Customer Reviews

Jugulator

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

I've read many complaints about Tim "Ripper" Owens not being nearly as good a vocalist as the now departed metal god Rob Halford. I saw one interview where Halford complimented Priest on finding a vocalist who could hit those high notes as well as (if not better than) him. But until recently, I never actually heard this infamous "Jugulator" album. And after hearing it, I can only say one thing: "IT ROCKS!!!" So it is not the Judas Priest of old, so the music is somewhat harder and thrashier, so they sound like they've mutated into a proto-death metal band! I don't care, 'cuz if nothing else the music is excellent. Great riffs a la Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing (two of the greatest guitar duellists in metal, matched only by Adrian Smith and Dave Murray of Iron Maiden). And "Ripper" Owens...I have to say he impresses me. He hits those screeching high notes with great clarity and precision...his singing on the title track alone was enough, he went from low growly voice to hitting the high note on the dot. Sure at times he can sound like a cross between Halford, Layne Staley, and Tom Araya, but he has great vocal control and is an excellent singer. Damn what the rest say, you can't argue with the metal god himself. If Halford liked his singing, surely everyone else who claims to be a Judas Priest fan must. Besides, it would probably be boring if he sounded the same as Halford exactly. Sure the lyrics can get cheesey sometimes, but was heavy metal ever about intelligence or integrity? NO!!! It was about pissing your parents off and rocking the night away 'til you went deaf. With this, I have to say the best songs are the title track, "Death Row," "Cathedral Spires" (a beautiful song), and "Burn in Hell." So get off your pulpit and heed the words and riffs of the true metal gods...Judas Priest are baaaaaaaaack!!!

1997 saw a new light for Judas Priest. Ripper Owens. Having been the lead singer for some time in a Judas Priest cover band, he was picked up by the real deal to record this album JUGULATOR and accompany on a tour to promote the album. I was fourteen at the time, but was well schooled in most early Judas Priest. I remember my friend bought this and made me a tape.
It was pretty much confusing for me to get at first. Ripper Owens had a much more darker metal sound to him. I liked it, but it just didn't feel like PRIEST to me.
Nowadays I can feel the priest. Having seen the band live this past summer (of course with Rob Halford back on vocals) I really got to experience the power of the DOWNING/TIPTON dual guitar grindness. They just stand there and wail like nobodies business...
What does this have to do with JUGULATOR? Well, they wrote all the songs on this one. If nothing else you get that hard core bad ass grind on this album more than any other.
I give this album five stars, but its a five that needs time to grow on you. Don't try to compare it to the Judas Priest of old, its a whole different animal. It still is some Kah-ray-zee metal though. More in the school of thrash but still with melodic undertones. Ripper can hit those high notes, but he doesn't do it often. Mainly he stays down to a grumble. He will suprise you though throughout. Still though, pay attention to the guitars and you will not be dissapointed.

When listening to Jugulator and Demolition you have to remember to keep and open mind. We all love Judas Priest and we all love Rob Halford. No one can do the things that Halford does better than him. However on this particular album everyone has to remember that Halford was not in the band at this point so it's not fair to bash the album for the mere fact that Halford is not in the band.

Jugulator is a fine metal album based on its own merits. It has killer riffs, great solos, and pulse pounding drums. As for the vocals sure Ripper is not Halford but that doesn't mean he is a bad singer. Ripper has an amazing voice with unbelievable range. He very admirably fills the gap caused by Halford leaving the band. I read one review critisizing Ripper as a bad lyricist, my response to this is for anyone who thinks this to take out the cd booklet and look at the end of the lyrics to Cathedral Spires and note that it says all lyrics were written by Glenn Tipton not Ripper Owens. To me that is just people looking for any reason they can to find to not like this album simply because Rob Halford is not in the band.

So my recomendation is to listen to this album with open ears and even more so and open mind. You might be suprised at what you hear!

The first album to showcase x-winter's bane vocalist Tim "ripper" Owens on vocals and he completely rips on this album its not just a name he kills, live he's even better. not saying I don't like halford, on the contrary I prefer Halford with Priest it just seems more natural with him in the fold. But Jugulator stands alone as the heaviest album of their career, and corney lyrics or not the tracks stick in your head, and the riffs and solos are awesome! to everyone that thought Priest would sell out on this record they came out and kicked the piss out of you. If you like your music heavy as hell, with a vocalist with more range then most anyone except the metal god himself than buy this album, just give it time it will eat you alive.

JUGULATOR is Judas Priest's most brutal recording pure and simple. Rob Halford left the band after the PAINKILLER tour, ultimately causing Priest to enlist the vocal services of NE Ohio resident Tim "Ripper" Owens, who played in Winter's Bane (a great band, by the way) and British Steel, a Priest tribute band (obviously). Ripper joined the band in 1996 and JUGULATOR was released a year later in early 1997.

I gotta admit, I didn't like JUGULATOR at first. Why? I'm not sure now. Maybe it's because I wasn't ready for Ripper's vocals. He can mimic Halford perfectly on Priest's older material, but he has his own unique sounding voice. This, of course, changes the sound of the band; and you have to get used to it (his voice). Or maybe it was because JUGULATOR features a very different-sounding Priest. The songs are all extremely aggressive and heavy. Not that I don't love seriously brutal metal, it's just that I wasn't expecting Priest to put out such an album.

I can now confidently tell you that, once the listener gets over those two hurdles, JUGULATOR is one of Priest's greatest recordings. It totally jams from beginning to end, filled with hooks galore. The album features fast songs, mid-paced songs and doomy songs, with frequent melodic and eerie acoustic (clean channel) interludes.

As heavy and brutal as the CD is, it has an undeniable colorful and fun edge. Just look at the cartooney CD cover. Yes, it's "cool," but it's a tad comic-booky all the same. And look at the almost-laughable song titles. Yes, some of the songs address serious issues, like "Brain Dead," but you can tell the Priest boys are having a fun time doing it. I'm not saying this as a criticism. I love the colorful, juvenile air of JUGLATOR; it's brutal, forceful and ultra-heavy, but it's not depressing or enraging in the slightest, unlike some bands like, say, My Dying Bride or Slayer, which are undeniably great bands, but they're always so dark and serious they can be a tad depressing and angst-inducing (yeah, that's an understatement).

The songs include:

(1.) "Jugulator" (4/5 Stars): Starts out eerie and slow and then takes a frenzied turn. Look at the CD cover if you want to know what the song's about -- just another sci-fi/fantasy Priest "er" song in the manner of "Sinner," "Exciter" and "Painkiller." Anyway, Ripper displays some killer falsetto when he sings 'Jugulatoooooorrrrrrr!!!.'
(2.) "Blood Stained" (5/5 Stars): I didn't really appreciate this song until I heard it live on LIVE IN LONDON. Whoah! This is one smoking-hot piece of molten metal. The lyrics address corrupt political oppression of the masses. "Blood Stained" stands with Priest all-time best numbers like "Tyrant," "Metal Gods" and "Screaming for Vengeance." Be sure to check out the dvd LIVE IN LONDON and you'll see that it's a fan favorite and a truly kick-axe live track.
(3.) "Dead Meat" (5/5 Stars): Disregarding the ridiculous name, "Dead Meat" features an incredibly hook-laden bridge and driving chorus -- "No surrender; we never will surrender. We all are dead meat; cut us, watch us bleed." The lyrics are a potent declaration of defiance against political oppressors who rule with an iron scepter.
(4.) "Death Row" (4.5/5 Stars): Driving and catchy ditty about the nature of life on death row. Nice sing-along chorus, abeit kinda juvenile. Surely a great live number.
(5.) "Decapitate" (5/5 Stars): Another song addressing capital punishment, albeit heavier and doomier than "Death Row." What would it be like to face the death penalty in a third-world country where decapitation is the favored form of execution? As serious as the subject matter is, the band keeps it amusing. Anyway, "Decapitate" features one of the most catchy and innovative brutal power-chord progressions I've ever heard in metal. Check it out.
(6.) "Burn in Hell" (4/5 Stars): Starts out eerie and mellow and then takes an incongruous groovin' heavy turn. The lyrics address a man who sets out to take bitter revenge on someone who apparently got away with murdering a loved one. He's so angry about the injustice he's solely focused on seeing the criminal 'burn in hell.' A strange song, but likable.
(7.) "Brain Dead" (5/5 Stars): Without doubt the heaviest song on the album, filled with catchy riffs. The lyrics address an accident victim experiencing the living hell of the brain dead condition. The band argues that such a person should be allowed to die in dignity rather than 'live' trapped in a coffin of flesh -- not remembered as what he was, but forgotten because of what he has become.
(8.) "Abductors" (4.5/5 Stars): This song features some nice Ripper falsetto during the verses and chorus. It's filled with simple, infectious ultra-heavy riffs. The lyrics address the claims of those who insist they've been abducted by aliens and experimented on. Such people understandably become laughing-stocks. I like the way it ends, musically and lyrically: "No one believes... hey, maybe I am just a liar!"
(9.) "Bullet Train" (5/5 Stars): This one was released as a hit single and it fits the bill, even though it's not remotely radio-friendly. I love the creative high sliding/bending chord progressions during the verses. The bridge and chorus are ultra-innovative and infectious. Do you think "You've Got Another Thing Coming" is a great hit song for Priest? Well, "Bullet Train" is as good or, more likely, BETTER.
(10.) "Cathedral Spires" (4.5/5 Stars): This is the epic of the album. It starts out acousitically and then takes a doomy turn which morphs into a driving verse section. The chorus is ultra-catchy and grand in scope. This was my favorite song on the album when I first got it. It's very memorable. The lyrics address living during the apocalypse. "Cathedral Spires" stands strong with other Priest epics like "Dreamer Deciever," "Loch Ness," "Beyond the Realms of Death," "The Sentinel," "Monsters of Rock" and "Let Us Prey/Call for the Priest."

FINAL ANALYSIS: JUGULATOR sold pretty well for a 90's Halford-less Priest outing (when grunge was king) and the tour was quite successful. Make no mistake, JUGULATOR is mandatory Priest. It's by far their most brutal recording, but never dark or depressing. It possesses a lively and colorful vibe and is therefore both entertaining and motivational -- a great disk to work out to.

Simply put, JUGULATOR towers in the Priest catalog, as good or better than any of the past Halford entries; but it's hard to compare because JUGULATOR is so different. But then, of course, Judas Priest are not ones to rest on their laurels; that would be too boring. You gotta respect them because they're always experimenting with their music. The only time they rested on their laurels in their career was with DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH, which -- although certainly a decent album -- was basically a mediocre carbon copy of their previous album SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE, which explains why they took the TURBO route with their next offering (to shake things up with a stab at commercial 80s rock).

In any event, with JUGULATOR the Priest boys obviously wanted to dish out a smoking piece of molten metal and prove that they could out-riff, out-write and out-perform any of the younger death, thrash, doom, gothic, black metal bands out there. And they succeeded with flying colors. Just think, at a time when Metallica was releasing their two boring LOAD albums, Priest defiantly raised the metal flag with JUGULATOR (not that I'm one of those "only true metal" morons; I just like good music period, whatever guise it takes).

Needless to say, don't listen to the clueless and wimpy grumblers, JUGULATOR is one totally kickin'-arse, ultra-hooky Priest album -- their most smokin' moment, in fact.

This is Judas Priests latest attempt at a studio album, but with their new vocalist Im afraid it falls short of the priest we all love. I mean it has a few good songs. BLOOD STAINED is a very fast song with very great lyrics, and BULLET TRAIN is also very fast, but the highlight of this album is CATHEDRAL SPIRES folks this is the whole reason I bought this album it is a truly amazing song, but it cant make up for the rest of the album. The biggest flaw is that all of those classic priest solos we heard on previous albums are totally absent on this one, taking the rating down about 2 stars. If you are looking for a 90s version of priest this album is for you, but if you want the fast,heavy and often times melodic priest try "Defenders of the faith" or "Screaming for Vengeance".

I have actually taken the time to read all the other 82 reviews and noticed that they fall into only two categories; either there was adulation or castigation. Since I have been a Priest fan from the time "British Steel" came out in 1980, (when I was 14)I find it hard to believe that fans have made comments like "best album" ever or "Ripper is better than Halford". All this praise sounds to me like those so called fans are not really Priest fans, but have only listend to say the last 3-5 Albums of the band. Let's be serious about one thing, "Jugulator" is not a typical Judas Priest album, it neither has the immense musicality of the past Priest albums nor does it have half way decent lyrics. I have all the Albums from the debut album "RockaRolla" (1974)to "Meltdown"(1998) and can therefore claim to really know what Priest sound like. First of all, the lyrics are replete with cliché phrases, which is also evident in the song titles: "Burn in Hell", "Dead Meat", "Death Row" ect. It really seems to show how much of an excellent lyrics writer Rob Halford was; just writing songs about violence, death and torture themes will and cannot do for a band that has a history of writing on a wide variety of issues. If many of the younger fans think that the "Jugulator" lyrics are so cool, they should give more thought to the lyrics in past classics, such as "Beyond the realms of death", "Stained class" (about man dominating nature), "Killing machine" & "Electric eye" (both about the big brother society)or "Victim of changes", but they probably don't even know most of these superb songs and their profound lyrical content. Musically this album is a real let down. The band sounds like they are desperately trying to be trendy by adopting a more Death Metal / Grindcore like sound. I am totally missing the Priest guitar-work trademark sound, the twin harmony lead guitar approach (which distinguished Priest from other Metal bands)of Tipton and Downing. Priest were a band that had more melody in single songs, than most other bands had on entire albums. They had a sense for melodies and harmonies that other bands in the genre could only dream about. Next to that they almost always had absolute enthralling and captivating riffs, which could drive you into ecstasy. If this new studio Album didn't have Judas Priest written over it, I as a devoted fan would never have noticed the difference. Since it sounds like any number of other current metal bands. The only ray of light is the 9 min. hymn "Cathedral Spires" which show some of the quality which Priest are renowned for. Don't get me wrong I stand behind everything Priest have ever done, even their very first album - that experimental sounding attempt, and "Turbo" (which at the time was a major disappointment / 180° away from their style), but "Jugulator" is just too much to stomach for me. If anyone wants to find out what Judas Priest really are all about and what excellent musicians they are: Please forget this album, do yourself a favor and buy the true timeless classics like, "Defenders of the Faith", "Screaming for Vengeance", "Stained Class", "British Steel", "Sad Wings of Destiny" and "Painkiller". I am sorry if I went on ranting too long about the past glory of Priest, but I am a true fan and it is simply sad to see a legend fade into mediocrity for me. I still believe that Priest are the greatest Band in the world, but "Jugulator" is ruining their good name, for the sake of their older fan base I say: Please don't release another weak album like this one,it just does not do justice to your fabulous past!

Wow-what a difference a few years and a new singer make. This is probably the most brutal Priest album ever. Not that that is bad but the one thing that ruins this album are the lyrics. Glenn Tipton is no Rob Halford when it comes to lyrics, and good lyrics go hand in hand with Priest songs. The music is average-sounds like the guys have been listenening to Slayer or Testament a bit too much. Ripper has a great voice, close to Halford's but obviously younger. Ian Hill and Scott Travis rumble on as usual. The best cuts from this album are "Death Row", "Cathedral Spires" and "Burn in Hell". All the material here is tight and well played but is a bit boring. Do yourself a favor and get "Priest Live '98". It really showcases Ripper's voice and is awesome. Pass this one up.

There are moments when this record comes so close to being what you'd hope for that I almost feel bad giving it 3 stars..but the truth is that 1)Glenn Tipton oviously carries most of the weight on the record..wich isn't a bad thing at all because he is one of the true metal gods..but Judas Priest wasn't a band built on one man..2) Rob H. is sorely missed..although Ripper does an ok job..and on Cathedral Spires actually manages to capture the intesity, emotion and fury of old priest (Also the only of 2 tunes on the record that sound anything like old Priest)He spends TOO much time talking in a monotone and "evil" sounding voice or trying to copy that high pitch Rob H. scream on the rest..there are times on this record where I almost blush with embarasment for him when listening..3) To many of the songs start out fast and heavy and fall into that album fill formula trend after the first 30 seconds..Jugulator is the greatest example...it starts out AWESOME (Slayer heavy guitar rifts..enoiugh evil fury to make you want to do an air guitar..the singing starts out great..) Then it hits the chorus and just totaly sinks. Deathrow and Abductors are the only other tracks that manage to successfully capture that heavy sound and keep it up..If you were just to set you program to play Jugulator (despite the rest of it..that first 1:30 really kicks off) Deathrow, Abductors & Cathedral Spires you could convince even a non priest fan to buy the album..but the rest of it will have them walking from the room and laughing..telling you to go out and buy some Tool or Korn..after Tipton's solo release "Baptism of Fire" I really was expecting so much more..all the rest of the guys in the band except the bass player to some extent have a burned out sound..maybey Tipton should stick that bassest on his next solo effort and forget Priest letting them be remebered for the gods they once were..as it's not so much Rob H.'s voice that is missed..but his combined songwriting genious mixed with the expertise of Tipton's..that's what made Priest great.

Jugulator. This 1997 Judas Priest release features a new lead singer, Ripper Owens. After Rob Halford left the band in the early 1990s, the band was idle for a while. They hired Owens to take the place of the extremely popular and talented Rob Halford. Owens is a good singer and an adequate substitute for Halford. I think his voice is a cross between Rob Halford and James Hetfield of Metallica. In fact, some of the songs on this album and also the follow up album Demolition sound very much like Metallica songs, with Owens sounding very much like James Hetfield. Whether this was done deliberately or not doesn't matter. This album plain rocks. Take it at face value. Judas Priest altered their sound and style quite a bit for this album and the Demolition album. This stuff is extremely heavy. Owens screams, groans, and hits very high notes as well. Very versatile. He's a little different than Halford, but a good replacement. This is a solid metal album. If you're biased and prefer Rob Halford and the old musical style of Judas Priest, fine. But if you open your mind and just listen to the music and take it at face value, this album will quench your thirst for some good old heavy metal. Top tracks on this album are...all of them. There really isn't a bad song on the whole album. My personal favorite is Burn In Hell.

Give this album a chance if you've stayed 500 yards away from it in the past. I think you'll like it. The songs aren't quite as melodic as the older Priest material, but if you like this style of less melodic music, then this album is for you.