Painkiller - Judas Priest

To some Painkiller was a triumph; to others a metallic disappointment. judas priest on this album have sacrificed melody for sheer heavyness. This album is heavily americanised in its sound. Gone is the rawness of earlier releases for a more polished sheen which would not have gone amiss production wise for the american hair bands. 'Metal Meltdown'' All Guns Blazing ' are the better songs on the album although it is somtimes hard to tell the songs ...  Read the complete review

The Painkiller is an intergalactic cyborg warrior. Faster than a laser bullet, he rides the Metal Monster, its buzzsaw wheels wreaking vengeance against those who… well, that’s not entirely clear. But no matter; this is the ultimate heavy metal album. I don’t use that word lightly. After the horrible disco-disgrace of ‘Turbo’ in 1986, Priest attempted to reclaim their status as Metal Gods with their last album of the decade, the poorly received ‘Ram it Down.’ A tracklist composed of self-aggrandising song titles such as ‘Heavy Metal’ and ‘Monster of Rock’ didn’t deceive fans, who saw through the band’s attempts to reclaim their former heaviness and reduce (but ...  Read the complete review

Judas Priest are remembered mainly for Rob "Leather Lungs" Halford, screaming away on the vocals, and for the legal case, which Priest won, that revolved around the Stained Class album, where two American schoolkids shot themselves while listening to the album. This album is actually very listenable, and it doesn't suffer from the problem of some of their earlier work of being merely a collection of songs in apparently random order - Painkiller has a particular structure to it, and it's certainly worth listening to. Partway through, the synthesizer break of "Battle Hymn" comes through as the introduction to another song, and not only ...  Read the complete review