Overview: 'Battle Cry' features the legendary heavy metal band Judas Priest's performance from the 2015 Wacken Festival, where they performed to an incredible 85,000 people!

Blu ray Verdict: That's right, the metal Gods themselves, Judas Priest have just released a new live album / concert video on March 25th via CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

For those not in the know, Priest are a British heavy metal band formed in Birmingham, England, in 1969. The band has sold over 45 million albums to date. Indeed, MTV (remember them?!) ranked them the second greatest metal band of all time! Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in the latter half of the 1970s, the band struggled with indifferently-produced records, repeated changes of drummer and a lack of major commercial success or attention until 1980, when they adopted a more simplified sound on the album British Steel, which helped shoot them to rock superstar status.

The rest, as they say, is now history. And most all that history is on show here as Priest put on a tremendous string of shows following the release of their Redeemer of Souls album in 2014. With the addition of guitarist Richie Faulkner and Rob Halford’s most spirited live vocals in quite some time, Priest ventured across 33 countries, performing 130 shows to further spread the metal gospel.

Battle Cry DVD/Blu-ray sequence (Recorded live on August 1st, 2015 at Wacken Festival, Germany) - 1. (Intro) Battle Cry 2. Dragonaut 3. Metal Gods 4. Devil’s Child 5. Victim of Changes 6. Halls of Valhalla 7. Turbo Lover 8. Redeemer of Souls 9. Beyond the Realms of Death 10. Jawbreaker 11. Breaking the Law 12. Hell Bent For Leather 13. The Hellion 14. Electric Eye 15. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming 16. Painkiller 17. Living After Midnight

BONUS TRACKS (Recorded live on December 10th, 2015 at The Ergo Arena, Gdansk, Poland) - 18. Screaming for Vengeance 19. The Rage 20. Desert Plains

So, aside from the songs, let's talk about the all-important sound quality. Well, it sounded GREAT to me! Very powerful, dynamic and clear. The bass could have been a bit more audible, but at least it's not too boomy. It's great to hear the tracks from Redeemer of Souls in proper production as, to my humble ears, the actual sound engineered CD sounded miserable!

The performances from Priest are all top notch too. Here on this 'Battle Cry' Blu-ray (a GREAT title, BTW) these are some of the best Rob Halford has brought forth in quite a while / tour. Rob doesn't struggle with high notes as much, Glenn stays in time better and Scott's drumming is, simply put, incredible! Even the more simple songs from British Steel and Point of Entry sound fantastic with his added flare. Ritchie is fantastic, as always, and the whole band showcase just what any Priest fan would want to see from shelling out for this Blu-ray / DVD ... the guys having fun, enjoying their work, and sounding fantastic! This is a Full 1080i HD Picture, 5.1 Surround and PCM Uncompressed Stereo = PERFECT!