just not thrash.

BTW Pantera was never "core". They might have the look of 90's hardcore but musically there is not a shred of hardcore in them. They bare no resemblance to either old school hardcore like Minor Threat, Scream, Void or say M.D.C. or even the newer stuff like Integrity or Earth Crisis.