Judas Priest has their own official BB on their website (as does Maiden). I think I agree that they are big enough that they can host their own board. I like the format of this site in that it's "one stop shopping" for many bands, but Priest's gets some decent traffic on their site...which I believe warrants it to be where it is. Maiden's is absolutely HUGE, and for bandwidth alone I couldn't see it being on here. Plus, their website is so large and comprehensive anyway it makes sense that they have their own.
As for Priest with or without Ripper. I'm kinda torn. Rob will be always my favorite vocalist, and even at his age I believe he's the finest living metal singer. Yes, overall the quality of the Priest albums have gone down since Painkiller. Jugulator I still liked though (minus a couple dumb songs like Decapitate and Brain Dead). But Bullet Train is bruising, and Cathedral Spires is simply fantastic. Live, Ripper did well on that tour I thought. He's no Rob, but that's okay I guess. Priest's style was changing anyway. But. Demolition is much worse IMO. There are a couple good songs as mentioned. "Close To You" is simply fantastic, it has a "Blood Red Skies" feel to it. "Machine Man" isn't bad musically (they lyrics bring it down). "Hell is Home" has a decent chorus. And strangely enough the other ballad "Lost and Found" isn't that bad. But overall Jugulator destroys Demolition. And no, it's not Ripper's fault, it's Glenn's. He's penning more and more of both the music and lyrics and I think Demolition was his attempt at modernizing their sound (nu-metal dare I say?). K.K. listens to straight up metal (he's a big Nevermore fan for example) and I think if he were to write more and hark...Rob were to rejoin, the next Priest album would be almost untoppable. We all know Rob's solo work is very, very metal and enjoyable.
Seeing Ripper on the Demolition tour wasn't as good as on the Jugulator one. His stage presence sort of changed and I didn't care for it as much. The setlist was equally as good, and he sang well, but his strange shadowboxing and other antics detracted from the "metalness" of it. He did sing well though, and he screamed much more than on the previous tour. But I would like to see him dance around less and prowl more. Fit their music more, you know?
I honestly though think it's odd that once Ripper got the job their sound is moving farther away from the stuff he knew, loved and sang to get the job. Must be strange to be in his position. Must be sort of like "Why can't we continue writing the good stuff that I got this job singing?" They do live, but I'm not content with that, I want another massive Judas Priest album ala Painkiller, Sin After Sin or Defenders.
Welcome newbie.
