Look past the teenage fantasy lyrics, the leather\/bondage gear
\nand albums like
\nRam It Down<\/i> and
\nTurbo<\/i> and you’ll find an intelligent band. In 1989, Priest
\nsaw a musical landscape that not only virtually guaranteed top 10
\nchart entries for bands like White Lion and Winger, but was also
\nopening to harder bands, such as Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth.
\nJudas Priest wisely saw this as a safe time to put away the
\nkeyboards and make a return to form. The addition of drummer Scott
\nTravis also injected some much-needed urgency.<\/p>\n
Less than fifteen seconds into the title track of their 1990
\nrelease,
\nPainkiller<\/i> immediately lays down one simple statement:
\nPriest was not f*%&ing around with this album. Priest wisely
\nchose to release this song as their first single: it was a great
\nway to reintroduce the band to fans who thought the band had gone
\nsoft, or their heaviest song was “Breaking the Law.” The song was a
\nmulti-layered powerhouse, filled with breakneck riff changes and
\nRob Halford’s voice going from a dentist drill to the sound of
\nsomeone literally descending into hell.<\/p>\n
If you can manage not to repeat the first track, the rest of
\nPainkiller<\/i> may not attain the same heights of the title
\ntrack, but it holds up remarkably well, even 15 years after its
\nrelease. “Metal Meltdown” and “A Touch of Evil” balance deftly
\nbetween melodicism and muscle. Whether it was the addition of
\nTravis or the friendlier music environment, Priest seemed totally
\nreenergized with
\nPainkiller<\/i>. So energized, you can even overlook
\nclich\u00e9d titles like “Hell Patrol” and “All Guns
\nBlazing.”<\/p>\n
Rob Halford’s now-open sexuality makes it hard to listen through
\n“Leather Rebel” without snickering. Lyrically, you almost wish they
\nwould have added a bit more thought into their songs (a la
\nStained Class<\/i>). If they focused a tad more on their lyrical
\nmuscle,
\nPainkiller<\/i> would have been an instant classic.<\/p>\n
Still,
\nPainkiller<\/i> made for a great introduction into ’90s metal.
\nMegadeth’s
\nRust In Peace<\/i> would be the band’s commercial and artistic
\npeak and Metallica’s black album would forever change Metallica in
\nthe eyes of their fans. Unfortunately, the band was not able to
\nhold together after
\nPainkille<\/i>r’s release. Halford would leave the band and the
\nJudas Priest would not drop another album for almost seven years.
\nIt’s understandable that the band has been trying to recapture the
\nmagic of their earlier recordings, but
\nPainkiller<\/i> would have been the perfect album to end their
\ncareer with: a near-masterpiece that can stand with the band’s best
\nworks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5855],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38303","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-judas-priest","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38303","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38303"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38303"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}