Milestone album at it's release and still holds up extremely well. Not a single weak song, couple of absolute classics and Rob on top. A weak 9 but still a 9.

Musically this does almost nothing for me aside from a few impressive leads and solos, but that just speaks to my personal tastes never really aligning with heavy metal as a standalone genre.

That said, Halford's vocal delivery is god-tier. Imagine listening to this guy shake the walls and shatter glasses of the local pub before hitting it big.

Best JP with Painkiller for me. "Victim Of Changes" and "Tyrant" definite fav JP songs ever

The ripper and deceiver are bangers, the rest is alright

Written by Roman Doez on 22.07.2022 at 13:09

The ripper and deceiver are bangers, the rest is alright

Didnt you talk about 70s Priest being so much better than Painkiller only recently?
Where is 70s Priest better than Painkiller if not here (well and Stained Class if you ask me)?

Written by Redel on 22.07.2022 at 13:49

Didnt you talk about 70s Priest being so much better than Painkiller only recently?
Where is 70s Priest better than Painkiller if not here (well and Stained Class if you ask me)?

No, this is my first time listening to 70's Priest. The only thing I said was that Screaming For Vengeance was better than Painkiller. And BTW, I do like this album more than Painkiller as well

Written by Roman Doez on 22.07.2022 at 15:01

Written by Redel on 22.07.2022 at 13:49

Didnt you talk about 70s Priest being so much better than Painkiller only recently?
Where is 70s Priest better than Painkiller if not here (well and Stained Class if you ask me)?

No, this is my first time listening to 70's Priest. The only thing I said was that Screaming For Vengeance was better than Painkiller. And BTW, I do like this album more than Painkiller as well

Ok, then it was someone else. Someone said that recently here, at least I do recall so.

Written by Roman Doez on 22.07.2022 at 13:09

The ripper and deceiver are bangers, the rest is alright

They are good songs but "Victim Of Changes" is my favourite song off this album, and one of my all time favourite Judas Priest songs.

Painkiller stomps this any and every day.

Everytime you listen to Dreamer, it's becoming the best outro ever. Classic.

Written by A Real Mönkey on 22.07.2022 at 18:01

Painkiller stomps this any and every day.

So your opinion on this album is that Painkiller is better?!
OK...

Written by JoHn Doe on 04.05.2023 at 11:32

Written by A Real Mönkey on 22.07.2022 at 18:01

Painkiller stomps this any and every day.

So your opinion on this album is that Painkiller is better?!
OK...

And don’t you forget it.

Written by A Real Mönkey on 04.05.2023 at 15:15

Written by JoHn Doe on 04.05.2023 at 11:32

Written by A Real Mönkey on 22.07.2022 at 18:01

Painkiller stomps this any and every day.

So your opinion on this album is that Painkiller is better?!
OK...

And don’t you forget it.

Well, I find Painkiller rather overrated and overhyped, so there you go...

Concerning Sad Wings of Destiny, I absolutely love the first half of the album. Rob's voice on "Dreamer/Deceiver" is simply magical. "Tyrant" is also good. The rest of the second half, however, doesn't really do it for me. I know people are sick of comparing albums, but Stained Class is the overall better 70's Priest experience. It might not have the epic melodic highlight of "Dreamer/Deceiver", but it does have "Beyond the Realms of Death". And it's well paced, the quality of every song ranges from great to perfect, and I just love those catchy grooves like “White Heat, Red Hot” and “Better By You, Better Than Me”. Anyway, back to Sad Wings. It's definitely a landmark for its time, was a great starting point for Priest's development, and simply deserves all the praise it gets.

Addressing the comparisons made to Painkiller, both in the comment thread of Sahar's staff review and here in this thread, I want to lay out some of my thoughts. So, I'm sorry in advance for the rambling, but, hey, a comment section is meant to be filled, right?

Anyway, yesterday I was listening to my compilation CD of Judas Priest while studying. And it hit me again why I love this band. The tracklist of the compilation CD is structured chronologically, so one can nicely follow the historical evolution of the band. And what a fascinating evolution it truly is. For instance, I'm listening to the heartfelt “Diamonds and Rust”, when I'm suddenly faced with the speed metal “Exciter”. Next up is the epic, melancholic ballad “Beyond the Realms of Death”, only to be immediately followed by the groovy rock anthem “Hell Bent For Leather”. One after the other, you've got such drastically different styles, but they all are so entertaining, so well done, and somehow all feel so much like Judas Priest. What does that mean? Well, it certainly helps that the lineup stayed incredibly consistent over several decades so that, no matter what they play, that guitar duo, that voice, that groove are so uniquely recognizable. No matter how much they veer away from the style of their early days, there's some unidentifiable core element to their sound that always stays there.

That takes us to Painkiller. The extreme culmination of a long journey through various styles: from sweet melodies like “Epitaph” to stadium anthems like “Breaking the Law”, from fun glam metal like “Turbo Lover” to the ominous battle cries of “Blood Red Skies”. And yet, after listening to all those mixing moods, my jaw still drops at that drum fury, those lethal guitar riffs, and those iconic shrieks from hell in the one and only Painkiller. I wasn't there in the 1990, but I imagine it must've taken a lot of guts to release such an intense, unrelenting rollercoaster. Sure, thrash and death metal were already invented by other bands at that point, and Priest had fast and mean guitar riffs on Defenders of the Faith and Ram It Down. But never had Rob screamed so anti-melodically, with so much rage that, if you look back at the melancholic “Dreamer/Deceiver”, you could mistake him as an entirely different person. On Painkiller, they went all out, going for the throat, pulling no punches, throwing all this passion and skill into a melting pot of intricate guitar solos, pummeling percussion, menacing riffs, and gloriously catchy songwriting to string it all together.

I'm amazed at how the band keep reinventing themselves every few years and somehow keep succeeding no matter what they do. For a question like Sad Wings vs Painkiller, it's almost impossible to compare, let alone to choose one. They clearly had totally different goals in mind when creating those two albums, and, therefore, what a listener prefers will depend on what they want from the music. You want beautiful vocals and epic lamentations? Sad Wings is your best bet. You want to bang your head till it comes clean off? Painkiller is right this way. Personally, no matter what I want from heavy metal, I can always find a Judas Priest song to reliably deliver the goods. As KK Downing once said (according to the booklet of this compilation CD), “Black Sabbath are heavy, but Judas Priest are metal.”

@F3ynman2000 reading you is always a blast. Never apologize for taking space in a comment section man.

I agree, you can't really compare those 2 albums. One thing is sure, both kick ass and this kind of debate/conversation just goes to show how varied their discography is and how much of an impact they had on the scene. Judas Priest is such a fantastic band.

Written by F3ynman on 20.02.2024 at 22:04

One after the other, you've got such drastically different styles, but they all are so entertaining, so well done, and somehow all feel so much like Judas Priest.

This right here explains why I love Priest so much. When I was a young metal head I honestly didn't take any real notice of them until Painkiller came out, and even then it took me years to go back and explore their catalog. When I finally did I understood what all the fuss was about, and why they are one of the greatest bands of all time.

Their range and ability to successfully style-jump is amazing.