The album Metal God Essentials vol. 1 contains 13 songs from Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford’s solo career between 1992 and 2004, as well as two brand new songs (and a remix of one of them). The songs are compiled and remastered from both Fight and Halford albums.

The good part is that the four songs from Crucible have been remastered so they are actually worth listening to now. The new song Drop Out is also a decent song.

The bad part is that for some reason the four songs from the great album Resurrection have also been remastered, so they now sound absolutely ghastly. This really puzzles me: Why make a remastered version that is so much worse than the original?

In fact, there are plenty of whys which come to mind when listening to this album:

Why put a demo version of Silent Screams on the album, when the “real” version on Resurrection is so much better?

Why are there no songs from the “Two” project on the album? The press material uses four lines on the album.

Why are there no songs from the excellent Fight album A Small Deadly Space on the album?

The answer to all of the above is unfortunately very clear: This album is a complete rip-off. It’s not even a good compilation, because most of the songs have been made worse than the originals. And the two new songs do not make the album worth buying. The sound quality of these songs is also suspiciously similar to that of the demo version of Silent Screams.

I haven’t even mentioned the worst part yet: the last song on the album, which is a remix of one of the new songs, Forgotten Generation, is absolutely horrific. I simply can’t comprehend how The Metal God himself would put his good name on that piece of crap?

So what I recommend is this: Don’t buy this album. If you want to get into Halford, buy Resurrection and War of Words (by Fight), and take it from there. If you’re already into Halford and want all his songs, go download Forgotten Generation and Drop Out from somewhere as individual songs. There is nothing “essential” on this release.