A MOM BORN TO SLAY

Tenacity.

The sunny skies over Wimbledon and tennis fans all over the world were witness to what that word meant, across 2 weeks, in the form of a mom born to slay - Serena Williams.

Talent and statistics make for strange bedfellows. How else would you explain the fact that someone like Serena was ranked 181st in the world as she took some time-off for her pregnancy, and ended up as the 25th seed at Wimbledon!

Even as she lost to Angelique Kerber in the final, Serena’s game espoused certain tenets only geniuses like her posses: age is a misnomer, toughness is an understatement and epic fails to justify the glory of art.

Her game with Kerber wasn’t a meek surrender. It had those moments of greatness. She invented the unusual. And on many occasions, with that sleight of hand, conjured moments of magic at the Centre Court.

Beyond everything, her comeback was a clarion call to moms around the world: To shine. To rise. To win. And not to yield.

A TALE OF TWO JUDAS PRIEST ALBUMS: STAINED CLASS AND FIREPOWER

In their 48-year-old swashbuckling career, Judas Priest have had many landmarks when it comes to the work they produced. Among them, British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, Sad Wings of Destiny and Painkiller rank right up among the ‘definitive Priest’ classic records. 

Stained Class - 1978

One album that gets a short shrift is Stained Class. This one is a hidden gem, a truly dark and scintillating masterpiece of early metal, which paved the way for NWOBHM and the genesis of speed metal. Never have they produced an album with such devastating sincerity as they trudge along the darkest hours of human civilisation. The themes range from war, human depravation, colonisation to sheer savagery that as a race, we are capable of. Apart from discovering their sound and direction, Stained Class takes the metal fans by the scruff their necks and unleashes upon them, a series of songs that challenges the limits of their twin axemen - KK Downing and Glen Tipton. The boys are just spot on, with every devilish lick. Rob Halford perfects his frenzied falsettos that can crack the glass behind you. But the album works ever so beautifully because of Les Binks, their new drummer. He is perhaps the earliest master of double-bass drumming in metal. And not until the arrival of Scott Travis for the Painkiller album in 1990, will Priest find another drummer capable of such manic genius.

Firepower - 2018

40 years later, Judas Priest have created possibly the finest 58 minutes in classic metal. Firepower harks back to the days when Priest were nothing short of a sonic wrecking-ball. Reminiscent of the brilliance of Painkiller in the way the album is constructed, Firepower also stands testimony to great metal writing and is a verdant sanctuary of thematic cornucopia, that Stained Class was. One listen to the chugging, riff-heavy ‘Traitor’s Gate’ is enough to tell us that Rob Halford still reigns among the pantheon of great metal vocalists. With Glen Tipton fighting Parkinson’s and KK Downing out of the band, Richie Faulkner and Andy Reap come in as worthy replacements, exchanging immaculately constructed riffs that deserve to be head-banged. 

Almost, five decades on, the metal gods are still in great form. So take a listen if you like the textures of classic metal. Because the Hell Patrol rides on valiantly, Screaming for Vengeance.