I'm listening through Judas Priest's studio discography today. Ask me anything.

The serial discographist has returned today. I'm bored. Ask me questions. Let's talk about whatever.

I'm killing time on this rainy afternoon, so I figured I'd put on some Priest.

I started with Sin After Sin with no intentions of a marathon happenning, but what can ya do?

I proceeded onwards to Stained Class, one of the greatest metal albums, period.

I figured I'd gone this far and decided to go backwards and listened through Sad Wings Of Destiny and Rocka Rolla.

Now it was back to the correct chronology! Onward to Killing Machine, British Steel and Screaming For Vengeance!

Follow that up with my personal favorite metal album, Defenders Of The Faith.

Currently, I'm sitting through "Locked In" on Turbo. I love Turbo. It's much more metal than it's given credit for and a lot of the leads shred. "Out In The Cold" is metal as anything. Creepy too....

Ram It Down is next....not looking forward to that.... :/

At least I'll get Painkiller to set everything right!

 

Is Sad Wings or Stained Class the first modern metal album with the their balance of speed, heaviness and melodicism?

 

That's an interesting question. I actually want to say Sin After Sin.

It's not exactly the first, but probably one of the most prominent early examples of things that would later lead to speed and thrash metal.

Stained Class always seems like Sin After Sin Pt. 2 to me. Everyone throws all the massive praise on SC but SAS did all the same stuff on the previous album.

Sad Wings is awesome - possibly the most metal artwork ever - but it's still rather slow for me and a bit too Sabbath-y for my taste still.

 

Sin After Sin is the best Judas Priest album. Bookended by Sinner and Dissident Aggressor, it's unbeatable! The two ballads are real ballads, they would do many good ones in the following years but none as sincere and unique sounding as here.

 

Can't forget Let Us Prey/Call For The Priest. Holy crap does that smoke!

What I think are the best Priest albums -

1970s - Sin After Sin
1980s - Defenders Of The Faith (have they ever been more consistant???)
1990s and beyond - Painkiller. Period. End Of Story.

 

Where do you rank Point of Entry?

 

I think its definitely a lower tier Priest album - we all know that.

The highs are high but the lows are, well, not really low but excessively mediocre. It's just sooooooo bland to me. Not saying bad, just really bland. :/

It always seems like a footnote to me or something instead of being another point of JP's evolution. I always end up thinking they went from British Steel directly to Screaming For Vengeance, lol.

Let me put it like this. The my listening ratio of Turbo vs. Point Of Entry is probably 6 or 7:1

Dammit, I just realised I skipped it by accident. That's how infrequently I listen to it. Looks like when Turbo is over in a few minutes I'll be Heading Down The Highway!

 

Do you own any records with Al Atkins as vocalist?

 

Since no one asked me, I'll answer!

It would be a pretty good album if the last four songs had anything to offer. As it is the quality plummets after Solar Angels, a song that is absolutely top tier Judas Priest, maybe my favorite song on the album. The only two songs that can compete with it are Desert Plains and Headin' Out To The Highway.

Hot Rockin' is pretty lame although I have to admit the last time I heard it, on a 1981 bootleg, I actually really enjoyed it which surprised me.

Turning Circles and Don't Go are both songs that are odd enough to love. Neither seems to be a Priest highlight and yet they both work.

You Say Yes, All The Way and Troubleshooter are all very poor songs by Judas Priest standards.

There's something likeable enough about On The Run but I hardly ever get that far.

I'm not much for ranking albums when a band has a lot of records, but Point Of Entry is definitely way down there. Up until Painkiller, I'd consider POE in the bottom three. It moves up a bit when you add in the two Ripper albums and Nostradamus.

By the way, when the fantastic Redeemer of Souls was released I got out all my Priest cassettes and listened from Rocka Rolla to Ram It Down, which was the last one I bought on cassette.

 

Do you think they'd be better with steel guitar and fiddles?

 

I was sold on Out In The Cold when I saw them open with it on the Turbo tour. It was so heavy!

 

When you hear Reckless do you think of the gay volleyball scene in Top Gun?

 

Best "studio" sounding title?
&
if poss best ceedee of that release.

BIG thanks & enjoy.

 

I feel SC is. It has no blues influence. Pure metal.

 

What is the best way to get the entire Priest catalog in one purchase?

 

There is no way. Find the original CD's for the Columbia releases and do research for the best Gull albums.

 

Why can't I formulate a meaningful relationship with my sister's husband?

 

I've always thought Point Of Entry sounded way too AC/DC sometimes. It's just such a forgettable album, imo, being sanwiched between British Steel and SFV, it had no chance, haha

 

What is his taste in music?

 

I've always wanted to hear it re-done properly without the cheesy keyboards, but other than that it's a killer song. Heavy as crap and a nice change of pace to open a show with.

 

Mostly Klezmer and just a hint of operetta.

 

The vinyl of British Steel sounds amazing!

 

I've often wondered why the chosen bonus tracks for each album for the remasters wasn't a track that had come from that album's recording sessions. There's a bonus track on the reissue of 1980's British Steel album which was recorded in 1985 during the Turbo sessions. There's a bonus track on 1981's Point Of Entry album which was recorded in 1988 during the Ram It Down sessions, and a bonus track on the reissue of Screaming For Vengeance is also taken from the Turbo sessions in 1985. If anyone has all the reissues there are quite a few more examples of this.

Also, they have given false information about when the live bonus tracks were recorded. The Wikipedia entries for each album actually gives you the right answer for all the albums. All the live tracks on the reissues state that they're from that album's tour, which is b***ocks!

The live recording of Riding On The Wind that features as a bonus track on Killing Machine (1978) was not recorded during the Killing Machine tour as stated... it was actually recorded in 1983 during the Screaming For Vengeance tour. The live recording of Grinder on the reissue of British Steel was not recorded during the British Steel tour as stated on the back cover... it was recorded in 1984 on the Defenders Of The Faith tour. Again, there's a few more examples.

I've often wondered if this was done deliberately for the live bonus tracks thinking that no one would know the difference, or whether these are genuine mistakes. If it was the former it certainly didn't work, as someone on Wikipedia has been doing their research.

 

Well there's your answer.

 

Claiming "Riding On The Wind" was played 5 years before it existed. GTFO remasters!