Disk three is the band's second and final album of new material, A Small Deadly Space, released in 1995. When I first heard it, I felt it paled in comparison to War of Words, however, over the years I have to like it a lot more. It still trails behind that first release when I have a hankering for some Fight.
This album features one line-up change, Russ Parrish left and was replaced by Mark Chaussee. Another big difference is Rob Halford shares song writing duties. On War of Words, Rob wrote everything, this time Fight is more of a collaborative effort. The results include song structures that are a bit more complex, yet still retain that sheer heaviness of the first album. There is also more work with different tunings. A Small Deadly Space has a deeper sound as they work with a lot of detunings.
A Small Deadly Space features such strong tunes as "Legacy of Hate," "Mouthpiece," "I Am Alive," and "Human Crate." There is also something to be said for the final ballad "In a World of My Own Making." Quite frankly, when I said of War of Words that there wasn't a stinker in the bunch, the same could also be said here. While I think it is a slightly weaker album, it is hard to find an outright bad song. That says a lot.
Disk four is titled Fight - Live in Phoenix. This footage dates back to August of 1993, one month prior to the release of War of Words. This night was the second live performance of Halford and Fight; it was shot with two cameras in the cramped quarters of a small club in Arizona. The video is rough and a little grainy and the audio is raw sounding stereo mix. This combination gives the concert a fantastic intimate feel as the band absolutely rips it up for a set that runs for nearly an hour.
The set list is the War of Words track list, front to back. The entire album played in order to an enthusiastic crowd. The set did conclude with a non-album track, "Light Comes Out of Black," which was originally recorded by Halford and members of Pantera in 1992 for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, it appeared on the film's soundtrack release.
Article comments