In 1981, the world’s airwaves and arenas were ripe fruit for the
\nboys in leather. Judas Priest was one of the fastest rising bands
\nin the world by then, thanks to the incessant repetition of the two
\nhits from their previous album
\nBritish Steel<\/i>, and a successful (albeit abysmal) live album.
\nMTV was saturated with their videos and spiked leather wristbands
\nwere becoming de rigueur for teenage headbangers from Osaka to
\nOssipee.<\/p>\n
Little by little, each successive JP album was showing more
\ncreativity and more restraint, usually without sacrificing the
\npower that drives their style. With
\nPoint Of Entry<\/i> it almost feels like the tried too hard for a
\nmore melodic sound than ever before, and overshot the mark, which
\nresults in a lot less of the raw aggression that flavors a typical
\nJP album. Some stylistic missteps aside, they succeed in crafting a
\nmuch different landscape than any previous (or future) album. Many
\nfans that were waiting for
\nBritish Steel II<\/i> were understandably dismayed and thus
\ndismissed it. But for those who give it a fair chance, this album
\nhas a lot to offer.<\/p>\n
This disc has gotten a bad reputation, with fans accusing it of
\nbeing too soft. I can see where this comes from. The album overall
\ndoes lack the powerful edge of their previous work. There’s no
\n“Ripper” or “Steeler” on this disc. Nothing that grinds as hard as
\nanything on
\nHell Bent For Leather<\/i> or
\nStained Class,<\/i> that’s for sure. Still, I think the criticism
\nis a bit unfair.
\nPoint Of Entry<\/i> rocks plenty hard at times, especially on the
\nopening track “Heading Out To The Highway.” This is one of their
\nbest songs from any album, with its muscular guitar hook and
\nshout-along chorus.<\/p>\n
When their experimentation does pay off, it does so very well.
\nOne thing they do here is making better use of their rhythm section
\n(Ian Hill and Dave Holland) than ever before, letting them do more
\nthan just provide backbone. Frankly I’d never paid much attention
\nto them, lost as they always were in the mayhem created by
\nguitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton. Here they take the
\nemphasis off a continuous guitar riff propelling every song. The
\nguitars are there, but they wisely deemphasize them, particularly
\non “Desert Plains,” a mid-tempo power ballad that turns down the
\nguitars a notch, and rides along on a galloping bass line
\naccompanied by some unusual tom-tom work. The more complex rhythmic
\ntheme takes the focus off the guitar, which gives it a sonic
\ntexture that fits in well with the stark atmosphere of the lyrics.
\n“Solar Angels” is another departure stylistically. Lots of guitars,
\nbut this time heavily processed to sound like wings.<\/p>\n
A couple of songs fall flat. “You Say Yes” starts out well, with
\na bluesy boogie riff, but disintegrates into a repetitious chorus,
\nwhich they repeat to the point of nausea. “Hot Rockin” has a lot of
\npromise until you realize it’s “Hell Bent For Leather” redux. One
\nof the stranger songs, “All The Way,” sounds like something
\nstraight from The Kinks songbook. If you have access to both songs,
\nlisten to “All The Way,” then spin The Kinks “Destroyer” and see if
\nyou don’t hear a similarity. Results may very, but I had to raise
\nan eyebrow myself when I played them back-to-back.<\/p>\n
This album is one I have been a vigorous defender of for many
\nyears, because of how good the really good songs are. All summed
\nup, the good tracks overshadow the not-so-good ones. It’s a mixed
\nbag to be sure, but it has a certain charm that has grown on me
\nover the years. And some of the tracks can’t be dismissed. “Desert
\nPlains”, “Heading Out To The Highway” and Troubleshooter” are as
\ngood as anything they’ve ever done. Granted it sounds unlike most
\nof their catalog due to its more melodic feel, but I still enjoy it
\nmore than most of their post-’70s work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5855],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38292","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-judas-priest","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38292"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38292"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}