Priest

In many ways the fifth Judas Priest studio album, "Hell Bent for Leather" (aka "Killing Machine" outside the US) released in the fall of 1978 is the band's definitive album, showcasing all their strengths and epitomizing what this heavy metal group is all about. The album was produced during the period they adopted the "leather & studs" style breaking new ground in heavy metal sound and image. Although gothic themes are present the album isn't truly dark or morbid, the band is as aggressive and brutally intense as ever. The blistering two-guitar attack and shreds of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing will melt your head - the solos have some serious attitude, and by now Rob Halford had established his quite unique, much lower and more menacing, vocal style…

With a track listing avoiding songs which already had an outing on Unleashed In the East, this double live album from the Turbo tour showcases how Priest were able to work their material into a cohesive setlist, despite the studio albums the songs come from having very divergent sounds - Turbo and Point of Entry don't sound much like British Steel, for instance, and Screaming For Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith sound different from those other three, but the renditions here manage to make everything sit together naturally, revealing that perhaps it was more the production approach on those albums than anything inherent to the songwriting which was responsible for the apparent divergenve…

Tim "Ripper" Owens, who had previously sung in a Judas Priest tribute band called British Steel, was hired in 1996 as Judas Priest's new singer. This line up released two albums, Jugulator and Demolition, as well as two live double-albums – '98 Live Meltdown and Live in London…

There have indeed been countless Judas Priest compilations issued over the years. But if you're a Priest collector, then the 2011 release Single Cuts has to be one of the most intriguing archival releases the group has ever issued. That said, this observation only pertains to the pricier 52-song/20-disc (!) box set version, not the lighter-on-the-wallet single-disc version, which serves as another Priest "best-of."…

Sony's The Essential Judas Priest collection is the perfect middle ground for those who found 2004's four-disc Metalogy box a bit too daunting. Each and every one of the 34 tracks is indispensable, chronicling the group's rise from Queen-worshipping debutantes to revolutionary metal gods. It's often the case that when career retrospectives take a non-linear approach to their sequencing, the resulting play list becomes a mess of clashing recording techniques and jarring style changes, but Priest has always held true to its vision, experimenting early on with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in ways that seamlessly bridged the gap between their Gull and Columbia years. From the opening avatar scream of 2005's comeback single "Judas Rising" to the introductory guitar swells of Screaming for Vengeance's "The Hellion/Electric Eye" - no live cuts or Tim "Ripper" Owens-era tracks were included - this is one compilation that's worthy of its moniker.

This 19-disc box set from Sony Legacy includes bonus track-laden, remastered versions of almost all of the iconic New Wave of British Heavy Metal outfit's studio albums…

If you love Vivaldi's FOUR SEASONS, you will eat this up. The new tempos (which may be more like the original) take this piece from its previous iterations as a formal, Baroquesque piece to a wild, rowdy interpretation of nature's four seasons I mean, the actual four seasons. Spring has never sounded more like spring (the speeded up tempo reveals myriad birdsongs), etc.

Judas Priest was one of the most influential heavy metal bands of the '70s, spearheading the New Wave of British Heavy Metal late in the decade. Decked out in leather and chains, the band fused the gothic doom of Black Sabbath with the riffs and speed of Led Zeppelin, as well as adding a vicious two-lead guitar attack; in doing so, they set the pace for much popular heavy metal from 1975 until 1985, as well as laying the groundwork for the speed and death metal of the '80s….

Without a brutal evaluation of their own becoming, TV Priest might have never made their second album. Heralded as the next big thing in post-punk, they were established as a bolshy, sharp-witted outfit, the kind that starts movements with their political ire. There was of course truth in that, but it was a suit that quickly felt heavy on its wearer’s shoulders, leaving little room for true vulnerability. “A lot of it did feel like I was being really careful and a bit at arm's length,” says vocalist Charlie Drinkwater. “I think maybe I was not fully aware of the role I was taking. I had to take a step back and realize that what we were presenting was quite far away from the opinion of myself that I had. Now, I just want to be honest.”