Glenn Tipton - BAPTIZM OF FIRE

Dusted this one off for the first time in a while today...
Thoughts on Glenn's 1997 solo debut?
I bought this as a new release in '97 and remember being quite excited at the time, because though Rob Halford had been quite visible during the first half of the 90s with his Fight project, there had been little, if anything, released from the rest of the Judas Priest camp. Glenn's solo album came out a few months before Priest's JUGULATOR and I was simply desperate to hear ANYTHING related to Judas Priest at the time.
As for the album itself, it's a mixed bag. Glenn has always been one of my favorite guitarists and of course the guitar work is rock solid and heavy as anything you've heard from him in Priest. However, the weak link is Glenn's lead vocals. This man CAN NOT SING his way out of a paper bag. Glenn had an interesting cast of backing musicians helping him on this record (John Entwistle of The Who, Cozy Powell, Billy Sheehan, Robert Trujillo, and several others) so I still don't understand why he didn't bring in a few vocalists to sing on a couple of tracks. Whit Crane of Ugly Kid Joe makes a short appearance on "Voodoo Brother" but other than that the only voice you hear is Glenn's, and that is this CD's major stumbling block. Fortunately the instrumental work saves tracks like "Extinct," the excellent "Voodoo Brother," and the mostly-instrumental title track, which is quite possibly some of Glenn's best shredding ever. The cover of the Stones' "Paint It Black" is pretty damn good too. However, opening track "Hard Core," "Fuel Me Up," and closer "Left For Dead" are simply bad songs all around.
All in all, I enjoyed (and still enjoy) BAPTIZM to some extent, but I was thankful when JUGULATOR arrived a few months later and Glenn was back to what he did best, sticking to the guitar!!

Yeah Glenn's vocals is what killed that album for me. But it wasn't completely terrible. I heard his other solo album with John Entwistle and Cozy Powell was a steaming pile of crap.

Never heard this, I do remember Glenn and KK being asked once if they could sing, KK said no way, Glenn thought he could, perhaps he knows better now!

spectrefate wrote:

Yeah Glenn's vocals is what killed that album for me. But it wasn't completely terrible. I heard his other solo album with John Entwistle and Cozy Powell was a steaming pile of crap.

Never heard the second one, but if memory serves, Glenn actually wrote & recorded most of that before he did "Baptizm." The record label told him they felt the material was too "dated" sounding and encouraged him to work on some more "modern" songs, so he came back with the "Baptizm" stuff.
After the deaths of both Cozy and John, Glenn decided to go back into the studio and finish up those songs because he felt that their performances should finally be released rather than sit on a shelf.

I just bought it 2-3 months ago and listened to it about 2 times. I thought it was good music, but never paid much attention to the vocals (seemed to fit the music). But after reading this thread I went and listened to some of the songs and now I see what you mean. The vocals are not that good. Still, I've heard worse (but not much more).

it made me laugh.

Didn't care for it, except "Kill or be Killed" which should've been included on "Jugulator" and sung by Tim Owens which would've made "Jugulator" a stronger album IMHO.

I remember buying this back in the day and then throwing it away in disgust 10 minutes later... Judas Priest have always been in my top 5 all-time fav bands, but this Tipton was plain horrible.

It's been awhile since I've listened to this one, but I do recall thinking the vocals held it back from being a great album. As it is with Glenn singing, it's ok.

I agree with most opinions here. Not great, but enjoyable.

spectrefate wrote:

I heard his other solo album with John Entwistle and Cozy Powell was a steaming pile of crap.

I heard the exact opposite. The owner of the local record store said
that it was a great album, but as FF noted, the label didn't want a
record that sounded "dated".

Very weak album.