it's not insane.
Yes, it is. Everyone one of them is older then 50 except the drummer, and they can shred better then /any/ modern rock or metal band. And Halford could still sing a corpse alive.
No. Sorry.
Halford is well past his prime, and often sounds like he is going to die during some of the classics. It also looks as if he's using a teleprompter. Halford was fantastic up until the Resurrection album, since then his voice has been dying. He sounds good in the studio, but not live.
As for outplaying any other Metal band going round....no. I saw Maiden earlier in the year, and they killed Priest. Of the bands I've seen live, the only one that doesn't sound better than Priest do now (70's/80's Priest was brilliant) is Slayer, and that was mainly due to the lack of atmosphere and shitty sound.
That said, I forked out the cash to see Priest later in the year, and they'd better fucking play better than they did on the Rising In The East DVD.
I don't mean to be douchey, but thats kinda opinion. I personally like Halfords older voice more. It suits the music better, plus the dowe tune really gives the band a heavy feel. Is he as good as the painkiller days? Hell no. But he can still sing good. Though his ego about it is kinda lame, and I'm sure it ruined his voice more. At the end of almost every song in Rising In the East, even fucking Breaking the Law, he screams the best he can. It almost NEVER sounds good and it probably further ruins his voice.
And the other members are still great. KK and Glenn are severely underrated and can crank out near perfect solos live. Their skill has gotten better over the years, Rob has just gotten different. Scott is a bit overrated, though.
Iron Maiden is blah. Like... severely blah. :/ Bruce never pushes himself. He hardly screams, or goes low. He sounds the same in almost every song and his voice annoys me. The rest of the band is still amazing though. And their energy in live performances is almost unmatched.
I did too, and I hope so too. I'll be seeing them August 6th. They better be playing better then they have been elsewhere around the world, cause some of the handheld videos on youtube are embarassing.