All this Priest talk inspired me to pull out he the “Metalogy” box set and I have been listening to Disc 1 this evening at work. Disc 1 covers the band’s beginnings up through the “Unleashed In The East” album. I had kind of forgotten how good some of this early stuff really was. Getting a lot of enjoyment out of this tonight.
Steve Sly
Disc 1 has:
Never Satisifed
Deceiver
Tyrant
Victim Of Changes (live)
Diamonds And Rust (live)
Starbreaker (live)
Sinner
Let Us Prey / Call For The Priest
Dissident Aggressor
Exicter
Beyond The Realms Of Death
Better By You Better Than Me
Invader
Stained Class
Green Manalishi
I am really digging all of it. Not a bad song in the bunch.
Steve Sly
I've only seen them live once, about the time of Angel of Retribution (2005). It was one of the worst gigs I've ever been to. It was half-arsed and half-hearted much like the Angel of Retribution album. Never a fan really. Apart from a couple of obvious singles, their songs were never catchy enough for me.
I can't stop listening to Stained Class. After a couple weeks it's still in heavy rotation. I tried listening to Black Sabbath "13" the other day and barely made it half way through when I just ripped it outta the player and popped in Stained Class. I really love that 70s, heavy guitar sound. I think that's the "brown sound." I know, the "brown sound" is associated with Van Halen but I think it has to do with the Marshall Amp sound in general. You just don't hear that sound anymore. The music back then breathed in the studio, and it wasn't as cluttered and brickwalled as today.
Sorry you had such a bad experience with them. I saw them a couple years after that, when they played the entire British Steel album, and that was an AWESOME show. Like the first 40 minutes or so was that album, played from front to back, then they did about 3 or 4 songs to finish the set, with I think a two or three song encore. Besides British Steel, they did Victim Of Changes (I think), Freewheel Burning, Diamonds And Rust, a couple songs off the Nostradamus album and I think they final song of the night was You Got Another Thing Coming.
And I thought the whole band sounded great. Maybe Rob didn't hit all the high notes like he used to, but so what? I thought he did pretty good for a man in his 60's.
AND we got 10 dollar tickets to see Heaven And Hell that night, too!
I saw them three times between 78 and 81 and then later at Ozzfest in 2004. The big difference I noticed in 2004 was Halford singing in his "growling" range much much more. Little wailing. But, then again, it would have been unfair to expect more 15 years later.
That being said, they were still hungry in those pre "British Steel" years. I began to lose interest not long after that. Don't get me wrong, they were still Judas Fucking Priest! But it just became more formulaic to me. I will confess that I have not heard much of their later material.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Have to disagree, Jif. Ram It Down, after Under Blood Red Skies, is unlistenable. I won't even download it for free. I usually have to have everything from bands I dig but that one doesn't deserve shelf space. Saw them with Queensryche in what, '06', I believe, and was telling the kid I took with me, who didn't know much about Priest that I'm A Rocker was such a lame song. Lo and behold, they played it that night. Had to laugh at that one. They made up for it by playing Realms Of Death, so that was cool as I'd never heard it live. RID is on par with Operation:Mindcrime 2, completely not worth having, let alone listening to.
Just thinking of Johnny B. Goode makes me want to vomit. They had done so good with other peoples tunes up to that point but that was a epic fail IMO.
What!? Not even!! That's just insulting. I've heard so many bad things about MC 2. By then, Geoff had ruined QR beyond repair. At least Priest were quickly put back on course. Btw(regarding The Complete Albums Collection), it's funny that HBFL was given it's British title(Killing Machine), but the track listing is still HBFL. On the remastered Killing Machine, Green Manalishi is a bonus track(as it wasn't originally on that album).
Former Judas Priest bandmates KK Downing and Tim "Ripper" Owens have formed a new band, KK's Priest, and released their new song from their forthcoming album. Sounds pretty good to my ears.
Last edited by Dan Roth; 05-12-2021 at 04:26 AM.
I have a KK Downing guitar pick from the first time I saw them waaaay back in '78.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
All these years with KK backing Tipton, I didn't know he shredded so well. I suppose there were plenty of cases with JP, but I really haven't paid attention them them for, like, 40 years. Although I did see them at Ozzfest. All the other times I saw them was 1981 or earlier.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Caught them in Portland (must have been 1978, not sure if Stained Class was out yet). They opened for Mahogany Rush. They were insanely hot that night and played most of the Sad Wings album. The audience was in adrenaline dump mode and pretty worn out when Mahogany Rush came on. M.R. were excellent but Marino was clearly disappointed by the lukewarm reception and Mahogany Rush did not do an encore.
Saw them again as a headliner (maybe in 2004). Slayer came on before them and tore the place apart. Priest was a weak bloated parody of the 1978 band. Really corny, tired and weak, (cranking up the volume didn't hide it). Had to split before losing the buzz from Slayer's set. It was kind of amazing that quite a few people who were there thought that the emperor was wearing new clothes.
Priest have been through ups and downs in the last decades, with a lot of downs. Halford's exit, Halford's return, Tipton's health issues, Downing's departure, and now the drama surrounding Downing's interviews and new band.
That being said, I think Firepower is a fine album that features Halford's best, most mature vocal performance. Owens is a fine singer but he has always lacked the charisma and expression that makes Halford's singing so special IMHO.
KK's Priest's single sounds a bit cheap and generic to me, but after all this is Priest-like music and it's not meant to be very subtle.
My favourite Priest was the 70s band. Powerful but diverse, with some enjoyable quiet pieces that contrasted with the bombastic ones.
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