Rocka Rolla - Judas Priest

Where to start? I love this album to death and it is really special to me. “It still sends my / Senses reeling” [“Winter”] even now. I love the key change in the “Winter” solo and at the end of “Never Satisfied” when the guitars slow right down, and then Halford howls out the last word, “satisfied”. I don’t know how he does it, but this man has got magical vocal chords. It almost seems like a loose concept album to me; the character enjoys being in his rock band and all the perks that come with it at first but it comes at a heavy price; everything goes wrong in his life and he ends up feeling like he hasn’t achieved anything. All he’s got left are his ...  Read the complete review

The first release from Judas Priest is quite different from the sound and image they would very soon become associated with, as the loud young Brummies ditched their hippie look, prog aspirations and disappointing drummer and producer to begin recording the definitive albums of early heavy metal. ‘Rocka Rolla’ is an infamously flawed record, but this is largely due to unexpected problems with the studio equipment and personnel more than the material, which is often of a surprisingly high standard. Even if the band members themselves look down on this release, they are the first to admit that there are some great early classics scattered throughout... it’s just that the ...  Read the complete review

Judas Priest — Rocka Rolla Year — 1974 The line-up — ROB HALFORD - vocals K.K. DOWNING - lead guitar GLENN TIPTON - lead guitar IAN HILL - bass guitar JOHN HINCH - drums In the annals of British rock and heavy metal history, Judas Priest will go down as a classic act, and as one of the most influential bands in the entire area of heavy rock and metal. Formed out of the industrial wastelands of late 60’s Birmingham, Priest were one of the few heavy metal bands to remain successfully active throughout the punk rock era in which most of the early heavy metal practitioners were obliterated, and later went on ...  Read the complete review