JUDAS PRIEST — Turbo (review)

JUDAS PRIEST — Turbo album cover Album · 1986 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Warthur
In all of Judas Priest's 1980s albums, a tension between their aggressive metal roots and more radio-friendly hit-making fare exists. Sure, British Steel might have the comparatively raw Breaking the Law, but Living After Midnight and United are poppier numbers. Point of Entry leaned harder on the pop-metal side of the equation, Screaming For Vengeance went easier on the pop and harder on the metal, and Defenders of the Faith found the two sides of their 1980s sound more or less in balance.

On Turbo, the scales shift way back towards the pop side of their sound, and as with Point of Entry this has meant it's not dated quite so well as British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance, or Defenders; there's a thick aroma of cheese here, with the band using synthesisers and studio treatments of their guitars more than they ever had before.

That said, I actually think it succeeds better at this than Point of Entry did. Of all of Priest's attempts to go radio-friendly, this is certainly the most polished and hookiest. Just try not to sing along to Turbo Lover, if you don't believe me. I think Screaming For Vengeance showed the best of their purist metal side at the time, but as far as forays into finely-honed, studio-enhanced, synth-infused pop-metal go, Turbo is far more compelling than a lot of the material in this sort of vein that would issue forth in the 1980s; I'd rather listen to it than the vast majority of then-contemporary glam metal or hair metal.

If it's not your thing, then sure, it's not your thing - but let's not pretend that this was some sort of unexpected, unprecedented betrayal by Judas Priest of their earlier sound; there'd been an undercurrent of this sort of accessible, sing-along stuff in their repertoire for a good long while by the time they made this, Turbo just happens to be the album where they decided to concentrate on that aspect of their sound, and I think it's for the best that the band were open to putting out albums which put one side of their sound or the other under the microscope rather than sticking right to the middle of the road all the time.
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