JUDAS PRIEST (Live)

Following the sad news of the passing of Ozzy only a day before, the only band that could possibly follow in its wake had to be Metal legends, Judas Priest.

At the wonderful Open Air Theatre in Scarborough, as the rain cleared, the blare of the air raid sirens to the Black Sabbath classic “War Pigs” induced the whole crowd to sing along together in what was a deeply moving moment of unity in sorrow.

Black Sabbath laid the foundations but it was fellow Brummies, Judas Priest, who took that formula and forged it in the furnaces of the Midlands, to create the pure molten Heavy Metal that we know today from the studded leather, the twin guitar attack, rampaging drums and the screaming Banshee vocals, Priest defined the genre.

Priest delivered a bold and radically different set to that played on last year’s Invincible Shield tour bravely eschewing most of their 70s catalogue bar one song and instead built their set around the 35th anniversary celebration of their classic Painkiller opus storming out of the gates with a seriously heavy weight “All Guns Blazing” setting the pace with “Hell Patrol” quickly following with a deliciously metal fisted uppercut.

“Between The Hammer and the Anvil” and “A Touch of Evil” featured some brutal riffing from guitarists Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap with bassist Ian Hill and Scott Travis’s thunderous drums providing the steel encrusted backbone to that classic Priest sound.

Of course the Priest standards, “Breakin’ The Law” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'”, were all present and correct and a breakneck “Free Wheel Burnin'” was a welcome return to the set and a rare outing for “Solar Angels” were amongst many highlights.

Rob Halford delivered a touching tribute to Ozzy prior to “Giants In The Sky” and when his picture graced the entire back of the stage the chants of “Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy” rang around the whole theatre and out over the Scarborough coast.

Of course a celebration of the Painkiller album would be incomplete without the title track itself and what a snarling, ferocious beast it was. Brutal and relentless driven by the rampaging drums of Travis. The pure essence of Metal in one song. Absolutely staggering.

At 73 Rob Halford, who still possesses an astonishing voice both in range and power, commanded the stage while intermittently disappearing for a costume change featuring even more leather and more denim. Halford is the jewel in the Metal crown.

An always brilliant “Electric Eye” and “Hell Bent For Leather”, with Halford riding on to the stage on a Harley Davidson motorbike was pure Priest magic before their hit single, “Livin’ After Midnight” brought the show to a mighty sing-along end.