vmagistr 1977 was certainly not the most prolific year for hard rock music in the United Kingdom. The old "dinosaurs" were either quitting or devoting their favour to the wide American market, and it was too early for the album production of the early members of NWOBHM. In this strange in-between time, alongside bands like UFO, Nazareth, AC/DC or Thin Lizzy, a relatively established, almost six years long touring formation from the Birmingham suburbs called Judas Priest tried to take the next step in their still slowly developing career. With a new record deal in their pocket, the band has gradually begun to blaze a trail for other future members of the brotherhood of aggressive distortion and sixteenth-notes. But the fact that the band was still in their "searching" phase shows fully on their first release for CBS - the album Sin After Sin.

The opener Sinner sounds pretty pumped up, and the accompanying guitar lines of the Tipton/Downing pairing amuse me a lot; unfortunately, the band also inserted a slowed-down instrumental passage into the bowels of the track, which still stumbles backwards to the progressive tendencies of the previous two albums. Even Halford's vocals, at times turning into a rather annoying squeal for me, don't yet have that edge of years to come. Joan Baez's cover of Diamonds and Rust (on the one hand, it sounds utterly implausible that an increasingly harder rocking band would borrow material from a folk bard, on the other hand - with the band's name itself inspired by a Bob Dylan song, I suppose pretty much anything is possible) is another in a line of hilarious covers that Priest have been able to do - fast, melodic and with the potential to be properly hardened.

Starbreaker shows exactly the direction the band would take on subsequent albums - biting guitars, Halford's vibrating but already sovereign vocals in the treble, and a throbbing rhythmic underside. At the same time, he's my biggest (who knew, right?) favorite on the record. It makes it all the more frustrating every time that the following track, Last Rose of Summer, goes in a completely different direction. A calm narrative with Halford's civilian vocals makes it a rather uninspiring end to the first side of the album at five and a half minutes long.

After an awkward opening, Let Us Prey peels off into a passable ride in which the work of hired drummer Simon Phillips and the colourful escapades of the guitar solos are definitely worth mentioning. The track Call for The Priest - Raw Deal does offer some sympathetic riff work, but the slow pace with few changes is not enough for its seven minute length. Oh, and we have another ballad here, named Here Come the Tears, on which Priest seem to have definitively assured themselves that the road to success does not lead past the piano in their case. Closing one Dissident Aggressor comes in with a proper acceleration and a wailing guitar solo, and (like Starbreaker) I more than enjoy it.

So what to do with this trying but still "looking over its shoulder" effort? When Judas Priest tried to rock hard, things were looking very promising, but the slow tempos and ballads drag the record down to below average again - the real "Sin After Sin" is contained mainly on the second side of the album. Along with the debut, I see this record as the weakest thing Judas Priest issued in the seventies or eighties.

Warthur A swirling keyboard line introduces Panic Attack, the first song on Judas Priest's latest album, Invincible Shield - sounding nothing like any of the prior dabbling in synthesisers and more like they've been dipping a toe into the synthwave scene. No, it's not a radical shift in direction - just an atmospheric intro which gives way to metal fury once the song kicks into high gear, offering the most electrifying opening track on a Priest album since Painkiller.

And it never, ever lets up after that! After the excellent Firepower found Priest playing in a very direct, go-for-the-throat style which went back to basics, this one sees them elaborating the song structures a bit in a manner reminiscent of their 1970s material whilst still keeping the sound fresh, offering a sound with blends the fury and pace of Painkiller, the pristine production of their mid-1980s material, and the edge of transgression and defiance they've been offering up since the 1970s, encapsulating the best of all of their classic eras whilst still finding novel and exciting songs to play in this style.

A particular tip of the hat is needed for Glenn Tipton, who despite his Parkinson's still manages to contribute to the album, helping out with songwriting as he always has and putting in a few guitar solos here and there. Andy Sneap of Sabbat fame, who's served as Tipton's stand-in for the band's live shows ever since he stepped back from in-person performance, is credited with additional guitar, as well as fully taking on the producer's role (having co-produced Firepower), and he does a fine job of all these tasks, engineering the album to perfection as well as giving Glenn that essential backup. Given how key he's become to the band's activities these days, we should surely start thinking of Andy as Judas Priest's unofficial sixth member; he'd deserve it based on his contributions to this album alone, but combine that with his sterling work on Firepower and the grand job he does live filling in for Glenn he's surely become as crucial as any of the tenured band members.

Think of any other band who've been going as long as Priest, putting a new album out some 50 years after their debut; nine times out of ten, that new album's going to be a bit of a nostalgia exercise, a process of going through the motions which will appeal to ultra-fans but doesn't really offer much over their more compelling work they put out in their prime. Now look at Priest: it's easy enough to say that Invincible Shield beats the living daylights out of Rocka Rolla, that's a notably weak debut which more or less all of their albums bar for Demolition or Jugulator beat comfortably.

But for Invincible Shield to measure up credibly next to the likes of Sad Wings of Destiny, Stained Class, or Painkiller? That's astonishing - and yet I really think it does. Judas Priest are an inspiration to all the rest of us: if these lads can keep the flame burning after half a century, if Glenn Tipton can keep contributing as he does here despite his Parkinson's, then that's a challenge to all of us to face whatever challenges life throws at us with equal determination. Perhaps that conviction and self-belief - and confidence that their listeners can discover that same fire within them - which is Priest's true Invincible Shield.

siLLy puPPy The living heavy metal legends known as JUDAS PRIEST very well may be the longest running metal band in existence having formed in 1970 and never taking a leave of absence for all 54 years and has been unleashing one classic metal album after another. True that a few members such as K.K. Downing have gone by the wayside over the years and lead singer Rob Halford took a brief respite after “Painkiller” but ultimately upon his return in 2005 with “Angel of Retribution,” JUDAS PRIEST has been back and stronger than ever despite a few failed forays into experimental albums such as “Nostradamus” which weren’t exactly crowd pleasers but did offer an intriguing insight into the band’s more explorative nature.


It goes without saying that JUDAS PRIEST fans are headbangers and if these guys want to dabble in psychedelic prog indie rock with polka and Tuvan throat singing then they’d sure as hell better indulge those fantasies under a different band name. Luckily the band got the memo that they lost their true calling and with 2018’s “Firepower” the mighty PRIEST returned to what it does best and that is crank out anthemic arena quality heavy metal, the sound that put the entire metal world on the map in the first place. Well the metal royalty has returned six years after “Firepower” with a brand spankin’ new slab of molten metal ready to deliver the classic JUDAS PRIET goods.

INVINCIBLE SHIELD is the 19th studio album coming out exactly 50 years after its debut “Rock Rolla” hit the scene in 1974! Now THAT’S longevity and what’s even more amazing is that these guys sound more on fire than they did on that debut album that emerged a half century ago! Yes, it’s true! These guys sound exactly as they did in the 80s with razor-sharp dueling guitar attacks, a thundering bass and drum attack and of course the imitable metal god vocal prowess of none other than Rob Halford whose decades of shrieking and tearing it up at the mic has not taken a toll on his distinct singing style. Following very much in the footsteps of “FIrepower,” INVINCIBLE SHIELD does what most classic 80s albums offered and that includes: delivery exactly what the fans expect only change things up just enough to keep the album from sounding like the leftover tracks of the previous album.

It’s hard to believe that after all this time when metal has expanded into countless subgenres ranging from death metal and black metal to bizarre freaky hybrids such as trance metal and the J-pop induced Kawaii metal that JUDAS PRIEST would still be relevant in 2024 but the band has always offered such quality musical performances and in tandem with Iron Maiden is the old guard keeping the thundering heavy metal of yore going strong so many decades after its initial ascent to the throne of heavy music and while INVINCIBLE SHIELD hardly reinvents the wheel or offers a new direction for the band, what it does demonstrate is that JUDAS PRIEST is and still remains the master of this feisty in-yer-face classic heavy metal sound that even the younger generations seem to love when done as authentically and brilliantly as this classic slice of metal history in modern times.

Eschewing any excess experimentation and focusing on the heavy metal thunder of their legendary status, PRIEST is back with a aural assault of 11 tracks and an extra 3 bonus tracks on deluxe editions. Generating a frothing frenzy with the early release of the single “Panic Attack,” JP generated a visceral response that offered both a sense of disbelief that a bunch of guys in their 60s and 70s can still be cranking out such energetic metal as well as a sense of nostalgia for all the longterm fans who have been with them since the old days. Well INVINCIBLE SHIELD will not disappoint any classic PRIEST fans as the album gives the rabid headbangers exactly what they were hoping for in unadulterated classic PRIEST form. And like its predecessor “Firepower,” there may be no surprises lurking here but the consistency of the tracks will assuage the restless souls of diehard classic PRIEST fans.

Overall another great album in classic 80s heavy metal style from the masters of molten metal and living legends JUDAS PRIEST. Every member is firing on all pistons. The twin guitar attacks are up to snuff with all those addictive guitar sweeps and incessant groove pounding as well as the stellar bass and percussive rhythm section. The tracks are all instantly hook-laden and the classic variations of intros, outros, songwriting and contrast between segments reigns supreme. On top of that Rob Halford has lost none of his brash bravado and can still sing like a muthafucker hitting all the high notes and sounding like he’s at the top of his game, something that many singers cannot retain in their 70s.

If nothing else JUDAS PRIEST symbolizes the longevity of the heavy metal music paradigm because after all when the band was attacked in the 1980s by the religious zealots as inspiring suicide and Satanic worship, the consensus was that metal music was just a fad for the immature adolescents and that it would soon fade to oblivion. However after countless witch hunts and accusations of every possible path to the devil himself, JUDAS PRIEST has sallied forth throughout the decades without flinching. And to top it off it seems that the band are in no danger of slowing down any time soon. Could these guys become the very first centurial metal band? Only time will tell! So wrong the naysayers have been and so strong JUDAS PRIEST has become in keeping the flame alive of the old metal ways! All hail the PRIEST!

Warthur This latest career-spanning box from Judas Priest celebrates their golden anniversary in grand style. As well as the usual book, photos, posters, and freebies you get with this sort of thing, the box comes with all the official Judas Priest studio and live albums released to date, plus a mass of additional material in the form of live shows and archival recordings that have all been hitherto-unreleased.

The caveat on that is that they’re unreleased on an “official” basis - some of these recordings have formed the basis of much-copied bootlegs over the years. However, bootlegs are bootlegs - they don’t support the original artists, they’re dubiously sourced, and the copy that makes it to your hands is often a rip of a rip of a rip. These live releases come from as close to the original source material as possible, and have had a loving tune-up to sound as good as they possibly can.

I may as well spend this review talking about the new stuff in the box, because there’s not much to say about the already-released stuff beyond the fact that they also sound great and come in nicely-presented cardboard sleeves replicating the original packaging nicely. If you are a metal fan, you probably already have an opinion on all these albums, but getting them all in one shot with a sympathetic remaster is nothing to sneeze at.

As for the vault material, it’s truly expansive - covering 13 CDs, it constitutes nearly a third of the boxed set’s contents in terms of number of discs (and is probably comfortably over a third when you consider the amount of music represented). It all hails from 1991 and earlier, but to be honest that’s fair enough; the Ripper era and the period following the reunion with Rob Halford are both represented by two live albums each, so it’s not like those periods are exactly unrepresented here. (One might wish for a live show from the Firepower tour, which is the only real gap, but then again when you put out this sort of compilation for a still-active band you have to put the cutoff point somewhere.)

The earliest of the live shows in here is a 1979 engagement at New York’s Mudd Club. Hailing from shortly after the Japanese shows captures on Unleashed In the East, the setlist is distinct enough from that album that it certainly doesn’t feel redundant, and the sound quality is fairly decent, capturing the band in a rowdy club context which feels a bit darker than Unleashed.

Next up is a 1980 show from Denver, with the British Steel-era tour setlist in a well-polished state. The band seem more confident here, with Rob addressing the American crowd without the slight hesitation that can be detected at the Mudd Club show, and why shouldn’t they be? They were at the top of their game here.

There’s a 1981 show from London from the Point of Entry tour here. Point of Entry itself might have erred a bit too much towards being radio-friendly - a flaw which, according to the book accompanying the set, the band themselves are well aware of - but this live set reveals that Priest had lost none of their ferocity in-person. The setlist is a bit lighter on Point of Entry material than you might expect, but it does include somewhat more forceful renditions of a few choice tracks from it which cast them in a better light. It’s also generally speaking a fine show, the recording only marred by the fact that, because the audience aren’t miced, when Halford has the audience sing some of the sing-along lines there’s just an absence of vocals (though this does make it fun to sing along to at home).

A December 1982 show from Atlanta hails from the Screaming For Vengeance tour, and the band are absolutely on top of their game here. As well as high-quality renditions of most of their usual hits so far, there’s again some dips into Point of Entry material which really tease out the best in those songs - the rendition of Desert Plains is particularly good. All of the archival live shows in the box are great, but this one is superb.

There’s no show here from the Defenders of the Faith tour, which I feel like is a bit of an oversight; the next show here is from Houston in 1986, on the Turbo tour. Recorded more or less halfway between the two shows which were edited together to form the Priest… Live! album, this naturally ends up having a very similar setlist, but the running order includes selections not included on Priest… Live! and presents the whole show, and it’s such a good performance - on a par with the December 1982 one - that I’d be entirely willing to forgive it. It might feel a little redundant next to Priest… Live! - but if I had to pick only one, I’d pick this over that one, it’s that good. Even songs from less-respected Priest albums like Turbo and Point of Entry excel in this setlist, the more muscular live renditions making them seem like much more natural entries in the Priest canon than they did on the studio versions.

Next up is a 1988 show from New Haven. This is theoretically from the Ram It Down tour, but few songs from that make it onto the setlist. It’s another good show which again reveals that despite some wobbly results in the studio, Priest were still an excellent live band at this point, but I wouldn’t say it adds much over the Houston show.

Based on the MC’s introduction to the 1990 LA show, this seems to have been recorded for radio broadcast, which might account for the truncated track list. Hailing from mere days after the release of Painkiller, it finds the Scott Travis-enhanced lineup in good form, though the mix is not what it could be (Halford’s vocals seem a little quiet on Riding On the Wind, though this is corrected soon enough). It has probably been included out of historical interest, since it includes a live performance of Leather Rebel, which was dropped from the setlist by the end of the year, and it’s interesting to hear how quickly Scott mastered the pre-Painkiller material. (The show also came shortly after the end of the farcical subliminal message trial, and includes a defiant performance of Better By You Better Than Me as the band celebrate a victory for free speech over irrational superstition.) Of all the unearthed shows in this box, I’d say this is probably the weakest, but it’s still an interesting and entertaining listen.

The last full live show dug up from the archives is a concert in Irvine from 1991. Here, the band and Scott seem to have gelled further, but we’re still far enough away from Halford drifting away from the band that he still seems fully engaged. This is more of a full set than the 1990 radio show, and offers a great Painkiller-vintage runthrough of Priest classics and a better selection of songs from Painkiller than the 1990 show had. Another solid live show, though another one with the “we can’t hear the audience callbacks” problem.

The final gift from the archives is the Beyond Live and Rare two-disc set, a grab-bag of particularly nice live performances ranging from 1978 to 1991, topped up with some material saved from the studio cutting-room floor. So far as I can ascertain this does not contain any of the B-side tracks compiled on the original “Live and Rare” release, so anyone who owns that can at least know that this box doesn’t render that release redundant (though anyone who gets this box will have so much live Priest on their plate, I’m not convinced they’ll feel the need for any more).

On the whole, though this box has a chunky price tag, the bang for your buck you get is appreciable. Less than £9 per CD for the entire back catalogue, plus an absolute treasury of live treats, with all the contents sounding better than they ever have? Whatever the reverse of “buyer’s remorse” is, I’m feeling it, because this is absolutely stellar.

Warthur Redeemer of Souls, the first Judas Priest album to feature Richie Faulkner in the guitar post vacated by K.K. Downing, was very much a back-to-basics album, complete with fairly lo-fi production, and managed to be pretty good precisely because of its no-frills approach. Firepower, its followup, has better production and even tighter material, combining a very traditional Judas Priest approach with a few extra flourishes here and there.

It's not an album to radically change the way you see Priest - the last time they did that was Painkiller - but it is consistently good. Despite being nearly an hour long, I found there was very little filler - perhaps it would be a tighter listen if you trimmed a few pieces, but how would you ever choose which to lose when it all sounds so great?

Kingcrimsonprog Opening with the classic double punch of `The Hellion/Electric Eye,’ you know that this concert is going to be good.

The band do their best to mix a diverse career spanning set list with playing all their biggest hits and do a pretty successful job, managing to cover a full five songs from their then new `Angel of Retribution,’ album with their big hits like `Breaking the Law,’ `Living After Midnight,’ and `You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,’ while still playing at least one song from their less famous `Point of Entry,’ `Turbo,’ and `Ram It Down,’ albums.

Musically, the band are on fire, with impressive guitar soloing, energetic on stage performances and drummer Scott Travis playing songs harder, with confidence and authority that makes them sound that much heavier and tighter. The band are playing on a fairly large stage with elaborate set pieces, risers and of course, the famous motorcycle.

Some fans have made a lot of complaints about Rob Halford’s performance here, but with the sole exception of the vocals on the track `Painkiller,’ (which, as it happens has impossibly difficult vocals to begin with) I think these complaints are pretty off the mark.

If you need proof that Rob can still reach those high notes see the `You’re Possessing Me,’ scream in `A Touch of Evil’ or indeed the entire performance of the fast and high pitched `Riding on the Wind.’

Furthermore Rob’s whole on-stage attitude is a winner, seeming genuinely pleased each and every time the crowd gets a sing along moment correct, adding little Robotic Walk gestures to `Metal Gods,’ and generally looking like he’s giving it his all, to the point where he is sweating and red in the face, not because he can’t hack it, but rather because he’s giving it his very all.

Even if you do for some reason take exception with Rob, there is simply no denying the performances of Glen, Scott, Ian and Mr. Downing who all blast away like a well oiled machine, but with the energy of a much younger band.

In terms of camera, editing, sound and mix there really isn’t anything to complain about, everything is handled well and the whole package is as slick and professional as you would hope for from a band of their size.

Overall this is a great looking and great sounding DVD from Judas Priest and that alone should have you interested, add to that an interesting set list and dismiss the complaints about Rob and you should find `Rising In The East,’ a really worthy addition to your collection.