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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Rob Steps Out - An Underrated Effort, August 27, 2002
Anyone who grew up listening to Rob with Judas Priest and then had difficulty making the transition to his work with Fight is clearly going to have problems with this album. The very idea of pairing Rob Halford with Trent Reznor seems ambitious at best, ill-conceived at worst.And yet, the album works pretty well. While Rob keeps his distinctive vocal wailings in check, there's plenty of dark irony and metal angst at play throughout. John Lowery's guitar playing is a nice change of pace from the twin assault of Parish and Travis from Fight, and the trademark Reznor synth gurglings add to the generally dark ambience. Highlights include Stutter Kiss, My Ceiling's Low and, believe it or not, Hey Sha La La, in addition to the NIN-esque I'm a Pig, the album's opening cut. And let me add that the material works very, very well live (The Edge Club, Palo Alto, CA 1998). Frankly, I've appreciated Rob's willingness to try new directions with both Fight and Two. But I can't say I'm not pleased with his return to a more Priest-like setting on his latest albums, "Resurrection" and "Crucible". It's easy to downplay Rob Halford's contributions to the history of classic heavy metal vocal stylings, but he ranks right up there with Ozzy, Bruce, Ian Gillan, and RJD in my book.
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