THE Judas Priest thread - v. new album and tour in 2024

[TAC]

Stained Class

Exciter is a great opener. Double bass intro, heavy metal. I love the "You'll never see him But you will taste the fire upon your tongue" part as Halford totally brings it. He's great in the entire song.
The solo section at 3:25 is great and takes the song to the next level with the harmonies at 3:35.

White Heat Red Hot- kind of a meh song but the solo section is excellent.

Better By You Better Than Me- Great tune. I've always liked it. What is it about though? Is it about suicide? I'm thrown by the whole "my blood on your window sill" line.
I love the chorus on this. Really powerful.

Really cool intro to Stained Class. The song has lots of twists and turns. At 3:15 the song goes next level. What a bad ass riff. What a great solo that follows.

Invader is kind of a fun quirky song. A bit of filler if you ask me.

Saints In Hell is heavy AF. Lyrically as well. Goddamn. Would love to hear this song with a modern Firepower styled production. Oh, there's a live version from 2018, says it's the first time played live..Wow! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_IpC1ewIgg

Savage is a nice enough song. More filler.

Beyond The Realms Of Death is amazing. I've always loved this song. One of the best songs the band has ever recorded. Plain and simple.

Heroes End is a bit anticlimactic after Beyond The Realms Of Death. They should've switched the last two tracks.

[wolfking]

Nice writeup Tim.  Interesting the thought of switching the last two songs.  Death would be interesting as the closer.

[ozzy554]

Stained Class

Exciter is a great opener. Double bass intro, heavy metal. I love the "You'll never see him But you will taste the fire upon your tongue" part as Halford totally brings it. He's great in the entire song.
The solo section at 3:25 is great and takes the song to the nest level with the harmonies at 3:35.

White Heat Red Hot- kind of a meh song but the solo section is excellent.

Better By You Better Than Me- Great tune. I've always liked it. What is it about though? Is it about suicide? I'm thrown by the whole "my blood on your window sill" line.
I love the chorus on this. Really powerful.

Really cool intro to Stained Class. he song has lots of twists and turns. At 3:15 the song goes next level. What a bad ass riff. What a great solo that follows.

Invader is kind of a fun quirky song. A bit of filler if you ask me.

Saints In Hell is heavy AF. Lyrically as well. Goddamn. Would love to hear this song with a modern Firepower styled production. Oh, there's a live version from 2018, says it's the first time played live..Wow! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_IpC1ewIgg

Savage is a nice enough song. More filler.

Beyond The Realms Of Death is amazing. I've always loved this song. One of the best songs the band has ever recorded. Plain and simple.

Heroes End is a bit anticlimactic after Beyond The Realms Of Death. They should've switched the last two tracks.

Yeah they pulled out a lot of surprises for the firepower tour. They also dusted off Tyrant, Out in the Cold, When Night Comes Down, Take these chains, and All Guns Blazing. Wonder what they'll play when the finally get to do the anniversary tour.

[TAC]

My Top 10 70's Priest songs:

1. Beyond The Realms Of Death
2. Victim Of Changes
3. The Ripper
4. Sinner
5. Call For The Priest
6. Diamonds And Rust
7. Exciter
8. Better By You Better Than Me
9. Hell Bent For Leather
10. Race With The Devil

[KevShmev]

My Top 10 70's Priest songs:

1. Beyond The Realms Of Death
2. Victim Of Changes
3. The Ripper
4. Sinner
5. Call For The Priest
6. Diamonds And Rust
7. Exciter
8. Better By You Better Than Me
9. Hell Bent For Leather
10. Race With The Devil

You're missing Dreamer Deceiver, but that's a damn good list. You've got my top 3 at 1, 2 and 4, so there ya go.

[TAC]

Like I said, I have these albums. I just never really listen to them very much, if at all. I really enjoyed my deep dive this week on them.

[wolfking]

My Top 10 70's Priest songs:

1. Beyond The Realms Of Death
2. Victim Of Changes
3. The Ripper
4. Sinner
5. Call For The Priest
6. Diamonds And Rust
7. Exciter
8. Better By You Better Than Me
9. Hell Bent For Leather
10. Race With The Devil

That's a safe and strong list with a couple of surprises.

[Mladen]

You like the 70s Priest, I understand?

[wolfking]

You like the 70s Priest, I understand?

Me?

Yeah, while I've known to be more of a fan of 80's and later, the 70's stuff is excellent.  Big fan of Sin and Sad Wings and even Hell Bent had a lot of cool shit.  Stained Class I need to revisit but I might go through all of them again too.

[Mladen]

Sorry, that was directed to TAC. 

I love 70s Priest, too, though three of my top five releases are from the 80s. There's not an average album in their first decade, even the debut is damn good overall.

[TAC]

I was never is huge fan of 70’s Priest. I have the albums and all but hardly listen to them. I just did a deep dive and listed my Top 10 songs of that era.

[Stadler]

I haven't listened to Priest Live in decades. It never really sounded legit to me. Just pulled it up on Spotify. The crowd noise sounds so fake.

That video/time period was really the tipping point for me; they SOUND so good still, but everything else just got so... comical from that point forward.   

I listened to Sin After Sin and Killing Machine (Hell Bent For Leather, here in the States) this weekend.  Sin After Sin is SOLID.  I don't remember it being that good, to be honest.   There really isn't a duff song on that whole record.  Personally, I LOVE "Last Rose Of Summer"; it has a Little Wing/Catch The Rainbow vibe, and that's a great vocal from Halford.

Tim, not that it matters, since they aren't that different, but there are two versions of Diamonds and Rust; one was recorded during Sad Wings, and they redid it during the Sin After Sin sessions.  Both have been released, though.  The song was so obviously about Bob Dylan, Priest cut the middle two verses because they were very specific to him.  My personal favorite is the bridge; the image of the "breath" hanging in the air is strong.

Here's an amazing performance by Rob (thought Travis looks ridiculous twirling the sticks like it's "Hell Bent For Leather"): https://youtu.be/mIC7KQPDuDc

Here's another: https://youtu.be/6wGlbYpBQdQ   Rob Halford is so good on this as well.

Here's a third (which is good, but doesn't really hold next to Priest's and the original): https://youtu.be/ERs0sudtF3g

Sorry for the overkill, but if you're interested in Joan Baez, early on, Page and Plant bonded over her version of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", and Zeppelin used her version as the template for their own (you can hear it in the musical accompaniment), even though she didn't write it originally.  https://youtu.be/2luQaNDo--Q

[Stadler]

Better By You Better Than Me- Great tune. I've always liked it. What is it about though? Is it about suicide? I'm thrown by the whole "my blood on your window sill" line.
I love the chorus on this. Really powerful.

Great tune; written by the guy that wrote "Dream Weaver" and "Love Alive", Gary Wright.   From what I gather, it's not about suicide, even though that's a common idea, since the whole "Judas Priest suicide" lawsuit ("Do it!") was over this song.   From what I am able to piece together, it's about a guy in love with a woman and about to go off to war (Vietnam? It was written in '69) and he can't bring himself to tell the girl how he feels, so he wants his friend to do it for him (my thoughts are better expressed by you, better than if expressed by me).   The blood on the windowsill is saying "don't wait for me to come back, because I probably won't".   I'm not saying this is right, but it's the concensus from the "Song Facts" entry that you can google.

[TAC]

Thank you. That’s interesting.

[Stadler]

I'll take some heat for this, I'm sure, but:

1. Run Of The Mill
2. Dreamer Deceiver
3. The Green Manalishi
4. Beyond The Realms Of Death
5. Dying To Meet You
6. Sinner
7. Invader (Could be Savage, as well; I love Stained Class)
8. White Heat, Red Hot
9.  Diamonds And Rust
10. Last Rose Of Summer

Victim Of Changes should be on there, too, but I wanted to include some songs that don't get a lot of love except from me. 

[Stadler]

My Top 10 70's Priest songs:

1. Beyond The Realms Of Death
2. Victim Of Changes
3. The Ripper
4. Sinner
5. Call For The Priest
6. Diamonds And Rust
7. Exciter
8. Better By You Better Than Me
9. Hell Bent For Leather
10. Race With The Devil

By the way, I find it fascinating that "Beyond The Realms Of Death", which many consider one of the standout songs in the catalogue was written by Rob Halford and Les Binks, his only writing credit in the band, and didn't feature either K.K. Downing or Glenn Tipton (the only song in the entire catalogue written by the band that did not).

[TAC]

That's interesting, though I haven't looked at the writing credits. Such a great acoustic intro.

Sorry for the overkill, but if you're interested in Joan Baez, early on, Page and Plant bonded over her version of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", and Zeppelin used her version as the template for their own (you can hear it in the musical accompaniment), even though she didn't write it originally.  https://youtu.be/2luQaNDo--Q

So...
1. I'm not now going on a Joan Baez binge    but..
2. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You is easily by far the best track on LZ1, so... guess I'm going to have to check it out.

[TAC]

Goddamn, that was awful!

[pg1067]

By the way, I find it fascinating that "Beyond The Realms Of Death", which many consider one of the standout songs in the catalogue was written by Rob Halford and Les Binks, his only writing credit in the band, and didn't feature either K.K. Downing or Glenn Tipton (the only song in the entire catalogue written by the band that did not).

That's why Binksy was a party to that idiotic lawsuit and Dave Holland wasn't.

[EPICVIEW]

so much goodness in this outstanding thread...

[wolfking]

Rocka Rolla-


Disclaimer..this is NOT a first time reaction! I have heard it before, but it's just not really in my realm..at all. Been ages since I listened to it.

I think for 1974, it's really cool. The best track IMO is Run Of The Mill...I'd live to hear a modern day powerful version of this. The second half of Dying To Meet You is really cool. Not sure I totally get the first half.

I pulled the cd out and had a run though this morning.  It's pretty much how I remembered, but maybe a little darker than I remembered too.  It has that bluesy rock feel but I do get a bit of self titled Sabbath feels here and there.  The guitar tone is pretty decent for the time.  Funny, I knew this was KK's album but pretty much all the leads are his.  Glenn's style definitely added to Priests sound as they developed. 

I echo your statement about a modern day version of Run of the Mill.  KK actually keeps interest during the long solo, but would love to have heard Glenn on this too, and some heavier tones on this would be epic.  It's a great song a clearly the highlight.  I always liked the title track though, that's a cool tune.  Solid debut.

[TAC]

Yeah, I think for 1974, it definitely holds its own. I don't think it's as good as the next three albums, but it's still solid (in a good way..).

[wolfking]

Yeah, I think for 1974, it definitely holds its own. I don't think it's as good as the next three albums, but it's still solid (in a good way..).

Yeah, I meant solid in the highest regard haha.  Looking forward to Sad Wings on the way home.

[KevShmev]

By the way, I find it fascinating that "Beyond The Realms Of Death", which many consider one of the standout songs in the catalogue was written by Rob Halford and Les Binks, his only writing credit in the band, and didn't feature either K.K. Downing or Glenn Tipton (the only song in the entire catalogue written by the band that did not).

There are not many bands where my favorite song has never changed. Judas Priest is one.  I thought Beyond the Realms of Death was their most awesome song right away when I got into the band in the 90's and that opinion has never changed.

That gives me an idea for a new thread, actually...

[wolfking]

I kind of forgot how absolutely incredible Dreamer Deceiver is.  Holy hell, just magic.

[Stadler]

Goddamn, that was awful!

HAHAHAHA.  I don't disagree, by the way.

[Stadler]

Rocka Rolla-


Disclaimer..this is NOT a first time reaction! I have heard it before, but it's just not really in my realm..at all. Been ages since I listened to it.

I think for 1974, it's really cool. The best track IMO is Run Of The Mill...I'd live to hear a modern day powerful version of this. The second half of Dying To Meet You is really cool. Not sure I totally get the first half.

I pulled the cd out and had a run though this morning.  It's pretty much how I remembered, but maybe a little darker than I remembered too.  It has that bluesy rock feel but I do get a bit of self titled Sabbath feels here and there.  The guitar tone is pretty decent for the time.  Funny, I knew this was KK's album but pretty much all the leads are his.  Glenn's style definitely added to Priests sound as they developed. 

I echo your statement about a modern day version of Run of the Mill.  KK actually keeps interest during the long solo, but would love to have heard Glenn on this too, and some heavier tones on this would be epic.  It's a great song a clearly the highlight.  I always liked the title track though, that's a cool tune.  Solid debut.

It was produced by Rodger Bain, who produced the first three Sabbath records (and Tom Allom, who later produced Priest, engineered that first Sabbath record).  Both bands are from the Birmingham area, as well, for what that's worth (Robert Plant is from there as well).

[Stadler]

I kind of forgot how absolutely incredible Dreamer Deceiver is.  Holy hell, just magic.

https://youtu.be/Wvlq1F-X6Ko

Not as good as the studio version for me, but still a notable performance.

[emtee]

Listened to Firepower twice now. What a killer album! Gotta be among their best, both from a musical and sonic standpoint. And man, what great guitar tones.

[EPICVIEW]

Listened to Firepower twice now. What a killer album! Gotta be among their best, both from a musical and sonic standpoint. And man, what great guitar tones.

 

[kirksnosehair]

This is for El Barto if he's reading:  Did you see Priest on the Fuel For Life tour in '86?  I'm watching the "Priest... Live" DVD (the "Electric Eye" version, which has one or two more songs, but still skips "Victim Of Changes") which was filmed in Dallas (the album is I think taken from four different shows).    Halford sounds REALLY good, and I'm wondering how much post-production work was done, if you get my drift. 

Sorry if this is mean, but KK Downing looks ridiculous in that video.   He looks like a cross between Tawny Kitaen (RIP) and a parody of every metal guitar player ever.  It's interesting; I haven't seen Priest in person lately, but in the video, it seems as if Tipton is doing a LOT of the heavy lifting.

Nothing against KK Downing but I've always seen him as the rhythm guitar player and Tipton as the lead guitar player.  I know Downing plays solos too but for my money it's the Tipton solos that carry most of the best songs.

[kirksnosehair]

Listened to Firepower twice now. What a killer album! Gotta be among their best, both from a musical and sonic standpoint. And man, what great guitar tones.

I definitely put it in their top 5 albums of all time, maybe even top 3.   There are only 3 or 4 Judas Priest albums I listen to all the way through and this is one of them.  Every track is great.  And you're right about that guitar tone! 

[Stadler]

This is for El Barto if he's reading:  Did you see Priest on the Fuel For Life tour in '86?  I'm watching the "Priest... Live" DVD (the "Electric Eye" version, which has one or two more songs, but still skips "Victim Of Changes") which was filmed in Dallas (the album is I think taken from four different shows).    Halford sounds REALLY good, and I'm wondering how much post-production work was done, if you get my drift. 

Sorry if this is mean, but KK Downing looks ridiculous in that video.   He looks like a cross between Tawny Kitaen (RIP) and a parody of every metal guitar player ever.  It's interesting; I haven't seen Priest in person lately, but in the video, it seems as if Tipton is doing a LOT of the heavy lifting.

Nothing against KK Downing but I've always seen him as the rhythm guitar player and Tipton as the lead guitar player.  I know Downing plays solos too but for my money it's the Tipton solos that carry most of the best songs.

For a time there - I'm saying, Defenders through maybe Turbo or so - they put all the lead breaks into the liner notes, and without paying too much attention to it (I thought it was kind of stupid) it seemed to suggest that the breakdown was fairly even, but I think you're right, the Tipton solos are the ones that I find I'm paying attention to.

[wolfking]

Rocka Rolla-


Disclaimer..this is NOT a first time reaction! I have heard it before, but it's just not really in my realm..at all. Been ages since I listened to it.

I think for 1974, it's really cool. The best track IMO is Run Of The Mill...I'd live to hear a modern day powerful version of this. The second half of Dying To Meet You is really cool. Not sure I totally get the first half.

I pulled the cd out and had a run though this morning.  It's pretty much how I remembered, but maybe a little darker than I remembered too.  It has that bluesy rock feel but I do get a bit of self titled Sabbath feels here and there.  The guitar tone is pretty decent for the time.  Funny, I knew this was KK's album but pretty much all the leads are his.  Glenn's style definitely added to Priests sound as they developed. 

I echo your statement about a modern day version of Run of the Mill.  KK actually keeps interest during the long solo, but would love to have heard Glenn on this too, and some heavier tones on this would be epic.  It's a great song a clearly the highlight.  I always liked the title track though, that's a cool tune.  Solid debut.

It was produced by Rodger Bain, who produced the first three Sabbath records (and Tom Allom, who later produced Priest, engineered that first Sabbath record).  Both bands are from the Birmingham area, as well, for what that's worth (Robert Plant is from there as well).

Didn't take notice of the producer.  Makes sense.

And yes, that live performance of DD you posted is classic.

[TAC]

It was produced by Rodger Bain,

Lemme guess..engineered by Jimmy Glover?