Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith - 30th Anniversary Edition

Glad to hear that. I may pick this up for the extra live cuts then. I just knew there were some live bonus cuts from those reissues that made me cringe. No idea why the band would have given some of them the thumbs up.

Runicen wrote:

Glad to hear that.  I may pick this up for the extra live cuts then.  I just knew there were some live bonus cuts from those reissues that made me cringe.  No idea why the band would have given some of them the thumbs up.

It's my theory that Priest and their management don't give a damn about their catalog. They do the cheapest possible reissues with little to no thought put in to them.

I have picked this up twice and put it back down twice as I can't bring myself to buy this album (even though it's my fave) for a fifth time in my life! I really want to add this show my Priest collection but I already have about a dozen boots and all of the live stuff they have ever put out officially. I went through the same thing with the anniversary release of Screaming. I have already bought that album four times also. Arrghhh!!!!

Witchfinder wrote:

Runicen wrote:

Glad to hear that.  I may pick this up for the extra live cuts then.  I just knew there were some live bonus cuts from those reissues that made me cringe.  No idea why the band would have given some of them the thumbs up.

It's my theory that Priest and their management don't give a damn about their catalog. They do the cheapest possible reissues with little to no thought put in to them.

True. Plus the Jon Astley remasters that are in print today are absolute abominations. Really. The original albums are sonically butchered. Painkiller sounds beyond terrible on the remaster. Do yourself a favour and try to listen to the original CD's. Night and day.

Painkiller has to be one of the loudest remasters I own.

The remaster of Unleashed In The East is the one that convinced me NOT to buy any of the others. All dynamic range crushed out of existence.

corplhicks wrote:

Painkiller has to be one of the loudest remasters I own.

Conversely, you're always glad to see him/it around.

While this reissue has promise for the live tracks included, I'm probably not really missing out on much else. Defenders of the Faith is honestly pretty inconsistent for me, which is a shame to consider how great "Freewheel Burning" and "Jawbreaker" are. Some of the songs always sounded more appropriate for Turbo.

I'll be honest, I don't understand why Priest and Maiden don't just do another wave of reissues, get everything done right and even include the damn B-Sides this time.

I mean, there's probably a metric ton of Priest stuff that hasn't been released properly (discounting the fact that I'm inclined to agree that the albums themselves weren't served by the last batch of issues) and if you want the Maiden b-sides, you have to spend bang buck to get the Castle 2-disc issues from back when... Just seems like a bad way to run the business, but that may just be me.

The problem is that the current trends in mastering are about bright, crisp and LOUD masters. The Maiden/Priest remasters show this perfectly. Even Saxon did not escape this fate (but they are a less audiophile-like band). I doubt someone would go against the grain and release PROPER sounding remasters of these albums.

In the case of Maiden it's even a bigger shame than Priest because the 2CD Castle issues can be pricey and have a tendency towards CD rot/bronzing. Damn shame because they sound great and have the B-Sides included.

In the case of Priest the bonus tracks added to the latest issues were mostly throwaway tracks. And as said the albums were butchered as far as sound quality goes. Just listen to Defenders of the Faith on an original/japanese first pressing and the latest remaster. Really shows what they did to kill all dynamics and space of the music.

Well, my entire Priest collection (barring the Ripper years and the most recent) is in that "Complete" box set that turned out to be a cheap bootleg - fortunately with a price to match, so I don't feel too burnt by the purchase. Hell, I got it because I liked British Steel and wanted to see what else the band was capable of, so from that perspective, it works... You know, in an "as seen on TV" kind of way.

I'm not sure remasters are totally bunko at this point. I mean, the last wave of Steven Wilson remasters show there is a market for quality masters that up the sound quality without pounding the volume and listening experience into a squishy paste. Now, will that extend to metal? That's hard to say. I'd love to hope that there are execs in the various labels taking note of the success of Wilson's work. Likewise, since most musicians are fans themselves to some degree or other, I'm hoping some of the folks involve are also taking note.

Idealistic? Maybe. Still, I can dream.

I totally agree that there are good remasters out there. Wilson is one example of a great remastering engineer. Andy Pearce is another one. The latest batch of Sabbath deluxe editions sounded great. The Almighty remasters that came out just now sound good. The UFO remasters are awesome as are the Salvo Nazareth ones. The problems is that those are not really the norm but the exception. I used to like Rock Candy Records remasters until I went back to the original albums and saw how many of those are straight up butchered with compression and loudness. So remasters are a VERY mixed bag. Most of them are bunk and not worth the time or the price. Most of the original releases sound great.

As for musicians - in case of big bands like Maiden or Priest they often do not have a hand in remastering/reissues/dealings with their catalogue. Jimmy Page is a notable exception and a great example of how to do remasters properly - the new Zeppelin CD's are probably the best sounding Zeppelin we will get on CD.

The Maiden Castle remasters are definitive. Great mix, cool packaging, and a good number of bonus cuts. Mid 90s when they came out, I think.

I'd still like to hope that it's a sign of the cracks starting to show in the "standard operating procedure" of the loudness war.  Radio has been on the outs for years now and people have been talking trash on brickwalling for longer than that.  The entire rationale behind boosting and compressing everything no longer applies as our songs are not competing against one another on an open format.

But you're probably right and the best chance would be to get the artists involved themselves...  Although, that can backfire too (*cough*Megadeth*cough*).  Might be waiting a while for Halford or Dickinson to take a personal interest in that though.

What I've heard of the Castle remasters are great. I haven't had the newer ones to A/B though, so I can't speak to the compression, etc. It's just a pain that they're so damn expensive by comparison. There are these Russian versions that have the albums joined with "Singles Collections" that I scored a few of from a used bin. Probably just bootlegged off the Castle masters, but they work in a pinch.

I would also hope that brickwalling and the loudness war go the way of the dinosaur but it still does not seem very likely. At this point I have gone back to buying old issues of remastered albums I already own. Funny thing about that but almost all of the old issues sound better, have greater dynamic range and at times even better packaging/layout. Musicians getting involved can be a plus (Page)....or not (Mustaine). Depends on the artist and the goals when they want to achieve with a reissue/remaster.

Metallica is supposed to do deluxe editions of Kill'em All and Ride The Lightning. I cannot imagine these (especially Kill) being any good.

Any reissues released by either MFSL (Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs) or Audio Fidelity are worry-free purchases, they have some of the best mastering engineers in the business contracting with them and they spend more time per-album getting it exactly right than any major labels allow.  Because of the extra time and care involved they are more expensive than the average CD release but if you're looking for the best-sounding editions in 16-bit, they can be trusted to deliver it.

I didn't even know MFSL was still a going concern given that some of their older releases (Pink Floyd, et al) are so damn expensive and have been for years now.

Most of the MFSL, Audio Fidelity and old DCC versions of albums are truly superb in terms of sound quality. Unfortunately most of them are out of print and VERY hard to get. If you cannot go that route the originals are always there and sound good for the most part. The japanese copies are also good but can be expensive.

Goint back to Priest - I would love a Rarities 2CD compilation/boxset. Like the recently released Soundgarden one.

Priest doesn't really have much in the way of rarities unfortunately. The vast majority of their rarities have already been released.

Witchfinder wrote:

Priest doesn't really have much in the way of rarities unfortunately.  The vast majority of their rarities have already been released.  

Yeah, usually there is rare early stuff but Gull put out everything they could find (about twelve different times  )

Yeah I think all of the rarities have already been released. If they unearthed some stuff that did not see the light of day and added the known rarity stuff in a nice package I would buy that. Otherwise Priest is not a rarity-type band.

And I still wish White Zombie would do a PROPER boxset will ALL of their rare stuff. Like the unreleased songs from Make Them Die Slowly, the cassette re-release songs from Gods on Voodoo Moon etc. Zombie prides himself on presentation but the White Zombie boxset was pretty poor as far completeness and packaging goes.

I'm not that familiar with the White Zombie deep catalog. Was the box set really that skimpy?

Runicen wrote:

I'm not that familiar with the White Zombie deep catalog.  Was the box set really that skimpy?

Not to derail the thread but yeah - it missed some stuff that the fans were wanting for a long time. It included soundtrack tracks and live stuff but some crucial unreleased/rare studio stuff was missing.

BTW I wish Priest would release a good sounding version of Sin After Sin. NO version of this on CD sounds proper. It's either thin and powerless or remastered too brightly and compressed.

I also know it was a Gull release and the band is torqued that it even happened, but Hero, Hero would be AWESOME to hear in full digital glory.

It's basically the meat of the first three albums with the first two being remixed to have a bit more punch to them. I LOVE that mix. Alas, the best I have to work with is the digital rip I made from my vinyl copy. All of the CD releases used the original mixes.

Also, this gets harped on a lot (by me), but I'm still waiting for the full Twin Turbos.

Runicen wrote:

I also know it was a Gull release and the band is torqued that it even happened, but Hero, Hero would be AWESOME to hear in full digital glory.  

It's basically the meat of the first three albums with the first two being remixed to have a bit more punch to them.  I LOVE that mix.  Alas, the best I have to work with is the digital rip I made from my vinyl copy.  All of the CD releases used the original mixes.

Also, this gets harped on a lot (by me), but I'm still waiting for the full Twin Turbos.  

I am with you on both of those. I got tired of waiting for a proper Twin Turbos release so I made my own:

1. "All Fired Up" Turbo reissue 4:45
2. "Red, White & Blue" British Steel reissue 3:42
3. "Prisoner of Your Eyes" Screaming for Vengeance reissue 7:12
4. "Turn on Your Light" Defenders of the Faith reissue 5:23
5. "Ram It Down" Ram It Down 4:48
6. "Hard as Iron" Ram It Down 4:09
7. "Love You to Death" Ram It Down 4:36
8. "Monsters of Rock" Ram It Down 5:30
9. "Heart of a Lion" Metalogy 3:53
10. "Under the Gun" Unreleased
11. "Fighting for Your Love" Unreleased

Personnel[edit]

Then I added the demos from the Metalogy box set and called it a day. It's a pretty sweet comp

The Metalogy set is all I'm lacking from that. Is it worth hunting down on its own if I already have the individual albums?

Where were you able to track down "Under the Gun" and "Fighting for Your Love?"

The thing that slays me about the whole project is that, for all my trash talk of the LIVE cuts they slapped on the last batch of reissues, I loved EVERY track from that era they used as a bonus cut. There's a really awesome double album in there, so I'm not really sure why it gets slagged off so badly.