KK's Priest

When K.K. Downing announced that he had a new band after his ten year retirement from Judas Priest, I had pretty low expectations. I wasn't impressed with his exit from Priest and the mud slinging that followed... plus his launch of a "metal" men's cologne was laughable, so when he mentioned a return to heavy metal, I expected it to be weak tea. When it was announced that his new band was going to be called KK's Priest, I rolled my eyes. Christ, with Ripper Owens in the band, they could have recycled the Jugulator name or something. KK's Priest is one of the lamest band names in the history of terrible band names. Either way, I expected this band to shit the bed.

Maybe it was because my expectations were so low, but when I heard the first single, Hellfire Thunderbolt, I found myself pleasantly surprised. I mean, it didn't compare the the last couple of Judas Priest records, but it was some solid metal. I kind of got caught up in the hype and jumped into buying a signed copy of the Sermons Of The Sinner album.

By the time the record arrived in the mail, I'd talked myself out of the hype and was back to my low expectations. I just really wasn't in the mood for this record. I haven't found a lot of new metal albums that have excited me this year, so I was kind of down on this record before I'd even listened to it. I dropped the needle on this thing a couple of days ago, and by the end of it, I was kind of bored with the whole thing. I have started to warm up to this with a few more listens, and there are a few songs that really give me a kick...so this isn't as terrible as I thought it might be.

It's kind of a fun listen, but time will tell how well this holds up over the years.