have always been one of metal’s most reliably great bands, likely because the responsibility they feel to the genre weighs just as heavily as the music they make. They never want to let down their fans, the “heavy metal maniacs,” as lead shrieker Rob Halford dubbed them long ago, even as they’ve pressed forward in the face of adversity in recent years.
Luckily for them, the musicians possess the same technical acumen as they did three decades ago, when they recorded the pyrotechnic, and Halford, at 72, can still summon a banshee squall that would wake the dead. They show off their abilities throughouttracks feel like Priest-by-numbers, the songs that really hit feel like lightning striking.
On the prechorus of “Devil in Disguise,” Halford’s voice, layered in harmony with itself, reaches heavenward with a climbing melody that builds to his catchy, shouted chorus. But it’s the way he presents that prechorus, with words like “Machiavellian shiv,” that makes “He’s a devil, devil in disguise” feel so rewarding.
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