Painkiller

[Losfer]

So I was sitting here and wondering what to listen to as I am bored because I don't start my new job till Monday.  So after remembering listening to Silent Force the other day and recalling how awesome their cover of All Guns Blazing was, I grabbed Judas Priest's almighty Painkiller and popped it into the stereo.

About fifteen seconds into Hell Patrol I turned it off.

...And proceeded to put it into my discman so I could crank it up louder.

Holy shit, this is actually one of the best albums ever.  Not one that people praise but is really overrated like Number of the Beast *dodges DR's guitars now flying through the air at his head* or Darkside of the Moon *Ducks Nem's and Deg's double team Prog assault*, but a genuinely fucking monster of an album.

I mean, Leather Rebel just came on and it's like I'm in some fucking Blade Runner influenced cyclone that's slamming me repeatedly around the general area.  It's such a fucking ride of an album.

I remember picking up this album, like, just a year or two after getting into Metal at all.  I picked it up randomly from a used CD shop because I had Slayer's South of Heaven and their cover of Dissident Aggressor was a cover of some old Metal band and I thought it was Judas Priest cause Halford sung on The Wizard on that Nativity in Black CD every 16 year old owned at some time.

*Breath*

So I got it and chucked it in the stereo when I got home.  ...Oddly enough I listened to it the first time having a bath.  Anyway, the only thing I remembered at first was that the vocalist sounded like /Axl Rose/ and I wasn't sure if I liked it, cause I didn't know what falsettoing was at that point.  But then Hell Patrol came on and I fucking rocked out!  ...In the bath!  Listening to a gay man shriek on about magic men flying through the skies!

And I still listen to it today, oh shit hang on METAL MELTDOWN METAL MELTDOWN METAL MELTDOWN METALMELTDOWN!!!!!!!11

Alright guys, who else has an opinion of the album?  And bear in mind, the only correct answer is that you rock out to it.  Take your Funeral for a Fag emo virtues elsewhere.

Also tell us the story of first hearing / buying the album, yeah!

*Gets out his studded vest and rhinestone codpiece.*

nightcrawlah...

[Sazabirules]

I do not own it...

[Dave]

Oh man, I do the same thing to Painkiller, but you know what Priest album really gets me?

Stained Class. I know it SCREAMS 80's, but man, between Stained Class, Savage, Beyond the Realms of Death, and of course the ever-controversial Better By You, Better Than Me; I'll go right ahead and say it's probably their best work.

I also rock out hardcore nostalgia status to Screaming for Vengeance.

WOO Priest. :P

As for other albums, I do the same thing to Number of the Beast as well as Powerslave and AMOLAD for Maiden.

On a totally non-Metal vibe, throw in Rubber Soul or Sgt. Pepper and I will rock out to EVERY song. I oddly enough do the same thing to three different REM albums: Document, Green, and Out of Time.

Pink Floyd, it's a whole different experience. I honestly just like to mellow out to Floyd because the music doesn't get me in a "rockin" mood. But I will sit through any album you put in front of me of theirs. I of course like The Wall and DSotM, but I'm more of a fan of Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Division Bell and Wish You Were Here.

Good thread dude.

[Dincrest]

Yeah, Dissident Aggressor was on Priest's "Sin After Sin" album.  Also a great album.  I lost my copy years ago, though.

[Losfer]

Sin After Sin!  Starbreaker is totally overlooked as one of Priest's superawesome tracks!

And QDave...  I don't have Stained Class or Screaming for Vengeance.  >_>  Although!  I have heard Beyond the Realms of Death and the Screaming for Vengeance title track and both are great.  I just have, like...  Ten Priest albums and still need to get, like...  Ten more.

I also want to mention that One Shot  at GTlory at the end of Painkiller is a really overlooked song as well.  I think that song has KK's /and/ Glen's best solos in it.  And the falsettoing is supersonic.

[D-Rider]

I do not own it...

Remedy that.  Holy shit, remedy that.

Painkiller stands out to me largely for a single reason:  because every single track on it is phenomenal.  How many albums can you name where every fucking song kicks you in the ass?  Not many, I'm willing to bet.  And as good as Priest is, you damn sure can't say that about most of their albums.  For every kickass tune like "Electric Eye", there's two or three "Parential Guidance"s, especially during the '80s. :P  

I guess the big thing I remember the most about hearing Painkiller the first time was the jaw-dropping drum shit at the start of the whole thing.  You gotta remember, I've been listening to metal for nearly my entire life:  I heard this shit when it was new.  And that little drum fill was so far beyond the last shit Priest had put out ("Turbo" and "Ram It Down", the low points of their career)  that it blew my damn mind.  It had balls.  Metallica and Megadeth were the big boys in metal at the time, and all of a sudden here comes this dinosaur band (I was ten, what the fuck did I know? :P) to beat the fucking shit out of them.  And this is all in the first fifteen seconds.  It only got better. :P

I use three albums to introduce n00bs to classic metal:  "Live After Death", "Rust In Peace", and this.  As far as I'm concerned, it's a fucking cornerstone of metal.

[Degolas]

Painkiller really, really fucking kicks arse. I mean, it's a bit one-dimensional, but it's such a fucking awesome dimension that it doesn't matter! I agree, it's an absolute metal essential.

Although Screaming for Vengeance also rocks.

And as I type this I'm yelling at Los for daring to say something against Dark Side of the Moon :P

[Dave]

We should just rename this the Judas Priest Appreciation Thread.

And OMGWTF Losfer get those two albums. Stained Class, Painkiller, and Screaming for Vengeance = THE Priest Trifecta.

[Fadedsun]

Has anyone ever heard Death cover "Pain Killer"?  It's the last song on their Sound of Perservearance album. Really good cover.