Best Judas Priest Album

sounded like it was made in 1995

That's how I'm imagining it, like something from the original Doom soundtrack

i feel like the general consensus about "turbo" being a really fun, engaging oddity in their catalog has risen over the years which makes me happy

also watched the US festival doc again the other day and goddamn do they completely destroy on metal day

crue seems so fucking feeble compared to priest, scorpions, and (believe it or not) triumph, motley is some real non-playing motherfuckers to quote miles davis

motley have always stunk live
100% non playing motherfuckers

love the Scorps. would love to see them one day. more of an Uli Jon Roth era fan but I like the stadium stuff too.

Turbo definitely has grown in stature in retrospect. I can understand why.

Priest's trajectory in the 80s was a little odd - British Steel and Point of Entry was clearly their attempt to go a more commercial direction, but then they started bending back towards balls to the wall metal. Screaming for Vengeance was kind of a mixture of commercial and tr00 metal, somewhat jarring how they go from like the title track to "Fever", or "Riding on the Wind" to "Take These Chains". and then Defenders of the Faith pretty much went all the way back to face-melting metal. even the Ray Haligan, Jr penned-song ("Some Heads are Gonna Roll") sounded like a Priest classic. so I think fans thought they would continue in that direction, and they incorporated synths and poppier elements, unlike their previous commercial efforts. Guessing fans were just confused, thinking they'd continue in the Defenders direction.

removing expectations from the mix helps. the title track has always been glorious, one of the best examples of synth-80s metal done well. "Out in the Cold" is great, and I enjoy the cheese of "Rock You All Around the World". I hate "Wild Nights and Crazy Days" and "Parental Guidance". but Priest taking this turn in 86 wasn't, like, a Cold Lake type move. they'd already made similar pivots before, they just happened to have arguably their best, most uptempo album sandwiched in between those maneuvers.

Ram It Down, on the other hand, is completely irredeemable. other than the title track and Blood Red Skies, I guess.

listening to Point of Entry rn, I really love this

i never really understand the metal audience but my feeling is that is there really any harm in some curveballs? like looking through their catalog is there shortage of judas priest true metal songs?

a little disappointed that "thunder road" isn't a springsteen cover, given that they've covered joan baez it didn't seem impossible

no harm in curveballs. but metal has a sizable population of meatheads who don't think the formula should change. the first (and only) time I saw Savatage live, there was a 40-something guy who kept saying "fuck this, play Sirens" for about an hour, until they finally did. everybody was telling him to shut the fuck up.

hell, right now, there are metalheads (not on ILX) shitting on the new Maiden because it's long and ponderous and doesn't sound like "The Trooper". (there are others who have more legit, reasoned criticisms, but there's a whole lot of the former too).

quite frankly, I'm disappointed we never got an album like their cover of "You are Everything", of which only 60 seconds has been made publicly available. the sample of that cover is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard, like they metalized the song without losing its pop foundation and it's gorgeous. and Halford himself says he's a 'pop tart' in Confess, so I suspect he'd love to record an album of pop and R&B covers.

I...don't hate Ram It Down. It's about half a good album; the title track, "Heavy Metal," "Come and Get It," "Hard as Iron" ...all decent songs. And the ugliness of the production (the guitars especially) works for me in the same way AC/DC's Fly On The Wall does. It's just a really ear-punishing album, but it's got more songs I actually like than Turbo. And you can absolutely hear that they were two halves of the same coin; there are synths and drum machines all over Ram It Down.

i'm a fellow fly on the wall apologist

My husband got to interview Rob Halford via Zoom, and I can't stop giggling at the perfect framing--namely, the wizard throwing up double metal horns on the shelf behind him. (The Halford candle is also a perfect touch.) pic.twitter.com/JcBsTPyTpd

— Annie Zaleski (@anniezaleski) September 9, 2021

The video, btw! https://t.co/XMLcnNORNZ

— Annie Zaleski (@anniezaleski) September 9, 2021

Ha i just saw that and here i am

JUDAS PRIEST's RICHIE FAULKNER Undergoes 'Major Emergency Heart Surgery'

Just saw them in St. Louis on Saturday, they were great, and Faulkner was extremely impressive. Hope he's alright, needless to say.

saw them (outdoors) in Orlando a few weeks ago, and yeah, incredible. this is horrible. he's only my age :( though good that they're discovering it now rather than later.

jeez, sending em up for richie

Real shame, they were due to play next week. Crossed fingers indeed and here's hoping!

Richie has been a big factor in Priest's creative resurgence over the last couple albums. Hoping he pulls through okay.

Jesus, when a younger guy in the band is having medical issues, it really makes me think the days of Priest are coming to an end sooner than I thought.

I mean that's why I got the ticket for what should have been the show next week, I never have seen them. Crossed fingers I still get that chance.

Twice crossed fingers now. Truly I should just never uncross them.

This story is wild.

Richie Faulkner ruptured his aorta, onstage, in the middle of the Painkiller solo

very lucky to be alive. but how tf did he manage to keep playing?

Christ on a bike!

why are people occasionally sour on Killing Machine/Hell Bent for Leather?

I mean, it has:

Delivering the Goods
Rock Forever
Hell Bent for Leather
Killing Machine
Running Wild
Before the Dawn

Like....few bands could have that many quality songs like that on an album and have it a lesser album!

I know some have said it was a kind of 'dumbing down' of their sound, but I feel that applies more to British Steel. to me, Stained Class is where they started to pare down the progressive elements in their music and adapt to a faster, more aggressive sound - though they did still have some of the flashy elements of their past in songs like "Exciter".

to me, British Steel and Screaming are the 'overrated' albums, though I like the former and still love the latter (but it has filler).

I thought Screaming for Vengeance would win this in a landslide.

Sad Wings is reaaaaaaaaaaally popular among heads.

my problem with Screaming is how uneven it is. "Take These Chains" follows three high octane tunes and just kills the forward momentum. Hiring an outside songwriter who wrote a song that really didn't have Priest's sound was a bit of a mistake - Haligan Jr did a better job on "Some Heads are Gonna Roll", but "Take These Chains" really hurts the forward momentum. Granted, after three ripping tunes, a change of pace was expected for the fourth track, but perhaps a ballad might have served better, rather than what felt like a Badfinger-sounding song.

Also have just never been that into "Pleasure and Pain" and "Fever", they feel a cut below the rest for me. But the rest of the album is so goddamned good it fairly well redeems it for me, but puts it a cut below classic. whereas I feel like Defenders actually IS the rightful classic.

how many times can i say 'forward momentum'

whereas I feel like "You've Got Another Thing Coming" was a good attempt at a radio tune, very simple, catchy, and effective. the right way to 'sell out' for lack of a better word.

listened to a bunch of priest last year and agreed that defenders should be viewed way more highly. i think maybe the title cover/art wasn't as iconic as screaming or british steel?

it does kinda look like an Atari game cover.

and yeah even though British Steel isn't my fav by a long shot, the cover is all time. I even have a stein with that art on it. same with Screaming - perhaps my favorite cover.

stained class remains The One for me if i have to pick, i do not have to pick tho

BS is just an incredible image, so immediate

Sad Wings is the one I go to the most these days, just not a bad moment on the entire album. "Dreamer Deceiver" takes me places.

Defenders > Screaming for sure, but Screaming has the best cover art in Priest's entire catalog (with British Steel a close second) so it's always gonna pull people in.

"The Hellion/Electric Eye" is also an intro most dreams can't even dream of equaling

most BANDS jesus fuck

Absolutely, but I'm listening to Defenders now and there's, like, one song I don't love ("Night Comes Down") and that's after seven bangers in a row.

see I love that one.

I also love how homoerotic the album is.

his book was funny, he basically talks about "Jawbreaker" and says, yes, it's obviously about oral, how the fuck could anybody not know that.

I think it's basically fake (I think?) but I love Unleashed in the East

I think the instruments are live recorded but Halford's vocals were in the studio.

he explained in his book that the night it was recorded, he got very fucked up and gave one of his worst vocal performances or something.

but it's still a great listen as there are some iconic versions of songs on there, especially "Victim of Changes".

it's funny, too, like I was a big Priest live recording listener back in the day and I used to notice there'd be occasional live shows where he sounded like pitchy dogshit and then he talks about how high/drunk he used to get before shows and it makes more sense. because he's stellar more often than not, but if you're not on top of your game and singing music that challenging, it's going to go south.

I need to read his book. Halford was one of my favorite interview subjects back when I was writing more about metal. I got to talk to him twice; the second time, he actually pulled me in to guest on Jim Breuer's satellite radio show with him and the guitarist from his solo band.

And I don't hate "Night Comes Down," ftr — it's just that it's a Foreigner song stuck in the middle of a Judas Priest album.

I listen to 70s priest a lot

I think British steel is underrated, kinda on the same lines as killing machine. There’s literally nothing wrong with it.

the intro to "the rage" where they turn into a heavy metal version of the police for minute rules so much

listening to Nostradamus for probably the first and only time.

i'm sitting at the community pool, it's nice out, and it seems like the perfect setting to waste 100 minutes

I will preface that I read Adrien's review of this beforehand so I have mentally prepped myself for the awful lyrics