At last Judas Priest came to Scandinavia on the second
leg of the Demolition tour. The Scandinavian tour started in Malmö at
KB in Sweden. We have all longed for Priest. The band hasn't been here
since 1998. The fans had come and all tickets were sold out. Helas, the
stage was to small so only Judas Priest could play and there wasn't room
for an opening act. On the rest of the shows in Sweden they brought the
metal heroes of Malmö The band Debase. It is a pity they didn't get the
chance to open for Judas Priest in their hometown.
Priest went on stage a little late and made a brilliant show. They
mixed both old and new stuff. From the latest that is one of this year's
best records, if you ask me. "One on one", "Machine
man" and "Hell is home" were played. Old classics like
"Breaking the law", " "Victim of changes" and
"You got another thing coming" were also played.
Ian / Glenn / Ripper / K.K / Scott really gave everything they had.
It was a real metal show with one of the bands that started heavy metal
once upon a time. The front trio Glenn/Ripper/K.K was brilliant. Glenn
and K.K´s twin-guitars are really good and they complete each other
very well. Even Scott on drums was a real showman (he is one of heavy
metal's tallest men about 2m). Ian is the most anonymous member. He was
just standing and headbanging. The new singer Ripper is splendid ,a real
scene-personality. He seems to enjoy to be the singer of the band. I am
afraid many people are going to send me a lot of hate mail but I don't
care, Ripper is so good on vocals that I don't miss Mr. Halford at all.
On the first record Ripper sounds like Halford but on the new one the
similarity in the vocals is less. Live the similarity is gone completely
and Ripper sings his songs in his own way even the old ones and it
really rocks.
Priest got the audience going on the first song and then the
temperature was raising with every song that was played. I found them
playing too much of old stuff. I would have preferred more songs from
the two records with Ripper. In almost every song The audience was
singing together with Ripper. Ripper invited us to sing along with him
in "Breaking the law", "Living after midnight",
"United", "Hell is home". Ripper got the whole
audience to scream his name in the song "The Ripper" which he
seemed to appreciate very much.
It was 1 hour and 50 minutes of magic. I liked the concert very much.
Judas Priest deserves to go from smaller halls to bigger scenes and to
take their place amongst the big heavy metal stars again. Everyone
deserves to see this. The band crushes all the resistance partly with
their catalogue of songs and partly with their long experience playing
live. I hope that we wouldn't have to wait as long as now until next
visit. Judas Priest keep the metal flag high. The setlist isn't in the
right order but the following songs were played.
Thanks to KB for the help during the show, and the tour manager of
Judas Priest.
Setlist
Metal gods
Blood stained
Touch of evil
Burn in hell
The Ripper
Beyond the realms of death
Victim of changes
Diamonds & rust
Breaking the law
Painkiller
You've got another thing coming
The green manalishi (with the two pronged crown)
Machine man
One on one
Hell is home
Heading to the highway
Electric eye (encore 1)
Living after midnight (encore 1)
United (encore 1)
Hell bent for leather (encore 2)
