Produced by Jeffrey Calvert, Max West and Judas Priest
Released: 1976
It's been said that Black Sabbath created metal, and Judas Priest made it heavy. This is how they did it. Sad Wings of Destiny is the first truly great heavy metal album, a savage and demonic piece of work that makes Sabbath look like hippies. 30 years on, it's difficult to image just what anyone could have made of this when it was first released, but it must have frightened the crap out of a lot of people.
Shortly after this came out, Priest signed to CBS and Gull whored Sad Wings of Destiny out to whomever wanted to license it. Most of those who did got the track listing arse-about, and CD versions invariably list "Prelude" as track 5 when it was originally the first song (my vinyl version from 1981 has the tracks listed correctly on the back of the sleeve but the label on the album itself has side 1 and 2 juxtaposed). I mention all this only because SWOD has more impact when the songs are listened to in the correct order. That is, with Glenn Tipton's eerie piano intro "Prelude" opening the way for the sinister "Tyrant" to redefine metal forever.
It is at this moment that metal became truly heavy. Not only that, but it also becomes fast, with a section near the end that can only be described as thrash, a term that wouldn't be used in a metal sense until after the turn of the following decade! With just one track, Judas Priest had already reinvented the musical style that their Birmingham compatriots Black Sabbath had unleashed six years before, but there's more to come: "Genocide" has to rank as perhaps the most vicious song ever conceived up to this point in time, rivalled only by "The Ripper" a few tracks later. True genre-defining stuff: outrageously heavy but stunningly melodic, and brooding with a sense of diabolical evil that even Ozzy and his mates had really only conjured once before, with their very first song. Not only that, but Rob Halford had the voice to carry it off and make it sound far more convincing. No atonal warbling here. Halford's vocals resonate with a dark malevolence as he sings of slaughter and tyranny, and his shriek in "The Ripper" remains blood-curdling to this day. Then, just when you think this album can't get any better, the unbeatable one-two whallop of "Dreamer Deceiver" and "Deceiver" come as two of the best songs ever to round out an album.
Judas Priest never quite sounded this way again, and after this album, neither did heavy metal. It would be almost five years before anything else came remotely close.
Released: 1976
It's been said that Black Sabbath created metal, and Judas Priest made it heavy. This is how they did it. Sad Wings of Destiny is the first truly great heavy metal album, a savage and demonic piece of work that makes Sabbath look like hippies. 30 years on, it's difficult to image just what anyone could have made of this when it was first released, but it must have frightened the crap out of a lot of people.
Shortly after this came out, Priest signed to CBS and Gull whored Sad Wings of Destiny out to whomever wanted to license it. Most of those who did got the track listing arse-about, and CD versions invariably list "Prelude" as track 5 when it was originally the first song (my vinyl version from 1981 has the tracks listed correctly on the back of the sleeve but the label on the album itself has side 1 and 2 juxtaposed). I mention all this only because SWOD has more impact when the songs are listened to in the correct order. That is, with Glenn Tipton's eerie piano intro "Prelude" opening the way for the sinister "Tyrant" to redefine metal forever.
It is at this moment that metal became truly heavy. Not only that, but it also becomes fast, with a section near the end that can only be described as thrash, a term that wouldn't be used in a metal sense until after the turn of the following decade! With just one track, Judas Priest had already reinvented the musical style that their Birmingham compatriots Black Sabbath had unleashed six years before, but there's more to come: "Genocide" has to rank as perhaps the most vicious song ever conceived up to this point in time, rivalled only by "The Ripper" a few tracks later. True genre-defining stuff: outrageously heavy but stunningly melodic, and brooding with a sense of diabolical evil that even Ozzy and his mates had really only conjured once before, with their very first song. Not only that, but Rob Halford had the voice to carry it off and make it sound far more convincing. No atonal warbling here. Halford's vocals resonate with a dark malevolence as he sings of slaughter and tyranny, and his shriek in "The Ripper" remains blood-curdling to this day. Then, just when you think this album can't get any better, the unbeatable one-two whallop of "Dreamer Deceiver" and "Deceiver" come as two of the best songs ever to round out an album.
Judas Priest never quite sounded this way again, and after this album, neither did heavy metal. It would be almost five years before anything else came remotely close.
- Prelude
- Tyrant
- Genocide
- Epitaph
- Island of Domination
- Victim of Changes
- The Ripper
- Dreamer Deceiver
- Deceiver
Rating: 94%
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