Judas Priest Albums (20)
What The Critics Say
Nearly 40 years since their initial formation, Judas Priest are as strong a live force now as they were at their early-'80s peak. Frontman Rob Halford virtually created the archetypal metal look with his studded leather garb, and the band's ultra-clean, technophilic riffing, and fleet dual lead guitars set the standard for power metal on an arena-filling scale. This is the band's fifth live album, following 1979's glorious Unleashed in the East, 1987's disappointing Priest...Live!, and the two they recorded with Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals, and it's much closer in quality to Unleashed than any of the others. Part of that is no doubt due to the state of the band in the 21st century: Halford's 2004 return lit a fire under the others, and the two studio albums they've released since are among their most satisfying and, in the case of 2008's Nostradamus, shockingly ambitious. This disc, recorded on tour in 2005 and 2008, features one song from Angel of Retribution and two from Nostradamus ("Prophecy" and the crushing "Death"), and otherwise concentrates on deep album cuts from the band's copious back catalog. Fans are spared one more run-through of "Breaking the Law" or "Electric Eye," instead getting thunderous versions of "Between the Hammer and the Anvil" from 1988's underrated Ram It Down, the powerful "Beyond the Realms of Death" (during which it doesn't seem like anyone in the audience committed suicide) and "Dissident Aggressor," a song so heavy that even the mighty Slayer couldn't do much but speed it up a bit when they covered it for South of Heaven. The band even busts out "Eat Me Alive," their hilariously PMRC-baiting sex anthem from 1984's Defenders of the Faith. This rip-roaring live set proves that Priest are still putting on one of the best shows in metal. ~ Phil Freeman, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
On 2005's (almost) divine comeback album Angel of Retribution, Judas Priest fans got a modern day update of the band's genre-bending 1976 classic, Sad Wings of Destiny. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal legends return to the mines for 2008's Nostradamus, though this time it's another band's treasure they're looting, specifically Iron Maiden's 1988 concept album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Heavy metal's obsession with seers, sorcery, and anything else that falls under the nebulous blanket of the "dark arts" is legendary, and Maiden's loosely knit tale of a visionary "chosen one" provided listeners with one of the last great albums of the pre-grunge, epic metal era, due in part to some truly memorable songs that remain fan favorites even to this day. Nostradamus, on the other hand, manages to live up to nearly every Spinal Tap cliché (non-deliberate, laugh-inducing cover art; melodramatic spoken word interludes; rhyming "fire" with desire). At nearly two hours long, one expects a certain amount of filler, but the dated keyboard strings, soft piano, and bluesy, minor-key guitar licks that populate every nook and cranny in between (and often throughout) each track sound like discarded incidental music from The X-Files or an RPG video game "cut scene." The songs themselves are hit or miss, with the emphasis falling on the latter, due mostly to an over-reliance on three-chord, midtempo filler, but as is the case with nearly every Priest offering, when they're on they're dead on. Disc one closer "Persecution," after a lengthy organ/guitar intro, unleashes Nostradamus' finest six minutes, boasting one of the best choruses the band has produced since 1988's "Hard as Iron" (few things sound as natural and satisfying as Rob Halford's metallic voice running through a phaser, and his signature scream, when it arises, still has no equal). The predictable but effectively apocalyptic "War" (taking a cue from Holst's Mars, Bringer of War) spawns one of the few great orchestral breakdowns on the record, while both "Death" and the nearly seven-minute title track feature stunning guitar work from Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. None of this, however, can save Nostradamus from the fact that even if it were reduced to a single album (it should have been), its flaws would far outweigh its triumphs. Excess and metal go together like blood and guts, but even gore loses its ability to draw a reaction after the umpteenth beheading. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The second studio release with "Ripper" Owens, Demolition is an intriguing album. Listening to this one sometimes makes you wish that they had decided to go with a moniker other than Judas Priest. The reason is that, although this album is very strong, it really does not fit in with the historical sound of the band. It seems like a completely new group might have released it. Such a distinction almost seems to deserve a different band name. There are moments that do feel like older Priest, but the overall texture is harder and more modern. At times Owens comes across like Rob Halford (listen to the first verse of "Blood Suckers"), but he is really working to carve out his own identity. If you are a fan of classic Priest, maybe you should hear this one first, but if you are into more modern dark metal, by all means, pick it up. ~ Gary Hill, All Music Guide
'Point of Entry'
Release Date 5/29/2001
Tracks 10
Label Columbia/Legacy
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Having reinvented themselves as an arena metal act with the hugely successful British Steel, Judas Priest naturally opted to stay the course with Point of Entry, keeping things simple while adding a bluesy boogie in places, a sound they hadn't really attempted in quite some time. However, where British Steel's simplicity was an effective reworking of the band's sound, Point of Entry's songs aren't always up to par, making its less well-crafted tracks sound like lunkheaded, low-effort filler. When Point of Entry works, it works well -- "Heading Out to the Highway," "Solar Angels," and "Desert Plains," for example, are great, driving hard rock songs, but British rock anthem hits "Don't Go" and "Hot Rockin'" seem oddly generic given Priest's reputation for inventiveness. Even if Point of Entry is somewhat disappointing overall, though, it's partly because of the album's genre-transforming predecessors; it does have enough good moments to make it worthwhile to diehards and fans of the group's more commercial '80s output. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
''98 Live Meltdown'
Release Date 9/29/1998
Tracks 24
Label CMC International
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Once Rob Halford left in the early '90s, Judas Priest was thrown for a bit of a loop -- it took them seven years to decided to have another stab at success. The remaining Priests hired the menacingly-named young gun Ripper Owens as a vocalist and recorded Jugulator as their comeback album. Surprisingly, it's a thoroughly solid affair. Owens is no Halford -- he simply doesn't have the presence, charisma or boneheaded wit -- but the group sounds hard, muscular and heavy and guitarists KK Downing and Glenn Tipton spit out riffs and solos at a blinding rate, sounding as good as they ever did. Judas Priest doesn't have anything new to say on Jugulator, but fans should be pleased to know that they're finally re-stating their familiar themes with some style and authority. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Predating Metallica's self-titled blockbuster by 11 years, Judas Priest's British Steel was a similarly pitched landmark boasting many of the same accomplishments. It streamlined and simplified the progressive intricacies of a band fresh off of revolutionizing the entire heavy metal genre; it brought an aggressive, underground metal subgenre crashing into the mainstream (in Priest's case, the NWOBHM; in Metallica's, thrash); and it greatly expanded the possibilities for heavy metal's commercial viability as a whole. Of course, British Steel was nowhere near the sales juggernaut that Metallica was, but in catapulting Judas Priest to the status of stadium headliners, it was the first salvo fired in heavy metal's ultimate takeover of the hard rock landscape during the 1980s. Packed with strong melodic hooks, British Steel is a deliberate commercial move, forsaking the complexity of the band's early work in favor of a robust, AC/DC-flavored groove. It's a convincing transformation, as Priest prove equally adept at opening up their arrangements to let the rhythms breathe (something Iron Maiden, for all their virtues, never did master). The album is built around the classic singles "Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight," both big hits in the U.K., which openly posit Priest as a party band for the first time. But British Steel is hardly a complete break from the band's past. There are still uptempo slices of metallic mayhem bookending the album in "Rapid Fire" and "Steeler," plus effective moodier pieces in "Metal Gods" (ostensibly about gods literally made of metal, though you know full well the band wanted a nickname) and the crawling menace of "The Rage," which features arguably the best Rob Halford vocal on the album. Not everything on British Steel quite holds up today -- the British hit "United" is a simplistic (not just simplified) football-chant anthem in the unfortunate tradition of "Take on the World," while "You Don't Have to Be OId to Be Wise" wallows in the sort of "eff your parents, man!" sentiments that are currently used to market kids' breakfast cereals. These bits of blatant pandering can leave more than a whiff of unease about the band's commercial calculations, and foreshadow the temporary creative slip on the follow-up, Point of Entry. Still, on the whole, British Steel is too important an album to have its historical stature diluted by minor inconsistencies. Rather, it sealed Judas Priest's status as genre icons, and kick-started heavy metal's glory days of the 1980s. It went Top Five in the U.K. and became their first Top 40 album in the U.S., going platinum in the process and paving the way for countless imitators and innovators alike. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
At the dawn of the '90s, Judas Priest were in sad shape: out of touch, seemingly creatively bankrupt, coming off the two worst albums of their career, and left for dead by many observers. Trying to right the ship, Priest jettisoned longtime producer Tom Allom and his tinny '80s sound, as well as the serviceable groove drumming of Dave Holland, and brought in veteran metal producer Chris Tsangarides and onetime Racer X skinsman Scott Travis. Most importantly, though, Priest stopped trying to be a stadium act in the midst of hair metal's heyday. All those changes come into sharp focus as soon as the title cut of Painkiller starts -- Travis' thunderous (and crisp-sounding) percussive maelstrom lights an immediate fire under the bandmembers' asses; Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing tear through a crushing, diabolical riff; and Rob Halford starts shrieking like a wicked witch, giving perhaps the most malevolent-sounding performance of his career. It's a startling statement of musical purpose that arrived seemingly out of nowhere, heralding a comeback that rivals George Foreman's. Once the leanest, meanest, darkest metal band on the planet, Priest were clearly giving up on the mainstream and instead embracing the thrash and speed metal underground they'd helped spawn. Not only do they come to terms with it here, they teach those whippersnappers a thing or two, marrying furious instrumental pyrotechnics to an unerring sense of songcraft. Spurred on by Travis' jazz-trained double bass assault, Painkiller never once lets up, slowing down only for the elegant menace of the prog-tinged "A Touch of Evil," and without an unmemorable tune in the bunch. That constant, balls-out intensity is a big reason why metal's younger generation has come to consider Painkiller perhaps the ultimate speed metal album. Older Priest fans will likely complain that the lyrics are silly, and they won't be wrong -- for all its fury, the title track is about the winged knight riding the monster motorcycle depicted on the front cover. However, there's a convincing argument to be made that this brand of comic book fantasy holds up better over time (and is more fun) than most would care to admit (and it can't be any sillier than, for example, members of Morbid Angel worshipping H.P. Lovecraft's fictional Ancient Ones as actual demonic entities). Thus, Painkiller's influence reaches further than many longtime fans might expect: traditionalist power metal bands wanting a harder edge adopted a good chunk of Painkiller's approach, yet its blend of chops and aggression also caught the ears of the emerging extreme metal movement, even inspiring a cover version of the title track on Death's final album, The Sound of Perseverance. In the end, Painkiller secured Judas Priest's legacy with the next generation of metal fans; it's the point where their contributions make the most sense to modern ears more attuned to metal extremes (and more affectionate towards lyrical clichés). It isn't the most important of the Priest classics, but it is the fastest, the meanest, and, well, the most f***ing metal album they ever released. Simultaneously a stunning revitalization and the last great album they would ever make, thanks to Halford's imminent departure. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Even if Judas Priest's songwriting was a little uneven, Ram It Down recaptured some of the force of British Steel and Screaming for Vengeance. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
