Also, honestly, the video for this song made me realize just how goofy metal bands are. I always thought they were a little silly, but the constant tough-guy/hardcore imaging is something I cannot even take remotely seriously.
There's no point to this video or any metal videos these days, so I take no notice. Saying that, this has been Priest's image for decades now so it's who they are. Sure it's silly on these old fellas these days, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
A lot of younger bands are just as bad about this imo. Metalcore bands especially tend to be full of young'ns that try to be "tough" and "edgy" in videos. When I'm watching any type of metal music video, instead of thinking "wow these guys are so tough and hardcore" I end up thinking "wow these guys are dorks". You could almost play bingo with all the tough guy tropes that get overused. Leather? Check. Spikes? Check. Bad CGI fire? Check. Shaky camerawork and jumpy edits? Check. Red and black just everywhere? Check. Singer does "the orb"? Check. Making faces that look like they just ate a bunch of sour candy? Check.
You could give these guys in particular a little slack, I guess, since they're basically the Seinfeld of the metal band image. But 95% of the other metal bands should learn how to make decent videos.
I actually would love to have Rob's wardrobe 
I think that among the roadies there must be one dedicated to that only. No way he changes all by himself, there must be someone backstage with the wardrobe ready and the setlist with indications of which outfit goes with which song, and being there ready to help Rob change at a moment's notice!
"What do you do?"
"I tour with a metal band"
"Oh, cool! and what do you specifically do?"
"I help the singer to change"
Actually, that probably is the case. I know it's fairly common in pop to have people to help the singer do a quick change in between numbers.
Peter Gabriel probably had like 112
[citation needed].
I remember reading a guitar interview and Glenn offhandedly said "Oh, we play well below our abilities in Priest". Wha? You're metal guys. Intense. Balls to the wall. Hell bent for leather. British fucking steel, and you're half-assing it?
I can see the reasoning behind that. I remember reading that people tore apart Yngwie Malmsteen for shoe-horning technique into every song and ending up sounding like a one-trick pony who only focused on playing fast scales/arpeggios. Keeping things more conservative makes it easier to recreate songs live, can make the more technical moments stand-out more and feel more "special", and makes your music somewhat more accessible. A simple riff can sometimes be just as intense as a technical riff, if not more-so.
Besides, and this is a side-point, I don't know if there's that much new ground to be broken in metal technical playing. You already have bands like Animals As Leaders, Meshuggah, Dream Theater, Symphony X, and Dragonforce pushing it near its limit. I'm usually wary about making comparisons between metal and classical music, but it's fairly mirror with what has already happened with classical piano. You have composers like Rachmaninoff, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, and Liszt and pieces like Bartok and Prokofiev's Piano Concertos pushing the musician's ability to its limit. The only things that have been able to move past these technical behemoths are things like Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum which emphasize technique to the point of sacrificing any musicality. Basically at this point, how technical can you be without being a gimmick?
Also, it should be noted that Judas Priest's music (and metal in general) is already fairly difficult to play well. I don't see any reason to make it more technical than it is.
Topic: THE Judas Priest thread - v. new album and tour in 2024 (Read 220196 times)
