Judas Priest - Painkiller
Tracklist
01. Painkiller02. Hell Patrol
03. All Guns Blazing
04. Leather Rebel
05. Metal Meltdown
06. Night Crawler
07. Between The Hammer & The Anvil
08. A Touch Of Evil
09. Battle Hymn
10. One Shot At Glory
11. Living Bad Dreams [Recorded during the 1990 Painkiller sessions] [2001 re-release bonus]
12. Leather Rebel [Live at Foundation's Forum, Los Angeles, California, USA in 13 September 1990] [2001 re-release bonus]
Line-up
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford - vocals
Kenneth "K.K." Downing - guitar
Glenn Raymond Tipton - guitar
Scott Travis - drums
Ian Frank Hill - bass
Guest musicians
Donald "Don" Airey - keyboards
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford - vocals
Kenneth "K.K." Downing - guitar
Glenn Raymond Tipton - guitar
Scott Travis - drums
Ian Frank Hill - bass
Guest musicians
Donald "Don" Airey - keyboards
Additional info
Produced by Chris Tsangarides.
Rating:
10
10
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Rating:
10 |
The most wicked, crass, screaming guitars, heaviest? album in Judas Priest's discography with Rob Halford. There are simply not enough attributes to describe it. To many if not most of the fans say it's the best album they ever recorded. For me, it's the second best (pointing at the Screaming For Vengeance review). Of course, this is a perfect production, incredible songwriting, a brand new sound you would not have imagined before 1990, but everybody can have his own view on that. Read more ›› |
Rating:
9.2
9.2
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Rating:
9.2 |
The year is 1990 and after 2-3 softer releases like Turbo or Ram it down, Rob Halford, KK Downing, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill and new drummer Scott Travis (the five members of Judas Priest) decide to do something so brutal, even by death metal standards of the day. It's so heavy, so fast and shredding, yet so catchy and melodic that no-one has ever heard anything like it before. Read more ›› |
Staff pick by
ScreamingSteelUS
Found in 204 lists
ScreamingSteelUS
Metal Meltdown
Sep 02, 2020
30 years ago, on September 3, 1990, Judas Priest released the perfect heavy metal album. Not A perfect heavy metal album - THE perfect heavy metal album, a nonstop death machine bristling with power and speed that puts all competition to shame. The title track really says it all: it's iconic from head to toe, opening with Scott Travis's merciless drum volley and closing with Rob's peremptory shriek of "PAIN!!", with some of the greatest shredding ever committed to wax in between. But the album doesn't end there; for 47 minutes, Painkiller holds its listeners captive with stratospheric screeching, face-melting guitar solos, and the sleekest, heaviest, most brutally effective solution of thrash-laced heavy metal that the world has ever heard. The snarling evil of "Night Crawler," the pummeling metallic frenzy of "Metal Meltdown," the epic and intimidating groove of "Hell Patrol" - every track is a guaranteed killer from one of the most legendary bands ever to give meaning to the phrase "heavy metal." I love the myriad styles of metal music and I embrace it in all its deathly, blackened, doomy, thrashy, folksy, grindy, djenty extremity, but when it comes to the grand tradition, the classic sound, the stuff that "heavy metal" in its purest form is made of, there is nothing better than Painkiller.
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166
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Posts: 3650  |
Posts: 3650 Written by nikarg on 09.09.2016 at 19:48 He probably means that they jumped the Pantera bandwagon in the sense that they were trying to become more popular by making heavier music, because that's how Pantera became popular.
---- I hate bonus tracks
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Posts: 40071 Written by nikarg on 09.09.2016 at 19:48 I have been listening to metal since 1979.  When I said jumping the Pantera bandwagon I meant them wanting to sound heavier due to the fact a band such as Pantera got popular with the heavy sound, not that Priest sounds like Pantera, because that comparison would be totally ridiculous.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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Posts: 8264 Quote: Got your point now, I thought you meant that Priest tried to sound like Pantera. Since you started listening to metal 9 years earlier than me (lucky you! ), I guess all the other points I made must ring a few bells. And by the way, I didn't mean to sound offensive and I hope I didn't.
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Posts: 40071 Written by nikarg on 09.09.2016 at 21:01 You didn't come across offensive at all. So, no probs. As for your other points. It depends on where you were and what mags I read, I guess. I myself wrote for Meltdown Metal Magazine at the time and there it was received well by about half the writers and not good at all by the rest. And that's how it was received all over the Netherlands by mags and fanzines. But Judas Priest did have Pantera (and also Annihilator) opening for them on their Painkiller tour in 1991.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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Posts: 8264 Quote: I am afraid that in Greece we only had Metal Hammer and a few local fanzines at the time. The way that we found out about music back then seems almost paleolithic today. I wasn't even interested in Judas Priest up until then, because I was mainly into thrash (it was the '80s after all), but when i came across Painkiller it really blew my mind.
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Account deleted Written by BlackMetalDay on 20.06.2017 at 15:59 You know an album being forced is a bad thing. I think you're thinking that forced means something along the lines of heavy, when it really means the band is trying to do something really hard but are failing
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Posts: 95 Written by [user id=159927] on 22.06.2017 at 14:31 No, I understood correctly what 'forced' meant, and I'm sticking with what I've said in my above comment
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 Posts: 1534 |
Posts: 1534
I am going to come across as arrogant here (probably), but I must say that as a songwriter I think I can recognize what "let's do X because we can, not bc we are inspired or actually care" sounds like. And it sounds like Painkiller. It sounds 100% like Painkiller. Also, understanding music theory and being able to compose and play music IN NO WAY translates to superior taste, that is not my point. Just wanted to make that clear just in case.
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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| escr_alien
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Posts: 159  |
Posts: 159
If this does not make you bang your head and sing along, you my friend are a cuck. if you rate this lower than 9, you are a gay cuck.
---- You are not metal enough until you visit Kenya. The cradle of mankind, where man learnt first to work with stones and first enjoyed the sounds produced by banging stones which later influenced metal in all its sounds and genres.
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Posts: 5654 Written by Maasai Mara on 02.01.2019 at 22:45 No need for insults. And i rate this lower than 9 and i do bang my head to it. 
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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Posts: 159 Written by John_Doe on 02.01.2019 at 23:08  well on the gay cuck scale, by how much you deviate from 9 that is your gay cuck rating out of 10.
---- You are not metal enough until you visit Kenya. The cradle of mankind, where man learnt first to work with stones and first enjoyed the sounds produced by banging stones which later influenced metal in all its sounds and genres.
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Posts: 5654 Written by Maasai Mara on 02.01.2019 at 23:18 You're a newbie, throwing insults at others won't get you anything. Maybe you think you're cool or something, well you are not. People will have different opinions will you insult them all?
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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Posts: 1534 Written by John_Doe on 02.01.2019 at 23:30 He also posted a troll comment on the Blackwater Park thread, I think it's best we all ignore him from this moment onward until he sobers up or something ;-)
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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Posts: 3587 Written by Maasai Mara on 02.01.2019 at 23:18 So that'll be 3/10 in my case. 6/10 is no blasphemous act but a generous rating if you just can't stand Halford's ridiculously high pitched voice. On the other hand it's a classic and I'm neither doubting the impact of it nor the quality of some of the contained blockbuster hits. But don't you think it's kinda hypocritical yelling "gay!" when we are talking about Rob Halford, the epitome of Heavy Metal's gay community? And why did you delete all traces of Gorgoroth (with Gaahl being the epitome of Black Metal's gay community) in your profile just a couple of minutes ago? It's no shame questioning your own sexuality, just deal with it.
---- signatures = SPAM
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Posts: 159 Written by Starvynth on 03.01.2019 at 00:01 Halford is gay, Gaahl is gay, you are 3/10 gay. Judas priest rocks, Gorgoroth is amongst my favourite black metal bands, if you are part of a band send me a link to your music. Perhaps i just like bands with gay members.
---- You are not metal enough until you visit Kenya. The cradle of mankind, where man learnt first to work with stones and first enjoyed the sounds produced by banging stones which later influenced metal in all its sounds and genres.
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Posts: 159 |
Posts: 159 Written by John_Doe on 02.01.2019 at 23:30 just the ones who rate this lower than 9.
---- You are not metal enough until you visit Kenya. The cradle of mankind, where man learnt first to work with stones and first enjoyed the sounds produced by banging stones which later influenced metal in all its sounds and genres.
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Posts: 3587 Written by Maasai Mara on 03.01.2019 at 00:28 Pheew, thanks for your approval. I was afraid it would be more than 30%, though. Written by Maasai Mara on 03.01.2019 at 00:28 Here we go. I am the tattooed bald guy.
---- signatures = SPAM
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Posts: 5654 Written by Maasai Mara on 03.01.2019 at 00:29 Thank you, god bless 
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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Posts: 40071
Omg someone using gay as an insult. do you live in the middle ages?
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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Posts: 40071
Btw this album is a 6/10 at most.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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Posts: 2437 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 03.01.2019 at 02:29 Not even necessary to be in the middle ages, still plenty of places today where it is considered an insult and probably an acceptable reason to kill someone On topic, it's a good album with many catchy tunes but wears off after some time. Bombastic but still good. There are older albums I'd rather listen to.
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Posts: 9632
Crazy how 30 years later no heavy metal album even came close.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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Posts: 21306 Written by RaduP on 03.09.2020 at 15:14 Agreed. I can't name a single other purely heavy metal album that I enjoy nearly as much as this.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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Posts: 1381  |
Posts: 1381
30 years since this masterpiece was released and it still feels like it could have been made just yesterday. I wish every newer records sounded this fresh and exciting.
---- You've got a lot of guts. Let's see what they look like!
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Posts: 2794 Written by Troy Killjoy on 03.09.2020 at 16:27 An album that was released exactly 6 years earlier than this rivals it: Powerslave.
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