This is the second Judas Priest album (recorded in 1976) but the first that I would consider classing as a metal album. I don’t mind the Rocka Rolla album from only 2 years previous to this, I just don’t think it is Heavy Metal. I spoke briefly about Rocka Rolla being more of a rock album, but Sad Wings of Destiny is where I think the band first qualifies as Heavy Metal. I have a fair few Judas Priest live recordings and it’s interesting to note this is first album to feature anything that became a staple of their live set, where I never really heard anything off Rocka Rolla performed live.
A lot can change in a couple of years. The guitars come on the first song “Victim of Changes” and for the first time we see that Judas Priest “Crunch” on the guitar distortion. Not just fuzz but actual distortion. The drums are played a lot more convincingly and sound a little more solid, but really the big change is Rob Halfords vocals. The highs are now all there, the ear piercing falsetto’s and some deeper tones on the second song “the Ripper”. There’s some fast metal, some chunky stuff and even a brooding slow ballad type thing with “Dreamer Deceiver”. The trademark brooding guitar solos are here on “Dreamer Deciever”/ And again, did I mention how good Halfords voice had become by this point?
Over all this is a pretty varied affair with some faster paced metal songs and some doomier and more melancholy songs and there’s a lot of ups and downs in this. I guess similar to how a lot of English rock bands (like maybe Queen or Led Zep) would have done stuff at the time. As the album goes on there’s some more distorted stuff that motors along nicely like “Tyrant”
Overall this isn’t the greatest of Judas priest albums as the band got really good later on, but it’s a pretty cool listen (well, I like it anyway). I also think from a historical perspective this is important to hear how the band evolved into the beast they became by the time the 80’s hit.
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