JUDAS PRIEST and ICED EARTH, 2014. Spooky Album Cover Art War!

Will the real Redeemer of Souls please step up? The “Plagues Of Babylon” artwork shown above the reverent ‘Priest’s new album’s artwork is all so much alike. It feels like we are living “Among The Living Dead” (the new Iced Earth song from it and a video, too).

Judas Priest has unveiled the intense “Redeemer of Souls” 2014 full-length new studio album cover art. Yet it is the song that Judas Priest have fired forth with that outstrips the ‘Earth for coolness and savage rawness.

The helicopter blade-cutting “Among The Living Dead” has its moments and in comparison to other bands, currently, is quite good.

Yet, when there is a new Judas Priest album, it is bound to rule the roost. And it does. Iced Earth’s Worldwide Plagues Tour sure has a sinister quality. Iced Earth had 12 brand new songs out of the starting gate in January 14. A limited triple 10-inch vinyl box set sure made for a cool fan item.

Yet, ultimately, who but Judas Priest has had the chutzpah to herald their angel of retributions to grace albums like “Sin After Sin” and “Sad Wings of Destiny” in the very dawn of Heavy Metal’s true British birth in 1976 and continue that tradition into the new, bold extreme millennium.

Do you want to see what Iced Earth debuted with as far as their artwork on their debut disc, after they left their limp band-name, Purgatory, behind that is. The name Purgatory had been used quite liberally by other bands and Iced Earth the Floridians became. Yet Iced Earth “Iced Earth” clearly showed nothing more than a fallen angel.

Meanwhile, the mighty Judas Priest was at least a decade and a half ahead with their coolness. The first Judas Priest album was “Rocka Rolla”, a take on Coca Cola. Yet the logo that would become synonymous with the band was just a few years away.

1976 and the early 1990’s second LP by Iced Earth: You decide about the coolness factor, and who made who, so to speak AC/DC style.Back cover of “Sad Wings Of Destiny”

Front Cover: above — the fallen angel writhing in the heated furnace. JP had truly arrived!

Let’s take another look at Iced Earth and their latest January 2014 release, shall we?

Iced-Earth-Plagues-of-Babylon

File:Night of the Stormrider cover.jpg And their 2nd early 1990’s album “Night Of The Stormrider”.

The bands have one thing in common and that is that Tim “Ripper” Owens has sung for both Priest and the ‘Earth.

Iced Earth should try to be more original. Their covers try to copy Judas Priest and end up looking like a Viking-Cannibal Corpse, instead. So it’s too late.

My three disc live in-concert Iced Earth set didn’t light up my CD player, neither.

Priest! Priest! Priest! Halford and co. for 2014. Bring it on!

– Rich Castle