Judas Priest - Missed them in the Seventies need to make up for lost time.

For whatever reason missed them in the Seventies.

Saw a short clip on TV a few days ago and thought OK lets give them a listen. which I have been doing since 7:30 this morning

Have not bought any new Music since February so its time to splurge a bit.

Result- Just ordered
Rocka Rolla
Stained Glass
Sad wings of destiny

Other recommendations needed please

 

Unleashed In The East, Hell Bent For Leather and British Steel.

 

Cheers

 

In all seriousness, every album up to and including Defenders Of The Faith is essential pretty much. Priest were damn consistent back in the day.

I like Turbo and Ram It Down, but they are not essential.

However, Painkiller IS. By god, Painkiller is kind of the DEFINITION of heavy metal. That's how good that album is.

 

Thanks

 

I'm lucky enough to be seeing them for the first time on Thursday. Thanks for pumping me up this morning by reminding me.

 

I am jealous

 

Their seventies stuff is the best IMO. They were at their darkest and most sinister during that period. To me, British Steel was good but the bad cliches of metal started creeping into their music a bit.

 

Pure luck as it turns out. I of course missed them on the Epitaph tour becuase they came nowhere near me and I frekaed when I saw they'd be 2 hours from me this time around.

It was really lucky in that the original run of dates, before being extended, was only 12 or so concerts and mine was one. I was like **** YES!!! lol

 

After spending most of today listening I would tend to agree with you

 

That is pretty much all you need IMO. My favorite three Priest albums anyways. Sad Wings is pretty effin' incredible. Stained Glass is a masterpiece. RR is a very cool and unique album from them.

I would also recommend:

- Sin After Sin (1977) - a nice transition album between Sad Wings and Stained Glass.

- Redeemer of Souls (2014) - their latest, a Stained Glass flavored album to my ears, just not as good

- Hero Hero (1981) - if you already dig RockaRolla you might want to check this out, it is a collection of early Priest including all the songs from RR but they are remixes. Some versions do not have the remixes though; I yield to more expert Priest fans to explain in detail but I believe that the version on Line records has these (plus the version of Diamonds & Rust is a demo instead of the album version from Sin After Sin).

- Hell Bent for Leather, aka Killing Machine (1978), might be another one worth checking out.

Unlike most people here they totally lost me with the next one, British Steel. Too dumbed-down-Kiss-like metal for my tastes. I hadn't liked much of anything I heard by them after that but a friend turned me onto the new one & to my surprise I like it.

 

Point of Entry
Screaming for Vengance
Defenders of the Faith

 

The greatest 'metal' band bar none.

Essential Priest

Sad Wings Of Destiny
Stained Class
Killing Machine
Unleashed In The East
British Steel
Screaming For Vengeance
Defenders Of The Faith
Painkiller

Sin After Sin, Point Of Entry are very good too and well worth getting. Ram It Down, Rock A Rolla are decent as well. I have been listening to Nostradamus the last couple of days after the PVC inner sleeve damage thread (mine is marked too but plays fine) and I am finally getting into it. Must pick up the new one now too. Don't have the one before that Angel Of Retribution, or whatever it is called, either.

 

They didn't lose me, but it was a huge disappointment, and I've never understood why it's so revered. These days, all I ever crank is the first 2 tracks, which are very metal.

I'd say BS is more important for its sound than its songs. With this album, the Priest finally got a satisfyingly metallic production. Great as they were, all their previous albums had substandard production, IMO - apart from Unleashed, obviously.

 

It's actually Stained CLASS!

Anyways if you've got the first 2 then every album onwards until Ram It Down is essential

 

Defenders and Painkiller are the best two. British Steel is overrated.

 

Never Noticed that. Thanks

 

I find Painkiller and Sad Wings to be the most overrated Priest albums. Believe it or not, I'd honestly take Ram It Down, Rocka Rolla, Sin After Sin, and Point of Entry over the 2 albums I mentioned above, but I'd still rate 7.5/10 for Sad Wings and 8/10 for Painkiller. And anything is better than Turbo and Priest...Live. Yeah, I know, I'm an odd Priest fan. Here's the order I'd rank the albums in:

Defenders of the Faith
Ram It Down
Hell Bent for Leather
Screaming for Vengeance
Stained Class
Rocka Rolla
Point of Entry
British Steel
Sin After Sin
Painkiller
Sad Wings of Destiny
Angel of Retribution
Nostradamus
Redeemer of Souls (still need to get more acquainted with it)
Demolition
Jugulator
Turbo

 

Everything from Rocks Rolla through Defenders Of The Faith is essential, IMO.

 

People used to bash 'Unleashed In The East' for studio overdubbing. It was sarcastically referred to as 'Unleashed In The Studio'. Who cares, it's a fantastic album either way! 'Stained Class' remains to this day as one of my desert island records.

 

What he said. I don't like anything they recorded after that. My favorite is the Hell Bent for Leather/British Steel/Point of Entry period.

Avoid the remasters like the plague!

 

I saw JP many times back in the day. Probably the 79-82 time frame. Hell Bent For leather tour, Unleashed and BS tours. My favorite era JP is BS and earlier. Although I did enjoy SFV. I think I even saw that tour, come to think of it. The loudest concert I ever attended was JP at the Capital theater in Passaic NJ. In my younger days loud guitars was what is was all about. Fun times.

 

British Steel was a pretty damn clever revision of their sound and style. To me, it is definitive 2nd Wave metal.

The apotheosis of that style is Screaming For Vengeance. Anything after that, that I've heard, is variable.

 

I love their 70's era, but their 80's song "The Sentinel" is one of my favourite heavy songs, such a powerful epic song!

 

I find really any of their albums up through Defenders of the Faith ("The Sentinel" is awesome!), plus Painkiller to be essential. I still find Turbo and Ram it Down entertaining, and Ram it Down has "Blood Red Skies" which I like quite a lot. However, I imagine those two albums are going to appeal to a smaller crowd than the other albums.

If you are buying CDs, I recommend Metal Works even if it's redundant for the albums you're getting. Make sure you get the original release, not the remastered version (though Metal Works itself contains remastered tracks, it was later remastered itself). You can probably find it for around $5-10 fairly easily. I have several Japan Epic and US Columbia releases of the albums for comparison, and I would say the sound quality on Metal Works is more consistent and generally better than as these tracks appear on the original album releases. So, while I like having the full albums for the associated experience, if I'm listening for specific tracks I generally prefer Metal Works. I also think it's nicely sequenced, so it holds up on its own as something to listen to.