The sophomore solo album of the former Judas Priest guitarist, The Sinner Rides Again has a lot of hype behind it. KK ‘s Priest have built up a pretty decent reputation as Downing actively tries to oppose his old band, like Mustaine to Metallica. However, their first album was fantastic and the band are all hugely talented and half made up of ex-Priest members. Honestly, what’s not to love? So, without further ado, let’s dive into album number two!
Opener ‘Sons of the Sentinel’ gets right into it, after a couple of great nods and call-backs. It’s a clear nod to one of Priest’s most famous and well loved songs, ‘The Sentinel’. However, and this might just be my super nerd brain talking, but the operatic vocals in the back gave me heavy Halo vibes, and for anyone who’s into those games you’ll know that Sentinel’s play a pretty big part in them!
Either way, the listener is then slapped in the fact by a lightening quick riff and some insane drumming, giving off heavy Painkiller era vibes. It tracks too, given that former Priest vocalist Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens joined the legendary band after that album, and killed it both then and here. His vocals sound phenomenal over the top of the instrumentals, and everyone kills it through the verse. It leads to a pretty huge, catchy chorus, one that I’m sure will be stuck in my head for days to come. A fun bridge leads to a typically amazing KK Downing guitar solo, blisteringly quick and filled with awesome moments. He hasn’t lost a step, even when he’s now in his 70s. Honestly, it’s an amazing opening track to the album, outlining everything that the band are about and sound like. It easily makes our playlist!
‘Strike of the Viper’ is a short, concise and heavy track. The riffing is again massively high quality, Sean Elg proves that he’s still a massively underrated drummer, and Ripper not only comes up with some great vocal melodies, has some insane high screams, but even breaks out some impressive growls. The track had ripped through two verses and choruses in just over a minute, of course leaving plenty of time for KK to do his thing before the final chorus takes it home. It’s another great track that doesn’t even come close to overstaying its welcome.
The pace stays quick for ‘Reap the Whirlwind’, providing more riffing and drumming excellence. It also has maybe the best guitar solo on the album. Downing goes hard and it sounds incredible and rather epic. Meanwhile, ‘One More Shot at Glory’ slows things down a little. After three songs that are fairly similar, I think it’s needed, too. It’s still heavy, but more of a stomping, plodding pace. Honestly, I loved it. It feels closer to power metal than NWOBHM, or at least a fusion of the two. And again, it’s very Painkiller. I LOVE the slower, cleaner bridges after the first chorus, it was a nice touch that added a fun dynamic. I also love it speeding up for the extended solo, really feeling like a crescendo. It’s another fantastic track and another that easily makes our playlist!
‘Hymn 66’ has a cool robo-spoken-word intro, and one evil-ass riff to follow it. It’s a similarly slow song to the previous track, but combined with the awesome riff, it’s heavy as fuck. I LOVE it. Honestly, with how awesome the playing was for the first minute plus, I’d have happily taken it as an instrumental. Ripper’s vocals aren’t the strongest on this track, either. Sure, there’s a couple of amazing high notes, but generally the melodies aren’t as catchy as the previous tracks. The focus is all on the instruments in this track, and that’s exactly what the mixing focuses on too. The structure is a tad all over the place, however. It’s a fun track with a real old school Priest feel to it.
The album’s title track opens on a beautiful clean chord progression, setting the slower, moody tone immediately. The riffing picks up a little by the time the verse comes in, but it’s still a steady pace. It kinda reminds me of modern Anthrax in a odd way. It’s another solid British heavy metal track, featuring all the tropes of the genre and delivering them with easy perfection. Heck, the same could be said for ‘Keeper of the Graves’ and ‘Pledge Your Souls’. They are both good tracks, and I especially love the extended acoustic/operatic, dark intro on the former. But both follow the same formula and structure of a lot of the previous tracks on the album.
The closing track is the longest and most epic on the album. It has more of the operatic vocals and spoken word over the top like album opened on, really tying everything together nicely and neatly. The clean and acoustic guitars after help build everything up perfectly. The distorted guitar stabs behind it are great, teasing it before the track drops into a HUGE riff. Another great growl from Ripper leads to a great stomping verse and massive, catchy chorus.
Honestly, it feel more like an Iron Maiden-like structure, which I love. The solos are awesome (both fast and the extended slow one at the end), and the ‘woh’s in the bridge will go down so well live. It’s another awesome track and such a good choice to close out the album! My only slight issue is the fade out ending. I thought that shit died out in the 90s. It doesn’t work and never has.
Overall: This was awesome! Being a big fan of the band’s first album, Judas Priest and NWOBHM as a whole, I knew I’d enjoy it. However, I was not expecting quite such high quality; every song on the album is a banger. If you are into metal at all, you’ll love this just like I did. KK has been firing on all cylinders again for a while, and this really is a testament to that!
The Score: 9/10