Waitaminnit.
Judas Priest – Painkiller – 1990 (iTunes – Amazon)
I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how it came to be. I imagine that the new drummer, Scott Travis unleashed something but…
This album is great.
I mean it’s scary great.
Halford is in full voice and the Tipton/Downing double guitar attack is augmented by the speed drumming of Travis.
Don’t think hair metal. Think Ride the Lightning. Think Megadeth. Then watch these old hands leapfrog right over all that to create this masterpiece of metal.
This is more than just a headbanging collection of songs. This is a band that has set out to reinvent themselves AS themselves. They sweep aside just about every pretender to their thrown and prove themselves as relevant as Metallica in 1990.
There is a great trilogy of Priest records now. Hell Bent For Leather – Screaming for Vengeance – Painkiller.
It’s that simple.
Grade A
A Side: Between the Hammer and the Anvil, Painkiller, Metal Meltdown.
BlindSide: Everything else.
DownSide: ——
