There is an inherent danger to being on the cutting edge of
anything — namely, people tend to be unable to see the genius or
madness of your actions. Instead, all you get are some confused
shakes of heads.
For Judas Priest, their second studio release
Sad Wings Of Destiny can still be seen as one of those
head-shaking moments. Yes, there are some improvements over their
debut effort
Rocka Rolla, but there often still seemed to be an
uncertainty in the music over where the group saw their style
going. Still, there was enough in this release to convince Columbia
Records to take a chance on them.
By no means is this a bad album — in fact, one can almost hear
where an artist like King Diamond developed his ideas for both his
vocal style and his ability to tell tales in his music. Tracks like
“Victim Of Changes” and “The Ripper,” the two which kick off this
disc, are solid efforts and definitely show that Rob Halford and
company had something to prove this time around. Similarly,
“Tyrant” — while a great track in and of itself — seems to
promise even greater things to come from Judas Priest.
Yet there are still too many moments of musical uncertainty
surrounding this set. With the exception of “Tyrant,” the suite of
songs that starts with “Prelude” and ends with “Island Of
Domination” don’t quite sound like Judas Priest knew what direction
they wanted to go musically. Granted, they were blazing a unique
trail not unlike what Black Sabbath was doing since their start,
but the steps taken on songs like “Genocide” feel like they’re far
too tentative for a band staking a claim in the musical
battlefield.
Statements like that may make it seem to the reader that
Sad Wings Of Destiny is a failure. Hardly — and I admit it
is difficult looking at an album and knowing the band’s 30-year
history that followed its release. Whereas
Rocka Rolla was an unsteady first step,
Sad Wings Of Destiny is indeed a move in the right
direction, and shows a band growing a little more confident in the
fact that they were unlike any other group out there at the time.
Granted, they hadn’t hit their salad days yet, but they were
getting there.
Sad Wings Of Destiny is, at times, an interesting look back
at where Judas Priest was at an early stage in their career. The
journey was still on some unpaved roads, but even with the
weaknesses, Judas Priest would come through their travels well.
