My Amazon Reviews: Two "Voyeurs"

Who put all this dirt in to my machine?
3 Out Of 4 Stars

One of the odder curios in my collection, "Voyeurs" by Two was Rob Halford taking some time to reinvent himself after exiting Judas Priest. Also coinciding with his coming out as gay, "Voyeurs" was nothing like Halford had done in the past. Teaming up with Nine Inch Nails' Tren Reznor, Mayiln Manson guitarist John 5, and letting Reznor executive produce with a hand from Bob Marlette and Skinny Puppy's Dave Ogilvie, this sounded more techno-metal than his operatic heavy metal howling with Priest. Even though that combination sounds like it should be a total trainwreck, "Voyeurs" works most of the time.

"I Am A Pig" was the lead single, and it sounds more like a NIN song than most anything else on the disc. Halford lowers his voice into a gravelly growl while overblown mechanical rumbles keep the beat. There was a rarely seen video created by porno director Chi Chi LaRue that featured nobody from the band but lots of kinky flesh in an SM dungeon context. If Halford and Reznor wanted to blow away any expectations of Priest fans, this was certainly the way to do it. (The song also wound up on the soundtrack to the 1999 cult horror movie "Idle Hands.") Then there's "Hey Sha La La," which attempts to weld a singalong hook (the title) to the spooky grind. The other noteworthy song is "Stutter Kiss," which uses NIN's typical whisper to a scream vocal style to good effect.

Those are the highlights. "Voyuers" tended to repeat itself about midway in, and not in a beneficial manner. I also found it amusing that this industrial style of metal-making would pop up again on Alice Cooper's "Brutal Planet" about a year later, and there are times here when Halford sounded like The Coop. While Two was definitely trying to sound like their own group and Halford sounded like he was having pretty good time not being the Metal God for 11 songs, apparently few consumers agreed. "Voyeurs" was a commercial stiff and has since developed a cult following among fans of Halford and Reznor (like yours truly), leaving no further opportunities for Two to expand on these ideas.