Band:	Judas Priest
Album:	Unleashed In The East
Style:	Hard rock, Heavy metal
Release date:	1979
Guest review by:	Valentin B

01. Exciter
02. Running Wild
03. Sinner
04. The Ripper
05. The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown) [Fleetwood Mac cover]
06. Diamonds And Rust [Joan Baez cover]
07. Victim Of Changes
08. Genocide
09. Tyrant
10. Rock Forever [bonus]
11. Delivering The Goods [bonus]
12. Hell Bent For Leather [bonus]
13. Starbreaker [bonus]

To summarize, this is a kick-ass live album. It is a landmark release in metal history, particularly important to the development of early Power, Speed and of course Thrash metal. The performance is note for note, Les Binks plays the groovy rhythms behind the drumkit, Ian Hill is steady like a metronome (and he's at his most audible moment here) and of course who can forget the double guitar attack of Glenn/K.K. but surely the best performance belongs to Rob Halford who now enters his golden age as a vocalist (which in my opinion would end when he left Priest, but that's another story).

All the songs are played a little faster than on the records, with extra bits added here and there, like in "Genocide" which has a kick ass heavy intro or "Starbreaker" which features a great drum solo near the end (featuring lots of drum rhythms which we would hear from the up and coming speed/power metal bands of the 80s) after a mind blowing scream by Halford, showing his enormous range going from normal speaking pitch to an incredibly high note. The only flaw I can find in the vocal performance is the fact that Halford doesn't communicate almost at all with the crowd, apart from the odd "thank you!" leading to suspicions that this album, especially the vocals which sound just too good, are faked in the studio and just thrown over the live sound, or even worse, tracks played in the studio (this would also explain why the sound is so crystal clear) with crowd noises added. Of course, Glenn Tipton denies these accusations, saying that some of Halford's vocals were rounded up in the studio, along with a few guitar parts, of course we all know priest can easily play all these songs live, so why even bother to claim that the album is fake?

The production is, like I said, perfect; every instrument is completely audible, even to "bass-deaf" persons like me, Hill's instrument gives a thick, powerful rhythm, particularly on the tracks "The Green Manalishi" and "Tyrant." The guitar tone is perfect, just enough distortion to make out the notes, and the leads sound perfectly clear with some cool effects thrown in in various moments of the album.

Ok so it sounds great, the cover looks great, everyone's ranting about it so much I don't really have nothing to add. Go fetch it now. Download, buy, whatever. Just grab it.