Best Judas Priest Album

Screaming for Vengeance didn't get nearly enough love here, top 40 phase or whatever the jams on it are so fucking solid

can't believe 0 votes for stained class, baffled by the rocka rolla/british steel love, but glad that SWOD is rightly recognized as their best album

special shout-out to "sinner" from sin after sin - that superstoned middle interlude is one of my fav musical moments of all time

My favourite will always be Defenders of the Faith. Personally I've always thought Vengeance is a bit overrated, the title track is mediocre and a couple others just make me cringe ("Devil's Child", for one)...I prefer the dense, cold sound of Defenders.

(Stained Class and Hell Bent For Leather aren't far behind)

oh man the sfv title track was kicking my ass today. those guitars!

0 votes for stained class is insane!

turbo tied with painkiller is also pretty weird.

as far as top 40 priest goes, I think I prefer point of entry to screaming for vengeance. but both are cool.

we follow the dreamer

British Steel way too high in this original poll. Good album,but even the high points are way watered down compared to their glory days. I'd take Sin after Sin, Stained Class, Sad Wings, even Defenders and Screaming over it.

just this week i have been listening to sad wings and everytime i think to myself holy shit dude this is like the best album

the only downside to it is I think Rob's vocal on Victim of Changes pales in comparison to how he did it on the live album.

"Tyrant", though.......ohhhhhhhhhh man.

going to Redeemer of Souls instead, which isn't quite the knockout that Firepower was, but dope af anyway

Haha, Nostradamus is awful. A real shame because Rob sings the hell out of the wackadoo lyrics.

Compare that album with the subsequent two records with Richie, and it sounds so wooden and lifeless. Faulkner deserves a lot of credit for Priest's late renaissance.

that he does.

Rob H is indeed a fantastic interview: he told me that once the band heard AC/DC, they didn't much wanna do Sad Wings epic fantasy as much and Killing Machine and British Steel is where that comes to bear particularly; though the title cut of the former seems to modeled on ZZ Top, and as such is a completely unique and a secret classic Priest tune, and I think B.S. contains the worst Priest tune, "You don't have to be old to be wise."

"Killing Machine" the song totally sounds like ZZ Top, was just thinking that when I played the album yesterday.

There's another track on KM (can't remember which one now) where the guitar solo is a total Southern rock rip.

"Rock Forever"

I always giggle at that harmonized guitar solo because it sounds like Allman Brothers

i really like "dont have to be old"... i could picture Motorhead playing it... for me the loser on Steel is probably United - which feels like a failed attempt to do a queen-y anthem

Oddly, the first Priest album I got was Point of Entry. I think I got it from one of the record clubs. I don't remember anything from it, and I'm not sure I'm all that inclined to give it a re-listen.

"United" sucks.

for cheesy, derivative anthem songs, "Take On the World" from the previous album did it much better.

"You Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise" is kinda dad-rocky even for that time, despite the non-dad lyrics.

United is really the only song on British Steel I don't like at all. it's a fairly consistent album in that I like almost everything on it, but nothing reaches the stratosphere for me either, other than "Metal Gods". solid B plus for me throughout.

Point of Entry I like the obvious songs off of it ("Heading Out to the Highway" is brilliant, "Solar Angels" and "Desert Plains" as well), but despite being into more AOR Priest, the other songs made next to no impression on me.

thanks to me buying that boxed set I now own the Ripper albums, might listen to them for a laugh.

"Your head
You will lose it"

O WILL I NOW

Point of Entry might have been my first Priest album, too. But I bought a bunch all at once right after that — Hell Bent For Leather, British Steel, Unleashed In The East and Screaming For Vengeance. They were my absolute favorite band when I was 11-12-13.

I went through a real Stained Class phase in high school. The tape rarely left my Walkman for about a year.

my Priest evolution was weird. since I started with Painkiller, and loved that album, young and newly into more extreme metal me was a bit disappointed that this didn't match their other stuff as much.

However, I pivoted to Defenders of the Faith next, which was as close as you'd get, and loved it immediately. problem was as a teen, I then got the Metal Works compilation, and the 70s stuff didn't work for me as much. I wanted them in full leather, dual harmony, cheese ice-cream headache scream meedly meedly dragon comes in the night metal.

so for a while I talked endlessly about how amazing Priest were and yet like I only had those three releases. I then got Stained Class in college and HATED IT. I said "what the fuck is this old people music" and flung it into the corner of my room. yet I got Sad Wings of Destiny and thought it kicked ass, even from the beginning. because "Victim of Changes" always resonated with me, and it's such an interesting proggier disc, which is what I was into.

Picked up Screaming for Vengeance next year of college and loved it. but didn't get the rest until I was 23.

was in a CD Warehouse and decided to pick up Killing Machine/Hell Bent for Leather, and by then, only a few years later, my tastes had developed a ton. I'd gotten into a bunch of 70s rock and metal over that timeframe, so on first listen I immediately loved all of the stuff that revulsed me as a musically naive teen, in fact, now I wanted to hear them rock in this style way more than I did the Painkiller style.

I think I picked up Sin After Sin next, which was an instant love, relistened to Stained Class (which now I thought was amazing), and then filled in the rest of the discography sans Point of Entry (which I only picked up a few years ago) and Turbo/Ram It Down (which I now only own due to the boxed set)....and of course the Ripper stuff.

didn't actually like Angel of Retribution when it came out. but weirdly at the time...I was still missing a fairly big chunk of their discography!

it just seems weird to me that I talked non-stop about Priest in my early 20s and I hadn't heard most of their albums at the time. whereas Maiden I kinda deep dove into all in one fluid motion.

jesus christ, I love "United" so much: several times, I've been in a perfectly stable frame of mind, and that song has moved me to tears… it is indeed moving, and "take on the World," while I like it, is markedly inferior…

I'm officialy a Turbo lover, such an odd sellout record, all those Roland guitar synths

love that post Neanderthal. I think with a lot of big-catalogue bands we end up carving our own paths, and it's awesome!

indeed. I love bands with big discographies and being in the discovery phase. it's so much fun.

I remember the day I bought Painkiller, weirdly. was on my way to a New Year's Eve party, 1998, senior year of high school, and picked it up from Camelot Music. I remember not wanting to stop driving after two songs, like I think I even took a longer route to get home so I could hear more of it.

I got Sad Wings of Destiny and thought it kicked ass, even from the beginning. because "Victim of Changes" always resonated with me

If the band had their way this would have kicked off side 2! Which is why there's a song called "Prelude" halfway through the album. Also wikipedia tells me the co-producers of this album were behind novelty reggae act Typically Tropical, whose UK novelty hit "Barbados" came out around the same time.

Anyway this album wipes the floor with any of the others, although I can see why they pivoted to the straightforward style as prog metal wouldn't be invented for a while.

Relistening to Screaming as a result of this thread. I agree with Neanderthal, "Pain and Pleasure" is kind of a cut below most of the rest of the album, but when the title track kicks in just after that, it's fuckin' magic.

I was lucky enough to see that tour back in the day. They were hugely entertaining, and pretty much at the peak of their powers.

fucking jealous you got to see that.

the title track is an all time rager.

The opener was Uriah Heep, which I thought was a bit of an odd choice.

they are probably bros from the early days

Uriah Heep also opened for them back in 2019 when I saw them.

so guess they've been friends for a reaaaaaaaaaaaaallly long time

This is a great setlist, which my 17 year old self probably did not fully appreciate.

McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, CO
12.02.82
World Vengeance Tour

The Hellion [played from tape]
Electric Eye
Riding on the Wind
Heading Out to the Highway
Metal Gods
Bloodstone
Breaking the Law
Sinner
Desert Plains
The Ripper
Diamonds & Rust (Joan Baez cover)
Devil's Child
Screaming for Vengeance
You've Got Another Thing Comin'
Victim of Changes
The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) (Fleetwood Mac cover)
Hell Bent for Leather

there's not a dull moment in that set. like if you were looking for time to get a beer/pee, maybe you'd choose one of the Top 40 singles if you were real sick of it, but even then you might have to get a little on your pants to get back to your seat in time for the next one.

amusing that they ended with Hell Bent, as that one was often used as an opener across various stages of the 70/80s/90s.

Pretty sure they played "Living After Midnight," even though it's not included on that entry from setlist.fm.

xp Yeah, Hell Bent looks like the standard closer for that tour.

it's funny too, like, they have so many songs that can double as an opener as a closer. so many high intensity bangers that it becomes like "where do you put them", like you're filling out a baseball lineup card.

"Hell Bent" used to be the standard closer because that was when Rob would ride the Harley out from backstage. This was the set list when I saw them in 2008 (with Heaven and Hell, Motörhead, and Testament). I went with my brother — the only concert we've ever gone to together — and he brought his oldest son, who was eight or nine. He fell asleep in his seat toward the end of Priest's set.

Dawn of Creation [tape]
Prophecy
Metal Gods
Eat Me Alive
Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Devil's Child
Breaking the Law
Hell Patrol
Dissident Aggressor
Angel
The Hellion [tape]
Electric Eye
Rock Hard, Ride Free
Painkiller

Encore:
Hell Bent for Leather
The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)
You've Got Another Thing Comin'

Yeah, that was when Rob brought out the Harley. Man, that was fun.

Motörhead was a band I definitely didn't appreciate back in the day. I saw them when they opened for Ozzy on the Diary tour. It didn't help that they sounded like sludge in what was a fairly small venue.

looks like Hell Bent for Leather was mostly used as an opener between 1979-1980 and the Painkiller tour.

(i've listened to so many boots this week..it's been fun)

When I was about 12 to about 15, I had a giant poster of Rob and his Harley hanging up in my bedroom — the pose he was striking was straight out of Scorpio Rising, and it was literally taped to my closet door. I wonder what my mother thought...

what I can't figure out is what was Halford's deal for the reunion tour. dude was in relatively great vocal health, his voice had settled into a deeper baritone but he still had tons of power on the first two Halford solo albums and the live album (like he sang a version of "Riding on the Wind" which was incredible on that one).

so they pull out classics like "Exciter" and also the never-before-played "Hell Patrol", and the motherfucker sings the chorus to BOTH of them down one octave, sapping all intensity out of the song. like I was watching Youtube of the DVD they put out from that tour and dude was just scared of the high notes on a lot of songs.

they did "Hell Patrol" in 2019 and he did do the high notes. granted, he's found other ways to produce those notes, as he can't produce them like he did in 1991 (it's a little more head voice in the head/chest combo than previous)...but it's still coming out and pretty strong for a 75 year old.

I'd have been pretty mad to hear "Exciter" sung like a dude singing the song around a campfire had I paid all that money to see that first reunion tour.

xpost LOL....the raw, unsubtle grimy non-heteronormative sexuality of Priest is one of the best parts.

"Eat Me Alive" is better raw sexual energy than any hair band could come up with.

back to the vocal discussion, he released a second book that I haven't read yet, but I read an excerpt where he said he'd never taken any vocal lessons (not surprisingly, supposedly Dio didn't either, some people just come by it naturally), but it was fascinating to hear him describe how he *thinks* he produced the sound for various songs...like he outright didn't even know himself how he did it! He knew how to do it well enough that he could replicate it consistently, but even he was kind of flummoxed by how he created his signature sound.

meanwhile I've been singing since I was 11, took voice lessons for years, was a voice major at Florida State University for one year, and all of the pedagogy and theory about how to produce sound made me go cross-eyed and stressed out. I decided to change majors. I've since done professional a capella barbershop/caroling gigs, and yet after decades of work, practice, and study I can't do even a fraction of what he did in his prime. I doubt half of the men in the opera program at FSU could either.

like I even managed in my 30s-40s to add basically another octave via chest/head voice through a lot of work and effort and at the end of the day it's still not even close. I don't know how the dude ever did what he did in his prime or even how he does it today at age 75, admittedly in a much reduced capacity.

so they pull out classics like "Exciter" and also the never-before-played "Hell Patrol", and the motherfucker sings the chorus to BOTH of them down one octave, sapping all intensity out of the song. like I was watching Youtube of the DVD they put out from that tour and dude was just scared of the high notes on a lot of songs.

That's interesting. I saw Priest for the first time in 2021 on the 50th anniversary tour, and while I appreciated that Halford was going for just about all the high notes, I thought his occasional dips into lower registers sounded great and wished he would do that more.

oh for sure, there's definitely things *now* where it makes more sense to do that because he has to protect his instrument which is much more frail and it might sound better aesthetically than straining.

in 2004 though, he was in a bit better vocal health.

listening to Angel of Revolution for the first time in over a decade, and got to "Revolution"

did JP intentionally rip off "Mountain Song" here?

"Defenders Of The Faith" is all-time for me.

JAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
breakerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

LOVE BITES! (chakka-chukka-chakka)

A few months ago I saw Andy Edwards talking about Simon Phillips on Sin After Sin, he said he was a game changer for metal drumming and it might have only been a day's work for Phillips. I'm not a big enough Priest or metal fan to track all this stuff, so is this something people talk about often?

https://spectrumculture.com/2024/10/14/concert-review-judas-priest/

“But does the heavy metal parking lot still exist?”

I put Invincible Shield on my list for The Wire's critics' poll.