Judas Priest - The Essential Judas Priest
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Music CD Cover Artist: Judas Priest Edition: Music CD Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered CD Release Date: 2006-04-11 Music Label: Sony Soundtracks: Music CD 1
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Free Music Notes for The Essential Judas Priest Album
Free Music Review: An incredible Priest compilation
Hit: 4 Stars
The Essential Judas Priest (2006.) A compilation covering the classic heavy metal band's 1976-2005 career.
INTRODUCTION:
Judas Priest aren't called the Metal Gods for nothing. For decades, Rob Halford and comrades have rocked the world and never let down. Even after a decade and a half of uncertainly, Halford returned to the band, and the band's golden age has picked up right where it left off. The sky's the limit for these classic hard rockers. And, what better way to attract even more of an audience than with a new hits compilation. The Essential Judas Priest was released in 2006. Read on for my review on the new compilation, and see how it fares!
OVERVIEW:
The Essential Judas Priest was released on April 11, 2006. The compilation consists of two compact discs, and thirty-four tracks overall. It was released on Sony, and features tracks that span the bands Rob Halford years from 1976-1990 and 2005. In all, it pulls tracks from twelve of the band's fifteen studio albums released over the years.
REVIEW:
I hate hits compilations for a number of reasons, as anyone who knows me well knows. They're usually scattershot messes of tracks that fail to represent the artist in question. Fortunately, the people at Sony have done a pretty good job with The Essential Judas Priest. The tracks aren't in chronological order, and there are a few glaring omissions, but for the most part, it's a nice retrospective of the band's career. Read on to see what's here, what didn't make the cut, and how I feel about it.
ROCKA ROLLA (1974):
TRACKS HERE: NONE
COMMENTS: The band's debut album wasn't on a major label, and was never too commercially successful. As such, it's not uncommon when the band's compilations don't feature songs from this album. This is no exception. Cheater, One For The Road, and Never Satisfied would have gone great on here, but I guess it's no major loss.
SAD WINGS OF DESTINY (1976):
TRACKS HERE: Victim Of Changes, The Ripper
COMMENTS: Also not on a major label, but it was the album that begin to attract the attention of hard rock fans. This album is where the band really started to get in touch with their heavy metal side for the first time, and it showed through in many places. And the Sony people picked two great tracks from the album. It's a shame Tyrant didn't make the cut, though.
SIN AFTER SIN (1977):
TRACKS HERE: Diamonds And Rust, Sinner
COMMENTS: The band's first major label album. For the most part, good song choices were made, as these were pretty big hits for the band. Starbreaker and Dissident Aggressor would have been nice too, but their omissions are no big deal.
STAINED CLASS (1978):
TRACKS HERE: Exciter, Beyond The Realms Of Death
COMMENTS: This brings me to one of the major flaws of this compilation. Better By You Better Than Me wasn't included! Why not!? It was a HUGE hit (not to mention controversial.) Exciter's a great cut, but an album this great deserves more emphasis than two songs.
KILLING MACHINE/HELL BENT FOR LEATHER (1979)
TRACKS HERE: Hell Bent For Leather, Delivering The Goods, The Green Manalashi (With The Two-Pronged Crown), Before The Dawn
COMMENTS: There's no shortage of songs from this classic album. I was disappointed not to see Take On The World, but the other songs from this album featured here are so excellent, I'm not complaining.
BRITISH STEEL (1980)
TRACKS HERE: Breaking The Law, United, Metal Gods, Living After Midnight
COMMENTS: You can't have a Judas Priest compilation without Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight, so the set has that base covered. But where are Rapid Fire and Grinder? Good album, good emphasis on here, but too many omissions.
POINT OF ENTRY (1981)
TRACKS HERE: Heading Out To The Highway, Hot Rockin'
COMMENTS: Where the hell is Desert Plains, the most popular song from the album!? And where's Troubleshooter!? These two songs are good, and I'm not denying that for one second. But this is an underrated album that needed more emphasis.
SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE (1982)
TRACKS HERE: You've Got Another Thing Coming, The Hellion, Electric Eye, Screaming For Vengeance
COMMENTS: To put it simply, this is the most popular Judas Priest album. Choosing what songs to put on here from the album was obviously no easy task, since there were so damn many good ones to choose from. For the most part, the Sony people managed well. Still, I missed Riding On The Wind, Bloodstone, and (Take These) Chains.
DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH (1984)
TRACKS HERE: Love Bites, Freewheel Burning, Jawbreaker, The Sentinel
COMMENTS: Same situation here. Great album with a lot of great songs, and no small number of choices. These are all great songs, and fairly big hits for the group. But where's Some Heads Are Gonna Roll, and Rock Hard Ride Free?
TURBO (1986):
TRACKS HERE: Turbo Lover, Out In The Cold
COMMENTS: When Priest went pop metal, they released this album and got a very mixed reaction. Nonetheless, the album still did well in the eyes of many of the band's fans. These are the two biggest hits from the album, and they're good songs. Locked In, Private Property, and Reckless would have been nice additions, though.
RAM IT DOWN (1988)
TRACKS HERE: Ram It Down, Blood Red Skies
COMMENTS: Another "mixed reaction" album for the band. As such, emphasis is fairly limited on this one. But despite this, the band remained wildly popular. These were two of the most popular songs from the album. I miss Heavy Metal and Johnny B. Goode, though.
PAINKILLER (1990)
TRACKS HERE: A Touch Of Evil, Painkiller, Night Crawler, Hell Patrol
COMMENTS: The swan song from the classic lineup, until the reunion. After two questionable pop-metal albums, the band released this heavy metal onslaught on an unsuspecting world. The title track is one of the best Priest songs ever. The other tracks featured here are no slouches ether. Still, All Guns Blazing and Leather Rebel would have gone well on here.
JUGULATOR (1997)
TRACKS HERE: NONE
COMMENTS: This was one of the albums with Tim "Ripper" Owens singing. The Sony people must have wanted to do Halford-only stuff on here, and I respect that. The Ripper albums were no prize. The lack of tracks here doesn't hurt me one bit.
DEMOLITION (2001)
TRACKS HERE: NONE
COMMENTS: The other Ripper album, so it's the same situation. No harm, no foul.
ANGEL OF RETRIBUTION (2005)
TRACKS HERE: Judas Rising, Revolution
COMMENTS: Nice tracks from the band's Halford reunion album. But where are Deal With The Devil, Wheels Of Fire, and Worth Fighting For, the other big hits from the album? I don't blame the record company for not wanting to overemphasize the new album, but I still miss these songs.
OTHER COMMENTS:
For the most part I am happy with this compilation, I just wish they hadn't left off so many songs, and I wish they hadn't messed up the running order of the tracks. Most of the other Essential compilations are chronological order, so why not this one? Overall it's a good enough compilation, but it could have been better.
OVERALL:
Overall, it's a good compilation. If you don't want to spend the money to get all of the band's albums, this makes for a fine alternative. Looking for a Judas Priest retrospective? If so, this is the way to go! It's best to buy all of the band's albums rather than a compilation, but if you're on a budget, this is the one to go with. Recommended for casual/beginning fans!
EDITION NOTES:
Not much to say here. It's a new compilation, and as such, it is readily available in just about every American store that has a decent-sized compact disc selection.