Favorite Saint Song - Crime Scene Earth/CSE 2.0

Crime Scene Earth-2008  / Crime Scene Earth 2.0-2010
Having been accused of being Judas Priest clones for years the band decides to embrace the comparisons and actually records a cover of the Judas Priest classic “Invader”.  IMO they proved up to the task and pulled of a very good cover.  This album was plagued with controversy though, as a vast majority of the lead vocals were performed by the bassist and founding member Richard Lynch, and long time vocalist Josh Kramer only sang lead on 3 songs.  Josh himself claims to have encouraged this as he had moved (out of the state I believe) which made recording sessions difficult.  At any rate this move angered many long time fans and the band corrected the miss-step by retracking the vocals for the remaining songs with Josh back in the lead vocal position and released that recording as “Crime Scene Earth 2.0” in 2010.   This newer version was also remastered and boasts a better overall sound than the first version.  Even though I liked the Rich sung songs on the original version I tend to listen to the newer version almost exclusively because of the better sound.

For a favorite track I am going to have to go with "Lost" although I also really like "Everlasting", "Judas in Me" and their cover of "Invader".

I went with "Terror In The Sky".  BTW, nice review.

Dynamis wrote:

I went with "Terror In The Sky".  BTW, nice review.

That's a serious compliment coming from you. I'll take it!

Terror in the sky. I love when songs build like that one does.

I picked Half A Times Measure. One of the heaviest songs they have ever done. After a while I got used to Rich's vocals so I actually prefer the original over 2.0 although I love the screams on the end of Lost that Josh did (which incidentally is another tribute to Priest, that same scream is the same one Halford does at the end of Victim Of Changes).

Everlasting God.  I love it when a metal band "gets their praise on" and never misses a step with their style and sound.  This is a worship song but not the same ol' regurgitated stuff you'll do at church and hear the rest of the week on K-LOVE.

As to Rich doing the vocals, they kept a lot of his tracks even on 2.0.  Josh redid many of the lead vocals, but you still hear Rich's gruffer vocal in the choruses and even in parts building to the chorus.  I am glad, though, that Josh redid the biggest part of the record.  Rich's voice, in my opinion, was just to gruff for the music.  He sounded more like a hardcore barker but the music isn't that heavy at all.  His voice took away from the record.  It needed more polish and Josh was able to give it what it needed.  The original version is no longer in my coolection.  I only have 2.0.  If Josh had not re-recorded the vocal tracks, I would have put this album just slightly above "The Perfect Life".  While it still isn't my overall favorite Saint album, I think much more highly of it with Josh handling the lead vocals and keeping Rich on bass and backing vox.

Nothing on this album grabbed my attention.

The self-title track for me.