Crucible marks the second release from Rob Halford and his current band. The former Judas Priest vocalist returned (with a vengeance....no doubt!!!) to the metal scene in 2000 with the release of the brilliant Resurrection album. That album was a firm reminder that he still has what it takes to be one of the best ever metal vocalists and can still bring many of the newcomers mercilessly to their knees! With the metal scene really starting to explode, it was only fitting that he return to help play a major role both as an influence and as a driving force behind it. Not content to simply release Resurrection - Part II, Crucible offers a wide variety of different styles of metal music, spanning everything from Priest - style metal to more modern influences and even some elements of hardcore and thrash metal.

Rob Halford is one very smart guy! With the release of Resurrection, it seemed obvious that for him to launch a major comeback, he needed to win back the die-hard Priest fans who may have become disinterested in his career after his short stint with Fight and his one album, Voyeurs, a collaboration with Trent Reznor and others of Nine Inch Nails in a project called Two. After delivering a straight ahead metal album, which the fans just ate up, Rob now has the metal world in the palm of his hand. With the fans back onboard, and using his current (and killer!!!) band, Rob has seized the opportunity to experiment musically and show more of his true personality and emotions in his music, something he tried with both Fight and Two but to limited success. Many of the tracks on Crucible have more of a personal touch than Resurrection and as well as being a lot heavier, lyrically and vocally he breaks a lot of new ground with this release. Using more softer vocal tones on some tracks, the true strength and power of his natural voice really shines through. His vocal style on tracks like Weaving Sorrow, Sun, Trail Of Tears and the bonus track She really takes me back to the older Priest days with albums like Sin After Sin and Stained Class. Judas Priest had a more diverse style back then and aside from straight-up heavy metal, experimented with a more abstract and complex sound and even included ballads on their albums. It's great to hear Rob singing like that again and with the heavy crunch of this band, he's injecting a new energy into metal music. With Pat Lachman and Metal Mike Chlasciak on guitar, Bobby Jarzombek on drums and Ray Riendeau on bass, the Halford band is a slick well oiled metal machine that is as good or better than any metal band out there.

The opening feedback intro, Park Manor is named after the Park Manor Hotel near Rob's home in San Diego where most of this album was written. Slowly pounding it's way into the fray is the opening heavy bass lines of the title track, Crucible. This track has a great fat sound, a great chorus, some very off-beat triple-timed drum fills and an awesome trademark Halford scream! One Will is destined to become a classic! It begins with a straight ahead tempo then changes to a faster pace with some very cool guitar harmonies pre-chorus. The chorus to this song will get stuck in your head forever!......he is truly the Metal God!! It has a classic metal anthem style to it and reminds me of the chorus from United by Priest from the British Steel album. The first video for this album is going to be for the song Betrayal, a great up-tempo song with crunching, aggressive riffing and some great vocal layering throughout. This one and Heretic feature very Priest-like vocal deliveries and instrumental backing for the verse/chorus sections.

Handing Out Bullets features more multi-layered vocals by Rob and an awesome double-bass drum flurry mixed in with some wild lead breaks. Hearts Of Darkness, a more "modern" sounding metal track, features a very contrasty vocal style with a softer, melodic and dreamy feel that is layered over a very heavy backing track. One of the more "character" songs on this release is Crystal. It uses a hypnotic and very atmospheric slow paced riff with some almost psychedelic elements and comes off as one of the more unique tracks on this album.

Golgotha, another stand-out, is a pounding heavy and very menacing sounding track. It changes mid song to a very fast tempo with some cool riffing and lead breaks and sounds like a completely different song. Wrath of God, with it's very fast double-bass drum and guitar riff, is one of the few tracks which bears any resemblance to Rob's work with Fight, especially the vocal delivery. Sun, a bit out of character with the rest of the album, features a more abstract vocal style and a simpler (but still heavy) dreamy style to it. The last official track, Trail Of Tears is a slower track that is both very powerful and spirited and winds down the metal journey that this album embarks you on.

The U.S. version of this album contains 2 bonus tracks which are certainly worthy of being included in this package. Most times, bonus tracks are just throw away tracks that didn't make the cut for the final version. These are very good songs and really add more depth and variation to the metal styles on this album. She, dedicated to Mrs. Joan Halford (Rob's mum I presume!), is a more classic power ballad style and sounds like Here Come The Tears or Last Rose Of Summer from the Priest - Sin After Sin album. It's amazing that 25 years later, Rob's voice still has the full range that he had even then. A superb vocal performance with some very expressive lead guitar. The second bonus track, Fugitive, has a more abstract style with the guitars and the voices, with the guitars having an almost Metallica - like sound. The chorus for this song again features some very Judas Priest - like elements.

The versatility of Rob's voice really shines on this release. He's a master at delivering a screaming classic heavy metal style, but can also use his voice in so many ways to bring many different atmospheric elements to his music. He can be menacing and aggressive when he needs to be and also be more softer and melodic, often within the same song. He writes very clever and well structured lyrics which add an unbelievable amount of energy to the songs. Overall, this is a very different album than Resurrection, but an equally good one, if not better. A handful of tracks stand out immediately on the first few listens, with the rest taking some time to grow on you. This is an album that has to be discovered and explored as it contains many complexities in the rhythmic styles and vocal delivery. This is an important album for the future of pure Heavy Metal. It shows that it can shed all of the cliche's normally associated with metal music (i.e. shredding lead guitar) and still produce a stunning and very fresh sound. This album is a must for any die-hard metal fan. Whether you enjoy Judas Priest style metal or more modern aggressive and even harcore-like metal, this album has something for all. Releases such as this one are milestones and important examples of the possiblities that exist as well as what can be achieved with this so wonderful and powerful form of music.