Re-Exploring Jugulator

The latest Priest album is the first one that had songs I really liked since Defenders Of The Faith, so I guess in my opinion something went "right" on that album.

...but the production sucks.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

Priest fumbling about trying desperately to sound relevant to the "kids"

They did that their whole career, until they were forced to reunite with Halford to remain "relevant" i.e profitable.

Quote :

At least we got two really good live albums out of the whole mess.  So we've got that going for us.

I didn't think either live album was that great, except for "Diamonds and Rust" and "Metal Meltdown" which obviously sound re-recorded in the studio to me.  I think that Epitaph DVD they did with Halford sounds MUCH better.

Their whole career they were trying to sound relevant to the kids? Even in the 70s? Who were they aping on Sad Wings, Sin After Sin and Stained Class?

Ripper sounds great on both of those live albums.

Witchfinder wrote:

Their whole career they were trying to sound relevant to the kids?  Even in the 70s? Who were they aping on Sad Wings, Sin After Sin and Stained Class?

Absolutely.

Uh, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Queen, etc.

They weren't trying to play 50s rock n roll.  They always tried to play something akin to what they thought the current scene was until this 2004 reunion which produced their first retro album.

I was wrong before when I said this new one was the first one I had to force myself to listen to. Demolition was the same way but I had a more favorable impression of it than I do RoS.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

Their whole career they were trying to sound relevant to the kids?  Even in the 70s? Who were they aping on Sad Wings, Sin After Sin and Stained Class?

Absolutely.

Uh, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Queen, etc.

They weren't trying to play 50s rock n roll.  They always tried to play something akin to what they thought the current scene was until this 2004 reunion which produced their first retro album.

Rocka-Rolla sounded like some other artists at the time, but I don't think the subsequent 70s albums sounded anything like the artists you mentioned. I agree that Priest in the 80s and 90s were following rather than leading, but I completely disagree that they were doing that in the 70s.

Witchfinder wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

Their whole career they were trying to sound relevant to the kids?  Even in the 70s? Who were they aping on Sad Wings, Sin After Sin and Stained Class?

Absolutely.

Uh, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Queen, etc.

They weren't trying to play 50s rock n roll.  They always tried to play something akin to what they thought the current scene was until this 2004 reunion which produced their first retro album.

Rocka-Rolla sounded like some other artists at the time, but I don't think the subsequent 70s albums sounded anything like the artists you mentioned.  I agree that Priest in the 80s and 90s were following rather than leading, but I completely disagree that they were doing that in the 70s.  

I seriously disagree that British Steel and/or Screaming were following any trend. Those were TRENDSETTING albums - not just in sound, but in look and attitude.

Sad Wings has moments that you can clearly hear the influence of other artists. The intro to Island of Domination sounds like Queen. You can hear elements of Sabbath, Purple and the other bands TOB mentioned. Priest had their own unique spin on things, but they didn't just magically appear out of the aether fully formed without ever being influenced by anyone.

UNCLE SAXON'S KICKASS CDS wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

Their whole career they were trying to sound relevant to the kids?  Even in the 70s? Who were they aping on Sad Wings, Sin After Sin and Stained Class?

Absolutely.

Uh, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Queen, etc.

They weren't trying to play 50s rock n roll.  They always tried to play something akin to what they thought the current scene was until this 2004 reunion which produced their first retro album.

Rocka-Rolla sounded like some other artists at the time, but I don't think the subsequent 70s albums sounded anything like the artists you mentioned.  I agree that Priest in the 80s and 90s were following rather than leading, but I completely disagree that they were doing that in the 70s.  

I seriously disagree that British Steel and/or Screaming were following any trend.  Those were TRENDSETTING albums - not just in sound, but in look and attitude.

I think they reflected the burgeoning NWOBHM movement. Although, it's a real question whether British Steel was influenced by that movement or actually influenced the NWOBHM. Screaming was a quick course correction from the commercial/critical failure of Point of Entry. Not that any of this really matters. I don't require my bands to be innovative, I just require that the songs are good. British Steel and Screaming are two of the best metal albums of all time. Period.

S.D. wrote:

Sad Wings has moments that you can clearly hear the influence of other artists.  The intro to Island of Domination sounds like Queen.  You can hear elements of Sabbath, Purple and the other bands TOB mentioned.  Priest had their own unique spin on things, but they didn't just magically appear out of the aether fully formed without ever being influenced by anyone.

TOB is arguing that Priest always was following other bands. That's clearly not true. Obviously Priest had influences, what band doesn't?

I think Priest fully discovered their sound on Stained Class and didn't sound like anybody but themselves thru at least Screaming For Vengeance (or possibly Defenders). Turbo was the beginning of their bandwagon jumping.

S.D. wrote:

I think Priest fully discovered their sound on Stained Class and didn't sound like anybody but themselves thru at least Screaming For Vengeance (or possibly Defenders).  Turbo was the beginning of their bandwagon jumping.  

Sounds reasonable to me.

Witchfinder wrote:

S.D. wrote:

I think Priest fully discovered their sound on Stained Class and didn't sound like anybody but themselves thru at least Screaming For Vengeance (or possibly Defenders).  Turbo was the beginning of their bandwagon jumping.  

Sounds reasonable to me.

I am on board with dat.

Stained Class is pretty much the only Judas Priest album that I still want to listen to these days, and it's an album that still keeps me on my feet throughout. Not that I dislike the other albums, but a lot of them have lost a bit of my enthusiasm over time. Painkiller is their last classic for me.

I also agree with Witchfinder that they were following other bands by 1980.

Only have heard Jugulator once the whole way through - and that was a task unto itself I found.
No desire to hear it again to be honest.

Jugulator is a great album. I've never understood the hate. It's not perfect, but overall it's a damn fine album. Its worst moments are "Decapitate," "Abductors," and "Brain Dead," and those are pretty bad. But the rest? They kick all kinds of ass!

Demolition is a really good album. It's got a more duds, but it also doesn't deserve the hate it receives. The production/mix is weak as hell, though. Personally, I think that's it's worst quality. Either way, there are a some excellent tunes on this one. "Machine Man," "One On One," "Bloodsuckers," "Feed On Me," "Subterfuge"—all killer!

And I've said somewhere else on this forum, I think "What's My Name?" from the bonus disc is equally as great. It's the only song Owens penned alone while in Priest. That was released, anyway. There might be others.

Oh, and both Fight albums are fantastic. Vastly different from each other, but equally good.

"Feed on Me" from Demolition is awesome

Is it really fair to say that ANY band from the 70s or 80s was really jumping bandwagons? Hear me out on this one - I'd put out there that a LOT of these bands were hanging out together and listening to the same stuff. If a new toy came out, wouldn't you want to play with it?

Watch a documentary on the prog scene in the 60s and 70s - most of those bands (whom few would accuse of copying or jumping on bandwagons) were listening to what the others were doing and usually had a, "We could do that better/too" moment and gave their own spin.

Granted, in metal, the range of influences and modifications allowed wasn't as great, but I think my point still stands. Yeah, you could say Priest was jumping bandwagons with Turbo, but what if they genuinely wanted to do something with synths as Halford claims these days and that's how it came out? I mean, can you release "British Steel" over and over again without getting bored? I know I couldn't.

I remember buying this back on 97 (and watch them live).
I always liked the álbum... great tracks Jugulator, bullet train, Deadmeat or Deathrow, Burn in Hell all great tracks!

It sounds different of Classic JP, but JP always made this changes along the career.
A great one for me...

The next one... I really hated!

Runicen wrote:

Yeah, you could say Priest was jumping bandwagons with Turbo, but what if they genuinely wanted to do something with synths as Halford claims these days and that's how it came out?  I mean, can you release "British Steel" over and over again without getting bored?  I know I couldn't.

The synths really aren't the main problem, it's the dumbed-down songwriting. Parental Guidance? Seriously? It sounds like they said "we need to ensure we get 13 year olds to love this album...let's play it stupid so the dumbass American teens will like us".

Quote :

Parental Guidance? Seriously?

My brother and I were just joking about that song yesterday. "We don't need no, no no no Parental Guidance here".... of course you don't Rob, because you were in your mid 30s' when you wrote it!

"Devil's Child" was an ACDC ripoff.

Well Parental Guidance was sort of an ant5hem to me. What I was going through in my teen years involving my dad and ex-whore bitch step-mother!

So to say its dumbed down may be true, but it spoke volumes!

The live albums/DVD's with Tim Owens were real good but the albums he sang on both suck equally. Both albums had a few good songs but the majority was weak.

There's no difference between "Parental Guidance" and "Living After Midnight".

Living After Midnight is pretty weak as well. Nothing on Turbo is as good as The Rage, Steeler, You Don't Have To Be Old (To Be Wise), Grinder, Metal Gods, Rapid Fire, etc.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

There's no difference between "Parental Guidance" and "Living After Midnight".

12 year old target audience vs. 16 year old