Need help with Judas Priest albums (remastered)

Hey guys, I need a bit of help. I mentioned in a prior post that I am collecting all of JP's albums and figured I will go with the remastered versions.

Well I am down to only needing, Sad Wings of Destiny and Rocka Rolla. However the places around me don't have any with bonus tracks on them. I checked and it looks like the two at The Exchange stoire I shop were made in 2000, and have no bonus song. I have avoided buying them cause they also look like they have only one sleve page, not a booklet.The cover art for Sad Wings is very different from anything I have seen before. I think the label was Zoch??? could be wrong. Are these the remastered ones?

If you have these could you tell me the year I am looking for on the back and the label, or for that matter any information regarding exactly what I am supposed to look for.

Thanks,

Mez

Yea I have both of those albums they were put out by KOCH. These didnt come out with the other remasters since they werent part of the columbia cataloge. They are the only ones available so go grab them. They were put out in 2000. The only bonus track is Diamonds and Rust on Rocka Rolla but I dont believe it lists it as that. There is also another album around called HERO HERO (I think) and it has a picture of some knight looking thing on the cover. That is both Sad Wings and Rocka Rolla on one album but the songs are in different order so dont even bother with that.

Its funny I just looked this up on wikipedia ( I know people say not everything on there is true but most of it is) Neither of the reissues of these albums were endorsed by Judas Priest because they lost all the rights of the first 2 albums. Also Sad Wings Of Destiny the cd version is different from the original Vinyl version where they switched the song order. Side B of the vinyl starts off the cd version. I hate when they do things like that.

Wow thanks a bunch for the info. I will grab them up when I am down there next. I definitely wanted to make sure I was getting the right thing. Thanks for your help!

the only endorsed version of those albums is the Jap pressing, on Victor (also earlier Teichiku on SWOT). Also the sound of these ones is superb. I own them since quite long and are very hard to find nowadays.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Its funny I just looked this up on wikipedia ( I know people say not everything on there is true but most of it is) Neither of the reissues of these albums were endorsed by Judas Priest because they lost all the rights of the first 2 albums. Also Sad Wings Of Destiny the cd version is different from the original Vinyl version where they switched the song order. Side B of the vinyl starts off the cd version. I hate when they do things like that.

This is true. JP originally released their first two albums through a small indie label (Gull Records) before signing with Columbia. Whoever owns the rights to those two albums now (since Gull apparently no longer exists) has been pimping them out to various companies to reissue over and over again for years now. I've seen copies of both albums on RCA Records, Transluxe Records, and Koch Records in the past, and there are probably others. Most ROCKA ROLLA CDs have a new cover of a flying armored guy (rather than the original "bottle cap" cover) which doesn't fit the album at all. (I've read that the "armored guy" art is actually a rejected sketch for the SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE album cover).

There's also a 2-CD set called GENOCIDE out there which is just ROCKA ROLLA on disc 1 and SAD WINGS OF DESTINY on disc 2. So buyer beware!!

I believe that JP lost all rights to the Gull records recordings. There are a few compilations of the first two albums (Genocide, and Hero,Hero) that are okay if you grab them cheap. The early stuff is pretty tough to find, though. Good luck. Peace.