Demolition (Judas Priest Album)

''Demolition'' is the fourteenth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, and the first in the decade of the 2000s. It is the second and final studio album to feature Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals. It is also the only Judas Priest studio album to feature a Parental Advisory label on the album cover due to the songs "Machine Man", "Hell Is Home", and "Metal Messiah" containing profanity.

Background and reception

Following the mixed-to-positive reception to ''Jugulator'', the band scrambled to assess what exactly went wrong, and determined that fans preferred a sound more faithful to Priest's back catalog. The resulting album would be an amalgam of ''Jugulator''-style riffs, references to '80s Priest, and nu-metal additions such as samples, downtuned guitars, rapping, and industrial-style beats. While the ostensible aim was to offer something for every possible fan, in the end, the album received a much poorer reception than ''Jugulator'' by most fans—and would result in the eventual reunion of the "classic" line-up with Halford. Owens has stated that ''Demolition'' was his favorite album that he did with the group, claiming it had "better vocals and more melody" than ''Jugulator''.

In 2018, Tim "Ripper" Owens pledged to re-record this album and its predecessor ''Jugulator'' as he feels that his era of the band has "been erased". Ever since Rob Halford rejoined the band, songs from both albums have been left off the band’s concert setlists, although Halford stated that he wouldn’t mind performing the songs live.

Guitarist Richie Faulkner cites "Hell Is Home" as his favourite song, "It's really heavy and the vocal melody is really great. I think Ripper sings it really well. It's probably one of my favorite Priest songs of the Ripper era. 'Hell Is Home' — I really like that."

Songwriting and production

The album was produced by guitarist Glenn Tipton, who also took over as the primary songwriter. The band's main songwriting team had long consisted of Rob Halford, K. K. Downing, and Tipton. After Halford departed, however, Downing and Tipton wrote all the songs on ''Jugulator''. On this album, many of the songs were written solely by Tipton, with contributions from Downing on several songs. Former producer Chris Tsangarides, who cowrote "A Touch of Evil" on ''Painkiller'', also assisted in the writing of a few songs. Drummer Scott Travis cowrote "Cyberface" – his only contribution to writing in the band's history. (Les Binks was Priest's only other drummer to cowrite a song.) This was the first album since ''Painkiller'' to feature a guest appearance by keyboardist Don Airey, who had played on "A Touch of Evil."

"People will wonder if a new Priest album is as good as any of the fifteen that came before it," Tipton acknowledged. "I'm confident they'll think this one is. It has some manic, hooligan tracks,
like 'Machine Man' and 'Bloodsuckers', as well as a typical 'Ripper' song in 'Jekyll and Hyde'.

The songs "Machine Man" and "Feed on Me" were included in Judas Priest's box set ''Metalogy''.

Track listing

Personnel

;Judas Priest
*Tim "Ripper" Owens – vocals
*K. K. Downing – guitars
*Glenn Tipton – guitars
*Ian Hill – bass
*Scott Travis – drums

;Additional musician
* Don Airey – keyboards

;Production
*Produced and arranged by Glenn Tipton; co-produced by Sean Lynch
*Mastered by Jon Astley
*Front cover and booklet by L-Space Design
*Back cover image by Benjamin Davies
*Photography by Mick Hutson

Charts

References

{{Authority control

Judas Priest albums
2001 albums
SPV/Steamhammer albums