Fozzy - Judas album review

Chris Jericho’s melodic rockers prove they can go the distance

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Cover art for Fozzy - Judas album

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Fozzy have always said they’re an evolving band, and on their seventh album this process has never been more obvious. Some aspects haven’t changed, not least Rich Ward’s thrusting guitar wails. His melodies remain paramount, but there are clear developments elsewhere. Grooves switch between the gritty and the smooth while vocalist Chris Jericho displays an increased awareness of how to vary his voice. This comes into focus on Painless and Capsized, which are shameless, balls-out power ballads. Fozzy occasionally nod towards nu metal – you’ll hear moments of Disturbed on songs such as Wordsworth Way and the excellent Judas but there are also some bruising traditional metal riffs on SOFTWAREmark” gingersoftwareuiphraseguid=“4fa00be8-3e4b-4970-ac1a-80dc12bf89f9” id=“1a644f23-7ab5-4837-8a9f-b5b5032265b2”>Drinkin’ With Jesus and Three Days In Jail. The band have taken a great deal of care to ensure their songwriting and production is of the highest calibre and it’s been worth the effort.

Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.