The early Judas Priest albums

"Wanted dead or alive" reminds me of early black metal, especially lyrically.

If Bon Jovi was releasing albums in the 1970's, those jokes might be funny and actually pertian to what Scott was even talking about. None the less, carry on !

James B. wrote:

If Bon Jovi was releasing albums in the 1970's, those jokes might be funny and actually pertian to what Scott was even talking about. None the less, carry on !

Thanks for your permission.

To quote Scott:

Quote :

"And Judas Priest is the definition of HEAVY METAL. This is exactly what I rant about constantly with people trying to strip the 1970's bands of their place in heavy metal history by making comments like, "seems like average hard rock music" or "it's just hard rock not heavy metal". Rather, those early bands were the creators of that hard-n-heavy sound. It use to just be American bands like Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and Kiss that people would argue against. Now I see it on discussion boards people saying bands like Saxon, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, UFO, Scorpions, etc. were never heavy metal bands but are "just hard rock". It's history revisionism."

I recognize that it's just my opinion, but songs like "Dissident Aggressor" and "Exciter" define early heavy metal in my mind.

All I know is that they are great albums full stop. I don't care if people want to call it samba influenced dubstep, it doesn't matter to me, they are still great albums

Boris2008 wrote:

James B. wrote:

If Bon Jovi was releasing albums in the 1970's, those jokes might be funny and actually pertian to what Scott was even talking about. None the less, carry on !

Thanks for your permission.

Your reading comprehension skills suck, I figured at 41 you'd recognize sarcasm, or not ?

James B. wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

James B. wrote:

If Bon Jovi was releasing albums in the 1970's, those jokes might be funny and actually pertian to what Scott was even talking about. None the less, carry on !

Thanks for your permission.

Your reading comprehension skills suck, I figured at 41 you'd recognize sarcasm, or not ?

I'm just not in the slightest bit interested.

Boris2008 wrote:

I'm just not in the slightest bit interested.

Then why respond then

I can give ya a link to the defintion of "interested" but I've already commented on your reading comprehension skills.

If you havn't figured it out yet...I am just joking around with you. So no need to get hurt.

EvyMetal wrote:

"The Ripper" is the best song of their's.

theirs

Brian is acting like Eyesore.....nee nar nee nar neeenare !

James B. wrote:

Brian is acting like Eyesore.....nee nar nee nar neeenare !

No....the misuse of the apostrophe s is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

"Wanted dead or alive" reminds me of early black metal, especially lyrically.

Actually I hear a bit of proto-death in the riffs. It might be a stretch but Bon Jovi is the reason why the term proto started being used in metal.

Quote :

No....the misuse of the apostrophe s is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.

I bet it's a pet peeve of Ken's too

Having fun James?

manny wrote:

I completely disagree, even 'Rocka Rolla" which showed the band may not been exactly ready for prime time, still has some great songs on it, and the band had a huge winning streak in terms of songwriting, artistic accomplishment from 'Sad Wings of Destiny" to "Defenders of the Faith" very few bands can match the Priest discography during this same era.

This! They were on a HUGE roll. Heck, I even like Turbo (not as much as the albums prior to it). The only Priest albums I don't like are Ram It Down and the Ripper albums.

Also agree with S.D. that Unleashed is the best way to get into the early Priest - listen to Unleashed then explore the studio albums

luckymallet wrote:

Does anyone else agree the early JP albums were pretty weak? Seems like very average hard rock music of its time, really.

Anyone going to defend them?

If you replace "early albums" with "debut album", you'd find quite a lot of people in agreement with you, or at the very least they'd understand the sentiment. Rocka Rolla has its moments, but it's nothing groundbreaking. Folkish, Zeppelinish "hard rock" sounds about right. And not very memorable at that. But already the second album was a 70's heavy metal masterpiece.

And Stained Class... well, that's just one of the greatest metal albums of all time. At least among the very best the 70's had to offer.

Golden age, if you want to find one era of Judas Priest and call it that, probably started around Stained Class and ended with Defenders of the Faith.

My personal top five is:

Stained Class
British Steel
Screaming For Vengeance
Defenders of the Faith
Painkiller

...in order of appearance.

Does anyone else agree that "Sin after Sin" is a hugely underrated gem in the Priest catalog?

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

Does anyone else agree that "Sin after Sin" is a hugely underrated gem in the Priest catalog?

My two favorite Priest albums are Sad Wings Of Destiny and Sin After Sin.

Everybody always bags on on Rocka Rolla ... I totally dig that album. Yeah, I know, it's far from the screaming crunchy heavy metal that the band eventually became known for but I've always found it a fascinating listen anyway. They were so young but there was already so much raw talent in the band, you can practically hear it bubbling under the surface, they just hadn't quite found "their" sound yet on that record.

...besides, I love the uber-cheesy "soda bottle cap" cover art and the fact that "Bob" Halford (not "Rob," "Bob!") is credited with "vocals and harmonica" on the back for the first and only time in Priest history.

tohostudios wrote:

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

Does anyone else agree that "Sin after Sin" is a hugely underrated gem in the Priest catalog?

My two favorite Priest albums are Sad Wings Of Destiny and Sin After Sin.

Absolutely! Sin After Sin is brilliant!

I thought Rocka Rolla was the worst Priest album all the way until Demolition came out.

thejokeriv wrote:

manny wrote:

I completely disagree, even 'Rocka Rolla" which showed the band may not been exactly ready for prime time, still has some great songs on it, and the band had a huge winning streak in terms of songwriting, artistic accomplishment from 'Sad Wings of Destiny" to "Defenders of the Faith" very few bands can match the Priest discography during this same era.

This! They were on a HUGE roll. Heck, I even like Turbo (not as much as the albums prior to it). The only Priest albums I don't like are Ram It Down and the Ripper albums.

Also agree with S.D. that Unleashed is the best way to get into the early Priest - listen to Unleashed then explore the studio albums

My thoughts exactly. Early Priest is very interesting and the last album I really liked was Painkiller. Unleashed has got to be on the list of top live albums.

xxx

Lari wrote:

I thought Rocka Rolla was the worst Priest album all the way until Demolition came out.

No way. Ram It Down and Turbo share the credit for that.

Funny story. On the school bus I was listening to the older kids talk about a cool metal band called Judas Priest, so at my earliest opportunity I stopped by the local record shop and bought Sad Wings Of Destiny, which I think was the only Priest in stock at the time. I listened and listened to that album. It wasn't until a lot later did I hear Screaming and British Steel and realized those were the albums they were talking about. Oh well, turned out to be a great buy none the less.