That is great the thread is making some folks listen to the albums again after not hearing them for some time. It had been a while since I listened to Sin After Sin prior to this thread.
"Before The Dawn" is definitely KK. In his 'auto'biography, he singles it out as something he was particularly proud of, and something he was yugely gutted about when Glenn 'The Tyrant' Tipton insisted on truncating it to something much less substantial than KK had intended.
Judas Priest-Album by Album Rocka Rolla Sad Wings of Destiny Sin After Sin Stained Class Killing Machine/Hell Bent For Leather
After listening to BTD again I agree. That sounds like KK's Flying V. The pinch harmonics sound like him as well.
"Burnin' Up" is a rather killer opener for side two. It has a good swing to the rhythm and the drum sound is stellar - especially the toms. And yes, "Green Manalsihi" is a scorcher of a cover tune. The panning of the twin guitars L to R does provide us with demo twin-guitar chemistry as if we had any doubt. This sounds particularly great played loud, I always felt that this is demo material for what Marshall amps sound like cranked up to 11 with some very skilled guitarists showing us what intensely controlled feedback and distortion can do for a metallic edge. After the line from Halford "I can't believe that you need my love so bad" and those rich mean chords just sing, it screams and howls like demons from hell should sound alright. The band hits their stride on this album, and it all comes together, the band, the songs, and the production. There is the sign that their progressive influences might be fading as stated already, I noticed this in 1979, and was wondering if the next studio album would confirm this. My favorite sounding copy of this is the original UK on red vinyl which as we know, UK originals do not contain the track The Green Manalsihi which means one must own another pressing that contains this wonderful career highlight.
For sound quality alone I would probably recommend the Original UK cut on deep ruby red clear coloured virgin vinyl:
Unleashed In The East Probably my favorite live album. Tremendous live versions that dwarf their studio counterparts. Seriously, this album is so full of energy and power. Yes, Rob's vocals are dubbed because he was sick during these shows, but I don't care at all because he sounds like a frickin' metal god! The instruments are fully live though (AFAIK) and KK, Glen, Les, Ian (in there somewhere) are in the zone! Every song is damn near heavy metal perfection. If I had to pick 1 JP for keeps, it would be this - the expanded cd version makes this indispensable. Of course, they left off the Les Binks tune - Beyond The Realms Of Death, petty mfers - shame on the band. Ragardless - this album is in the music valhalla of the best of all times! d
Sorry if this is a really stupid question, and one that I could probably get the answer for just doing some ez 'net research, but maybe this might be a good discussion point - why was Hell Bent For Leather given that name in the US but the name Killing Machine in the UK (or elsewhere)? I never even knew it had a different title until like 20-30 years later & it confused the heck out of me. And is there any difference between the two versions music or otherwise??
After I bought Metal Works 25 years ago I stopped listening to most of the albums, this is a good chance to re-visit them.
It had to do with the record company getting jittery due to the lawsuits against the band. "Killing Machine" I suppose was insensitive due to the school shooting and the suicide lawsuits. The only other difference I believe is the song listing. It is different between the US and UK. I am doing my review based on the UK sequence.
That's a fine compilation and it sounds pretty good as well. The remasters can get kind of toasty sounding.
I agree, a great compilation with good sound and song choices. I still have some of the albums on LP from the 80s, a few others I recently bought on CD used on ebay, the old Columbia CD versions, not remasters.
The original UK and original Japanese LPs featured a three or four track 7" EP, and the UK actually contained the lovely ballad entitled "Beyond The Realms Of Death" from the Japanese live recorded performances. But we'll get to this album in detail I'm sure in a short bit.
I actually shot some Super-8 footage of the tour in 1979. Had it transferred to VHS 25 years ago and it was an awful transfer. But I might throw it up in this thread just a fun experiment. It's 2 rolls or 3 mins. each. So I have six minutes of Priest at a '79 Midnight Mass performance in Orlando, FL. I've not seen it in many moons myself. But it might be time to dig it out once more. I tend to do things like that in these threads.
"Evening Star" was one of the singles released in the UK from this album, here it is released on a Clear Vinyl 12" single with two unique b-sides. The live version of "Beyond The Realms Of Death" featured here is from the Cleveland Agora, and it is a scorcher. This looks like a picture disc, but it is actually a clear record with a printed card behind it.
Unleashed in the East - I'll have to skip this one. I have never acquired it as I'm a great fan of true live recordings and a big hater of studio-fiddled ones. I've heard at least the "Victim of changes" version, but prefer the original.
It's a good read. I picked it up cheap a couple months ago, £2 I think. There are no particularly blinding revelations, apart from <<<**SPOILER ALERT**>>> the mercifully aborted Stock Aitken Waterman collaboration, which might be common knowledge among the hardest-core fans (of which I thought I was one), but is one of the biggest WTFs I've ever read; the fact that KK (and the others, presumably) was driving cheap secondhand cars up to around British Steel, iirc, and living in extremely modest homes; Tipton being something of a tyrant, from KK's POV at least, increasingly hogging solos & compositions - which, as a yuge fan of the devastating Tipton/Downing combination (the GOAT in metal, IMO) is quite upsetting tbh.
