JUDAS PRIEST — Stained Class (review)

JUDAS PRIEST — Stained Class album cover Album · 1978 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
RuneWalsh2112
By the time of their forth release, Judas Priest have finally managed to fuse their creativity of "Sad Wings Of Destiny" and the commercial approach of "British Steel" in what would be one of their best releases!

"Exciter" pretty much continues the powerful album opener tradition of "Sinner" from "Sin After Sin" while featuring clear sounds of the NWoBHM era that was just taking off. "White Heat, Red Hot" keeps up the pace with another action packed moment while "Better By You, Better Than Me" is another cover great cover this time of the late '60s tune by Spooky Tooth.

The band keeps most of their material here very energetic and this, to me, is the key to "Stained Class". Songs like the album's title track and "Invader" clearly show that the band could deliver some pretty spectacular album tracks whenever they put their minds to it. "Savage" is probably the only song that falls short of greatness in my book, but I'm sure that most fans actually happen to enjoy even this track.

"Beyond The Realms Of Death" is the only ballad here but it's actually one of the four ballads ( together with "Before The Dawn", "Blood Red Skies" and "Night Comes Down") that I really like from the band. Come to think of if, I've always preferred their more upbeat and aggressive approach to the mellower material but that's just a personal preference.

"Stained Class" is one of the few Judas Priest albums that really made me wish that the band could have worked more on their other releases. The potential has always been there, especially with the magnificent songwriter trio of Rob Halford, K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton. It's really unfortunate that they didn't manage to recreate the magic on"Killing Machine" and the later releases since only a few of them would ever come to the top notch quality of "Stained Class"!

***** star songs: Exciter (5:33) Better By You, Better Than Me (3:25) Beyond The Realms Of Death (6:51)

**** star songs: White Heat, Red Hot (4:19) Stained Class (5:17) Invader (4:11) Saints In Hell (5:28) Heroes End (5:00)

*** star songs: Savage (3:28)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed