Album Review: Judas Priest's Invincible Shield

I saw my first Judas Priest concert last year.

It was May of 2024. My folks had gotten me 2 tickets to see them. One for myself, and the other for a friend (Who I hadn’t see in 5-ish years). I was at a sports arena roughly an hour away from where I lived, and in a fairly big city. It also happened to be raining that day, so it made moving around outside a little wet. There was already a big crowd inside the place, so the show hadn’t started yet. Right next to it was a little pizza place, so me & my buddy has some slices for dinner & a soda, which was nice. We walk back into the arena, where we stand in line for a little bit before we go in. From there, I bought 2 band shirts, since Sabaton was the opening act (And they were damn good in their own right that night). Then after the boys from Sweden had their rightful time on stage, Rob Halford & the gang came on, and I could only describe the moment.....as cosmic. 

Keep in mind: I had only been a fan of the band for close to a decade by that point (Earlier this year was exactly a decade), so I had certainly be entrenched in the faithful for some time, but it wasn’t until seeing one of the godfathers of Heavy Metal in person that being a fan felt permanent. From the opener to the closer, it all clicked in my head. From the beginning to the end, it all made sense. This was especially important, as a few months before that their 19th studio album Invincible Shield was released. The record was pretty significant upon release, as it technically marks 50 years since their very first album Rocka Rolla was put out (It was officially 50 years on the 6th of September). I was definitely interesting in the release, since the singles for it were really addictive, but then when the whole thing came out I was floored in all the right ways!

Not only was Invincible Shield a phenomenal album from top to bottom, but it was also a message sent across to all corners of Heavy Metal. Not just to the newer bands, but to some of the older ones as well, and that statement was “We’re Still Here!”. Everybody is on point across this whole record: Scott Travis is like Raijin & Fujin on the drums, Ian Hill is smooth on the bass, Glenn Tipton is still great on the guitar, and Richie Faulkner sounds & feels better than ever after his horrific heart issues, but then of course there is the scream master Rob Halford. Now in his early 70s, he still has an incredible stage presence to this very day, and is still able to hit the high notes like he did back during the 80s. He can still move around on stage surprisingly well also, but his age now is incredibly obvious in that regard. Invincible Shield is proof that not only is Judas Priest eternal, but Heavy Metal as a whole is eternal as well.

Picking the best track off of the album was easy, and that honor goes to the title track. The only bad thing I could say is that the song doesn’t open the record up, but that’s it. Invincible Shield has the makings of a modern day Judas Priest anthem: lightning fast guitars, grooving bass, thunderous drums, and Rob Halford’s patented vocal work that has not wavered once since he reached his 70s. On top of that, there’s a big nostalgia vibe coursing throughout the track that harkens back to their 80s work, and to be more specific something like you’d feel off of Defenders Of The Faith. It’s an absolute blast to listen too with the volume turned up, but not too loud! 

Invincible Shield

So, if I’ve heaped so much praise on Invincible Shield, does that mean there isn’t anything negative to say? Not really. Invincible Shield is damn good, and shows that Judas Priest is still able to be a force in Heavy Metal, even if many in the band are of exceptional age. If there is anything to fault the album, it would be a weird fluctuation of quality. Make no mistake: There’s not a single bad or mediocre track from opener to closer, and the over all experience is badass as it should be. That being said, Invincible Shield has an odd habit of going between great to good at seemingly random intervals. Again, not a single track ever goes to mediocre or awful, but it is weird to even remotely notice when it dips from great to good, and vice versa.

Invincible Shield gets a solid 10 out of 10 from me. Mild quality shifting aside, it’s a testament to the legacy of Judas Priest, and a statement to the metal community at large saying “We’re Still Here!”. With the band releasing albums for half a century as of last year, they’re still here despite some big ups & downs, and they will still be here until they can’t. And with that, my quick look back at 2024 I finished, and tomorrow is the final month of the year. See you on the 1st for my look at the top 5 albums of 2025. Until then, may the shield you carry keep you safe.


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If you would like to listen to this album, then click on the link below:

Invincible Shield

Album Review (Obscurus Metalus): Neon Nightmare's Faded Dream

Honorable Mention of 2024 fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

I said then when I briefly talked about my top 5 list from last year, but today’s review is of an album that came practically out of nowhere for pretty much everybody. An album who’s band members (More on that in a moment) were highly mysterious, and despite the single or two that came out, nobody knew anything about the record in question. Cut to the 1st of November last year, and one of the biggest offerings & tributes to one of the biggest icons in Gothic Metal to have ever been made. A tribute that actually tugs at my heartstrings, and left me a little misty-eyed. So, get out any leftover Halloween candy you might have left, turn down the lights to low, and enjoy my review for Neon Nightmare’s first release, Faded Dream. Let’s begin.

Background
It’s genuinely difficult to find any background on this album, along with the mysterious frontman of the band....or so we thought. Cut to a few months after it came out (I believe it was a few months), and we got a reveal of the mastermind behind the whole thing: Nate Garrett. Not just the singer, but he was also the drummer, keyboardist, and bassist, Nate had prior musical experience in the band Spirit Adrift, which he had also started. As for what we do know about the album’s background and descriptor, the Bandcamp page as this to say: 

“Born out of the elemental primordium contained in heavy metal’s working class roots, from the war-scarred industrial landscapes of Birmingham to the beat up bars and basements of Brooklyn, Neon Nightmare arrive like a ghost in the night to carry on the tradition. Troubled music for troubled people. And though there’s nothing new under the sun, in the shadows there may yet be a chance, and it is in the shadows where ‘Faded Dream’ was shaped out of shimmering steel.

The title says it all, with ‘Faded Dream’ Neon Nightmare’s debut album is a synthesis of emotional peaks and valleys and dark brooding atmosphere, evoking a longing angst for a past once colored by adolescent excitement and wonder. Utilizing a foundation of big riffs, crushing studio production immersed in technicolor fantasy and psychedelic ornamentation, and a dramatic vocalist able to smoothly swing from a spooky gothic baritone to soaring heavy metal melodicism, ‘Faded Dream’ is the crossroads where Doom, Psych, Shoegaze and Alternative Metal all intersect in a way not heard in years.

A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it but unmistakable deadpan satirical strain also runs through ‘Faded Dream’ as Neon Nightmare cleverly avoid the overtly sad-sack whimsy and self-serious mopery of the standard “metal band with goth tendencies” milieu. For all its genuine foreboding and confrontation with real depression, ‘Faded Dream’ never loses itself in the mire or gives up on its predilection for thrill-seeking amusements and sanguine fascination. The sounds conjured have lived in many momentous forms throughout the decades of heavy metal history, and Neon Nightmare are here to continue the cycle.”

The album would be release on the 1st of November in 2024, and the reception was quite positive on many review sites.

Basic Description
Pete’s Ghost Is Still Haunting Us.

Ever since Pete Steele passed away over 15 years ago (That made my bones ached), the bleeding hole where our hearts were still aches. Type-O Negative at some point in their career reflected something in our soul, and somehow brought some kind of joy into our lives. In the over decade & a half since Pete's death, there have only be a tiny pinch of musicians that have managed to even remotely take up the mantle. Corey Tourigny was one of the first, then we had A Pale Horse Named Death, the monolith that is October Noir, and even musical Youtubers like Anthony Vincent & Denis Pauna managed to get in on the action! However, with Dream Faded I think we have the first time a musical act truly captures the essence & soul of the Green Man so perfectly. Even then, this album folds in a few different things to make it something unique, and not just a carbon copy of the boys from Brooklyn. We will never have Pete crawl out of his grave, but it is nice to know that there are still musicians out there that understand the significance of Peter Thomas Ratajczyk.....and the legacy he left behind.

Best Track
This was...difficult. There’s not many albums I’ve ever listened to in the near 4 decades I’ve been on this planet that I consider perfect, but throw Faded Dream onto that pile everybody. Practically every single song on this album can be considered to be the best track. Hell, even the joke opening soundscape Higher Calling is surprisingly entertaining. However, if I wanted to pick my favorite track of the album, then the cleverly named LATW2TG is just perfect. Reminiscent of material from the Dead Again era of Type-O Negative, you have instrumentals similar to what you would hear on An Ode To Locksmiths, but the vibes are like that you would feel in September Sun. Mildly more lighthearted, but still very powerful & very emotional. Though I would have liked this song to have been the concluding track, it’s position about halfway through the album means I don’t have to wait that long to get to it.

LATW2TG

Worst Track
The fact that this sprung practically out of nowhere was this album’s biggest fault. I didn’t even know there were singles out for the release until after I discovered this record, though there were definitely some people that did. Not only that, but Nate Garrett keeping his identity a secret until he wasn’t able to seemed silly to me. He’s pretty damn talented, not just in Neon Nightmare, but in his prior band Spirit Adrift. To play devil’s advocate, I assume he did this so people focused on the music instead of him, which I can respect. 

Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album, then click on the link below:

Faded Dream

Overall Impression & Rating
Faded Dream, as I said before, was a surprise that came out of nowhere, and hit anyone that listened right in the feels. Sure, I think it was a little goofy that Nate Garrett hid his identity until he couldn’t, but in an odd way that meant we paid full attention to the music, and nothing else. In that case, this tribute to Pete & the rest of Type-O Negative was nothing short of phenominal. From beginning to end, you have all of the things that made the boys from Brooklyn legends, yet there’s a few things that were thrown in to make it it’s own thing as well. Over 15 years later, and there’s people that haven’t forgotten you Green Man. Not now.....Not ever. 

Faded Dream gets an 8 out of 10, but I enjoyed it as if it was a perfect 10.

And that was my look at Faded Dream. Surprising & wonderful in equal measure, it managed to capture the spirit of the Green Man without being a carbon copy. For any fan of Type-O Negative, this album will heal your heart....if only for a bit. So, join me on the last day of this month, when I will look at an absolute beast of an album from legends that are a little over half a century in age. Until they, make sure your dreams never fade. 


***
If you want to support Neon Nightmare, then click on the link below: 

Neon Nightmare (Bandcamp)

MTG Set Review: Commander Legends

The end of 2025 is near fellow Otaku & Metalheads.

2025 has not be very kind for us here in the United States, or for anywhere else if I’m being honest. The sheer amount of political corruption here in America is so immense, it makes some of the worst leaders in our country’s history look like model boy scouts. With things coming out seemingly every single day that sends a chill down your spine, it makes living in the USA looks like a living nightmare. None the less, the few shreds of light that still float around are enough to keep one going, and today’s review marks one final look back at the media landscape of 2020. One final look at a plague ridden year that in hindsight, might somehow seem less soul-crushing that what we’ve gone through here in 2025. So, if you’ve got the hankering for some EDH/Commander, then sit down & enjoy my review of the 2020 closer, Commander Legends. Let’s begin!

Story & Setting
Commander Legends doesn’t really have a story to it, save for some of the characters introduced that would make a re-appearance in later sets. Not only that, but there are fundamentally new & older plains introduced and re-introduced, but nothing is ever explored in detail. Due to the goals of the set, there isn’t really a need for a set-wide story & characters.....but I will talk about this a little later.

Art
For the most part, the artwork hasn’t changed in Commander Legends. All of the older cards they brought in have the exact same art as they did before, save for some spruced up alternate versions. The NEW art, however, is damn good! There are plenty of new cards in both the base set, and the commander pre-builts, that all have brand new artwork, and it all looks wonderful. Not much else to say in this regard.

Mechanics
Also for the most part, the mechanics of Commander Legends is made up of things we’ve seen before. The Monarch makes a comeback, as does Cascade to an extent, Pirate Tribal/Typal/Kindred oddly enough, along with a smattering of a few others. Two new ones are introduced, and they certainly make things feel fresher. The first up is Encore, and that one’s pretty simple. You simply pay the mana cost & exile the creature card from your graveyard, and then you make a copy of it for each opponent you have. They all have haste, and then you sacrifice them at the next end step. This gives anybody an advantage if they’re lacking in the creature department, and has some nice aristocrat interactions.

Perhaps the biggest aspect of the set was the Partner mechanic. Originally first appeared in 2014 with specific partners in Battleborn, then in 2016 with the Commander pre-builts that were more varied, and then in 2020 with the Ikoria pre-builts that returned to the more limited nature of 2014. Commander Legends is far more free-roaming with it’s partners, as you can mix & match with anybody with Partner. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that every combination works, but this does mean that the amount of combinations is incredibly varied. My only complaint is that there weren’t any Partner commanders in multicolor (Would have made for some interesting 3-color partner decks), but there’s still a lot of variety with what we were given.

Negative Aspects
Honestly, Commander Legends’s only big fault is the heavy return of cards from prior sets that have their original art. To play devil’s advocate, this was a set that was designed with the Commander format in mind, and thus many older cards were needed to flesh things out & to supplement the newer ones. Even so, it’s amazing that the ration of old to new seems so out of balance to me, but again, the old was meant to help out the new, so I can’t truly complain that much.

Overall Impression & Rating
If Zendikar Rising was my 1st favorite set of 2020, then Commander Legends isn’t far behind. While the fair amount of older cards doesn’t make this set feel completely new, the stuff that is new certainly makes for something somewhat unique. Even if there isn’t a story or familiar characters (For the most part), what we were given was pretty good. It still manages to entertain players whenever the odd pack is found & opened, and even if you never collect the set, buy a few odd cards & enjoy the moment.

Commander Legends gets an 8.5 to 9 out of 10.

And that was my review for Commander Legends. A worthy release that helped out many Commander players, and a set that definitely deserved to close out 2020. Still spoken of in high regard almost 5 years later, it’s a testament to the design quality that’s had it stay in the minds of so many MTG players. And with that everyone, my look back at some of the media that got me through 2020 is completely, so now we turn our attention to last year. So, join me around the middle of the month, as we’ll take a look at a musical honorable mention that’s quite mysterious. See you then!