BravePicks 2021 - KK'S PRIEST's Sermons Of The Sinner #29
December 2, 2021, 2 years ago
As the world continues to battle a virus, we present the ultimate escape! It is time to celebrate our BravePicks 2021! Heavy metal is the ultimate diversion, so let's let the music do the talking. It is time to unveil our annual BravePicks countdown, where the devout scribes at BraveWords cast their votes at the hits and misses of the year! So who will be our #1? You’ll find out as we count down the BravePick Of 2021 each day in December!
Everybody has an opinion and it’s time for ours! And stay tuned in January for the writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), What/Who Needs To Stop In 2022? and Metal Predictions For 2022. All will be showcased come the New Year!
First up, the best of the best for 2021 begins NOW!
BravePicks 2021
29) KK’S PRIEST – Sermons Of The Sinner (EX1)
Screaming for vengeance! While K.K Downing has watched his former band Judas Priest continue on without him for the last 10 years; it was time for him to strap on the ax again and continue on with his own band – the simply named KK’s Priest. There’s no reason to hide from the past and on board is screamer Tim “Ripper” Owens, who steered the Priest ship in the mid-‘90s after Rob Halford left.
Sermons Of The Sinner is a triumph to what Downing does best – lead a twin guitar attack (with A.J. Mills as second guitarist) with up-tempo metal assaults reminiscent of the Painkiller era along with fist-pumping rockers that made them a household name in the ‘80s. It’s great to hear K.K. back on record as his messages from the pulpit earn the #29 spot on our countdown.
An excerpt of a BraveWords feature reads: Some of Sermons Of The Sinner was recorded on site at K.K.’s estate, some at Steve Harris’ Barnyard Studios, with Ripper doing his vocals at home in the US. What they’ve come up with is a rich collection of songs, from the unapologetically purist metal to the proggy and dark, with loads and loads of killer K.K. guitar work everywhere. All told, it’s the perfect strategy for a guitarist’s solo album, with Ken writing all the music and lyrics, playing a lot, and then, the tough part, having right in front of him the perfect singer, an element that is always the hard part in making anyone care about a guitarist’s album. In other words, lucky for him, Judas Priest had a singer to spare, with Ripper Owens being a consummate heavy metal treasure to boot.
“It’s definitely mission accomplished,” explains a relived K.K., “because I feel it was enjoyable, fulfilling and I really like the final product. I guess if I don’t have the good sense or the feeling now as to what classic and true metal fans want, you know, from KK’s Priest, then I need to go back to the drawing board (laughs). It’s been a great journey, with great relationships. So yeah, hopefully the album, Sermons Of The Sinner, where the sermons are the songs, putting it all together, there is so much more to rejoice and to celebrate in these sermons, so many sentiments and emotions and just everything in one package.”
BravePicks 2021 Top 30
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29) KK’S PRIEST – Sermons Of The Sinner (EX1)
30) ASPHYX - Necroceros (Century Media)
