Artist: Judas Priest
Title: “Epitaph” [Blu-ray]
Label: Legacy Recordings
Release Date: 5/28/2013
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4.25/5

Back in May I not only had the chance to enjoy the latest Judas Priest DVD on the big screen, but I did so with the great Rob Halford and Richie Faulkner in attendance along with Metal music personality Eddie Trunk. I reviewed the event and then the release on the website but that was for the standard edition DVD and now I finally have gotten my hands on the Blu-ray version. Since I always embed a purchase link in my review copy and speak of the differences between versions I wanted to tackle this one for you and since there were NO noticeable differences (outside of the blue clamshell packaging) I figured I would just keep my review text the same. Check it out.

The “Epitaph” show was filmed at London’s Hammersmith Apollo and this famous venue has found a lot of live Metal and Hard Rock concert recordings or videos being done here when it was named the Hammersmith Odeon. Among them were Motorhead, In Flames and Rush to name a few. It’s nice to have the mighty Judas Priest among these fine bands and with a concert film at such a place. Now the show itself was a special one and features at least one song from every one of the bands recordings. Well, one song from every album that the classic and most revered lineup appeared on together in all honesty as there is nothing from when the band had Tim “Ripper” Owens in the lineup. Since I don’t recall the band even playing any of that material after Owens was gone I guess it makes some sense but to me it is still a part of Judas Priest history. That being said the band begins the show with a song from “British Steel” in a rousing get on your feet performance of “Rapid Fire” and follows it with “Metal Gods” from that same release. While they touched upon every album they did not do the show sequentially and instead positioned a choice tune here and another there. A wise move because the set seems to flow seamlessly as a result of the way that it has been fashioned. The audience does get a lot of the expected tunes from the band and that is very simply because there are numerous songs that are just too hard to leave out of a Judas Priest show. We get a few surprises such as “Never Satisfied” from the bands “Rocka Rolla” debut but I thought it would have been fun for them to give us the title track instead since it has a nice groove. “Turbo Lover” was an obvious inclusion and I don’t recall the last time that I saw the band doing this one. I had to smile at the fact that no matter how maligned this particular album was, it did not stop the crowd from singing the chorus at top volume. When I saw the DVD on the big screen my friend mentioned how much he liked that the crowd was not always being shown and instead it was primarily the band. While meaning no offense to my fellow Metalheads I have to agree because outside of the occasional pan we don’t need to see you. Of course my one main issue with the show was that instead of the mighty Halford singing “Breaking The Law” we get the audience of the Apollo doing so. Perhaps this was awesome if you were there but for me it loses just a little something when watching it on the television. The stage setting is dramatic and the backdrop changes regularly as the band moves back and forth throughout their musical career.
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