The Sinner Rides Again
NAPALM
Judas Priest’s former guitar hero sharpens his axe
ONCE MORE UNTO the breach for Kenneth ‘K.K.’ Downing – Judas Priest’s original guitarist and a fully fledged founding father of heavy metal – currently enjoying a new creative splurge after spending a decade away from music. Having busied himself with more quirky business ideas than an Apprentice contestant, this LP was written back-to-back with 2021’s invigorating debut Sermons Of The Sinner. It does sound initially like The Sinner Rides Again(an amusingly passé, corny name for a sequel) might as well be disc two of a double album. By the time we get to the nervy, brooding festooned with ghostly choral chants and dusky acoustic picking, you might wonder if a few more spices could have been sprinkled in. A distinct identity does emerge, though, the arrangements perhaps more sophisticated than the debut’s earthy call-and-response Wacken-bait.
