Painkiller [Original recording remastered]

This cd was my first Judas Priest cd. I have to say it is the best Heavy Metal album I have ever heard. The drums are great, the guitars are great and vocals are awesome. If you have wondering which Judas Priest album you should get, GET PAINKILLER!!!
P.S. great art on cover.

I like to think of Judas Priest's 1990 metal masterpiece Painkiller as a speed metal Exile On Main Street. Both albums are examples of stunning perfection in thier respective genre's from start to finish. I've always noticed that Judas Priest's role in heavy metal is similar to the Rolling Stones in rock n roll ( The Stones combined the best elements of r&r, r&b, blues, etc. perfected it into thier own definitive style, in every conceivable way became the epitome of rock n roll music and would be the reference point for all real rock n roll music that followed. Judas Priest did the exact same thing for heavy metal.) so I couldn't resist the Exile/Painkiller comparison. Painkiller is the band's fastest and heaviest album to date and easily one of their best. The sound is simply classic Priest fueled by the influence of 80's speed metal bands such as Metallica and Megadeth. Basically, if you like speed metal at all, Painkiller is essential. Everyone in the band is in top form and each gives an inspiring, breathtaking 110% over-the-top performance, especially noteworthy is drummer Scott Travis since Painkiller is his first Priest album and his ferocious double-bass technique gives the band's sound a new power. Every song on Painkiller is a classic beginning with the ferocious beast of a title track on which Rob Halford screams and wails at the top of his lungs for the entire song and Scott Travis unleashes his immortal drum intro and ending with the majestic, epic battle anthem One Shot At Glory featuring one of Glenn Tipton and KK Downing's best ever guitar soloing duels. Also notable is A Touch Of Evil which is the one non-speed-metal song on here; its a heavy, midpaced, atmospheric ballad, of sorts, which sounds not quite like anything else they've ever done and has one of Tipton's greatest guitar solos ever to boot. In my opinion, Judas Priest are the greatest metal band of all time and Painkiller is one of their best albums. You will love it.

In the late 80's, after the robotic Priest...Live! and the false start that was Ram It Down, a lot of metal fans wrote off Judas Priest as a vital metal band.

They were a tad premature.

Perhaps it was Halford inking a few too many tattoos into his noggin', perhaps it was the long overdue departure of Dave Holland on drums, or maybe they were just angry. The band had spent the summer of 1990 defending themselves in the United States against accusations of murder. Not directly, but through backwards messages supposedly embedded in the Stained Class album. It was a show trial designed to blame bad parenting on someone else. But the band triumphed, and came back meaner and angrier than ever before.

Ex-Racer X (the band that also spawned Paul Gilbert among others) drummer Scott Travis, an American, was on board and the band buckled down with producer Chris Tsangarides and made the best record they'd done since at least Screaming for Vengeance if not earlier. Decks had been cleared, the band meant business. This album distills the sounds of Priest over the last 10 years, and puts the turntable from 33 1/3 all the way up to 45. (Young people who don't have a turntable will have no idea what I'm talking about).

This is OTT metal, shiny and mean, Halford screaming higher and harder than any time before, almost to the point of caricature, but not quite. This chrome plated beast blew away expectations. Tipton and Downing still thought they are interesting enough guitar players to do lead break credits on every album, but it's a touch I like. Tipton is the more experimental one and Downing the fast and furious one. As a combo it works, the solos are mostly interesting and suitable.

The production is loud and clear, at the time I felt this was one of the best produced metal albums I'd ever heard. The drums are so loud and clear that it hurts, Travis doing some serious steppin' on the double bass. To steal a phrase from Halford, this is "primo thrash metal". More accurately, speed metal.

Almost every song is worthy. Only a few fall flat. Yes, the lyrics are cartoony, but "Nightcrawler" takes it too far and is too repetitive with a spoken word section that should have been chopped. Also embarassing is "Metal Meltdown", an OTT song that tries but fails to be as dramatic as "Painkiller" itself.

Bonus tracks are the out-of-place "Living Bad Dreams" (a ballad which spoils the record) and an inferior live cut of "Leather Rebel".

Still, quite the album, and realy gets the blood pumping even today. I wish it came with a DVD with the insane video of the title track. Check it out if you want to have a sweat.

5 stars. An mighty if imperfect return.