When Rob Halford chose to leave the ranks of Judas Priest and begin new Metal adventures as a solo artist, the balance of things in the genre seemed to be torn asunder as the world wondered what would come from each side in the musical sense. Fortunately for the fans of The Metal God he would assemble a worthy group of talented young musicians and bring Scott Travis of Judas Priest along with him for the ride - the result would be a group that was very simply named Fight. The name seemed appropriate for a band that would pack as much Metal punch as they would and it was truly a great thing to find them being as heavy as hell and serving the needs of the fans who were beginning to follow bands like Pantera. Their solid approach to the genre would present itself well on their debut release War Of Words but the music on this CD brings us back to the months before this recording even took place. K5 - The War Of Words Demos is exactly what the title says it is and it brings the listener into the rehearsal and recording studio with Rob Halford and the guys as they flesh out the newly written songs that would eventually become part of their smoking debut album. As soon as it begins one of the first thoughts that come to mind is that they cannot be demos based on the sonic quality that the tunes possess. Yes there is some rawness and limited hesitation on one or two of them but the advancements in studio recording and engineering have allowed bands to come out with almost album quality demo takes in many cases and if one took these for some additional mix down and production it could have very well been released as the debut.
Fight was made up of Halford and Travis of course, and on guitars found Russ Parrish and Brian Tilse while Jay Jay played the bass. The unit was tightly into their groove very early on as we can now experience from these demos so it was fortuitous that they had been recorded. Perhaps Halford had them recorded to capture a moment in time or perhaps he simply wanted to have reference to how his new project was coming along but in the end we as listeners find a band that was very together at their earliest stages. To be brutally honest how could any musician be on less than their performance best when they know that they are working with the legendary Rob Halford. The K5 Demos CD not only features most of the album that fans will come to revere as War Of Words in its infancy but there are also five new tracks to enjoy (noted by an asterisk). The newer songs worked well alongside the older material in terms of their consistency and sounding like Fight after a number of years. I found "Forbidden" to be one of the best of their number as it had a lot of the elements that I enjoy about Halford as a singer. The demos for War Of Words being early recordings have some up and down moments on some of the tracks but these are few and far between. I particularly enjoyed hearing "Nailed To The Gun", "Into The Pit" and "For All Eternity" the most as these are my favorite numbers from the bands debut. There isn't much in the way of difference in them but you can tell that the songs are at their very earliest phase in terms of being ready for public consumption. The enclosed booklet gives the listener lyrics, and the inside story about the recordings as well as a number of great photos from the time of the sessions. It's a great way to feel as though you were right there in the studio as Halford and company worked through any of the kinks in the tunes before they became the smoldering slab of Metal we have enjoyed since 1993. Releasing these tracks was a great idea for the legendary singer as a part of his new label Metal God Entertainment because the fans who keep the fires strong over the decades are showing that they are very receptive to such releases. I have said this before that more bands should make their demos and pre-production tracks of legendary albums available to their fans because it's something that they seem to eat up very quickly. Halford's plan is to make a lot more of his audio and visual content available going forward and it's pretty safe to say that we can hardly wait to see what's next.
Track Listing
15. Into The Pit
16. Nailed To The Gun
17. Now You Die *
18. Life In Black
19. Kill It
20. Contortion
21. Forbidden *
22. War Of Words
23. Psycho Suicide
24. Down *
25. Vicious
26. Beast Denies *
27. Laid To Rest
28. Jesus Saves
29. Dead Men Talk *
30. For All Eternity
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