When the Priest comes a calling they will always find the Metal maniacs standing at the ready to do their bidding and now the call to arms comes as the legendary Metal Gods deliver A Touch Of Evil – Live for them to blast in their stereos and portable music players. The album while a live release does not come from one particular show or tour but is instead culled across the shows done from 2005-2008 where we found the band supporting not only their classic releases but also such newer ones like Angel Of Retribution and Nostradamus. The release is interesting based on the fact that it included songs that have never been delivered on a Judas Priest live album before until now and that should cause some fans to find fascination with it. The selection of tunes for the recording is rather unique since it is missing all of what are generally considered to be the live set "staples" but let's face it – many of those numbers have been enjoyed on previous releases over the years with the exception of the material from the bands very latest studio album – the concept record Nostradamus. That latest recording gets two representations in "Prophecy" and "Death", and the first song was actually the shows opener when the band toured for the album. From Angel Of Retribution we get "Judas Rising" and "Hellrider" and these two were awesome reminders of the power of Judas Priest for the Metal fans who were eagerly celebrating the bands reunion with singer Rob Halford at the time of that albums release. There are a couple of older classics like "Beyond The Realms Of Death" which has long been a favorite but I admit that I am personally worn on "Dissident Aggressor" at this stage of the game. Despite this reservation I appreciate the band tossing this older tune from the Sin After Sin album in for the fans. They give us "Between The Hammer And The Anvil" and "Painkiller" from the album of the same name and while I always love the latter track live, I was never really crazy about the "Hammer" tune and felt it would have been nicer to find "Nightcrawler" or "Metal Meltdown" being delivered but I cannot recall if either of those were done live during the span of time where these tracks come from. As far as live albums go, one cannot argue the continuing relevance of Judas Priest as a Metal force and while this is no Unleashed In The East it is still very good and should appease their fans very much. The booklet features a number of photos of the band in action and that is always welcome stuff to find with an album.
This CD comes to us as The Priest embarks on a tour that will find them celebrating the British Steel album by playing the whole release for their audience from beginning to end. One can only imagine that this will lead us to yet another live DVD or CD release from the band and that's not a bad thing since it has become an acceptable practice for bands to do things like this these days. We've seen Rush, Dream Theater and Iron Maiden doing this continually over the last few tours so why should the rules be different for the mighty Judas Priest. If you are going to one of the bands shows this time around make sure to get their early enough to see Whitesnake who are opening up the tour. That is a killer pairing if you asked me.
Track Listing:
1. Judas Rising
2. Hellrider
3. Between The Hammer & The Anvil
4. Riding On The Wind
5. Death
6. Beyond The Realms Of Death
7. Dissident Aggressor
8. A Touch Of Evil
9. Eat Me Alive
10. Prophecy
11. Painkiller
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