The Toy Box: Judas Priest

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Retro Spins: Judas Priest - Ram It Down

It's a sad day. Today's the day that I listen to my last Judas Priest album. I hear you, you tell me, it doesn't have to be. As of 1990 they have another eight albums, all the way through 2024's Invincible Shield. To that I say, "No." Though I did pick up their 1987 live album, Priest...Live!

1988's Ram It Down would come about from several tracks initially intended for the aborted double album Twin Turbos. For better or worse, it would finish off the decade for the band. While their legion of fans would help push it to gold certification, critics would rip the album up, calling it stale and routine. Being a lot of leftover tracks, that may be a fair assessment.

I suppose no further introduction is needed. Let's dive into my last Judas Priest listening session.

Speed metal is apparently the name of the game, at least that's the first impression I get from album opener, and title track, Ram It Down. Coming off of Turbo, it's a complete 180. It's not a bad tune at all. Unfortunately, this doesn't fair the same for the remainder of the album. The only other standouts for me were, I'm A Rocker, and Monsters Of Rock.

The biggest misstep for me is probably the Chuck Berry remake of Johnny B. Goode. I don't know if the boys had just heard the news of the forthcoming Back To The Future Part II, and felt nostalgic for the original film, or if they truly felt the need to pay tribute to Berry. Whatever the reason, it's not a good rendition.

Overall, it was kind of a dud, and I actually lost interest in the remainder of the album after the above noted cover. For me, it was a disappointing note for Judas Priest to end the decade on. After all the buildup that was leading to this point, I really expected better. Especially in light of me essentially becoming a fan over the course of the previous five albums.

Upon its release, drummer Dave Holland would leave the band, citing numerous reasons. Among these were his need to take care of his ailing mother and sister, but also that he never really felt appreciated for his contributions. Apparently, Holland was never made a full member when initially joining in 1979. Longtime producer, Tom Allom would also step away from the band, not returning until the 2009 live album, A Touch of Evil: Live, and the 2018 studio album, Firepower.

While the band would recruit drummer Scott Travis for 1990's Painkiller, litigation would commence that year against the band by the parents of 20-year-old James Vance and 18-year-old Raymond Belknap, who claimed the young adults shot themselves based on subliminal messages implanted in their 1978 album, Stained Class urging them to commit suicide. While Belknap would die instantly from a shotgun blast under his chin, Vance would only end up maiming himself, though die three years later from a drug overdose. The case would ultimately be dismissed.

Tensions purportedly with Rob Halford and his fellow bandmates led to the singer departing to form the band Fight. However, contractual obligations kept him officially part of Judas Priest until 1992, though he would collaborate with them for a twentieth anniversary compilation entitled, Metal Works '73–'93.

The band would spend several years looking for a new singer, eventually selecting Tim "Ripper" Owens. While Owens would provide vocals for 1997's Jugulator, and 2001's Demolition, both albums would flop. He'd amicably step down when after ever-growing demand brought Rob Halford back into the fold. The reunited Judas Priest would kick things off with the box set, Metalogy, and an appearance at Ozzyfest in 2004, where the media dubbed them the premier act.

Studio album, 2005's Angel Of Retribution, would fair much better than the previous two Owens fronted releases, but continue the trend of failing to acquire any sales certifications. This trend would continue for 2008's Nostradamus, and 2014's Redeemer Of Souls. The later would also be the first to not include K.K. Downing on guitars, who retired from the band after citing tensions with management and other members. He would be replaced by Richie Faulkner.

Since then, the lineup of Rob Halford, Glen Tipton, Ian Hill, Scott Travis, and Richie Faulkner have remained, releasing 2018's Firepower, and 2024's Invincible shield. However, Tipton would formally retire from touring in 2018 due to his battle with Parkinson's disease. Andy Sneap has toured in his place since then, and the band is actually set to kick off their Faithkeepers series, which will begin in July, and end in September 2026.

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Retro Spins: Judas Priest - Turbo

Though it will have been just a day between my last Judas Priest listening session, the truth of the matter is that it took several days for me to finally get around to 1986's Turbo, much to my chagrin.

After delivering 1984's Defenders Of The Faith, the band would take a hiatus from performing, with the only exception being an appearance at the Philadelphia side of Live Aid in 1985. Their setlist included Living After Midnight, The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown), and (You've Got) Another Thing Comin'.

Returning to the studio, the band initially intended to deliver a double album, Twin Turbos. The idea was to have one record which provided a mainstream commercial sound, with the other returning to the roots of heavier hard rock. The concept was eventually aborted after pushback from the label, with the peppy tracks becoming Turbo.

However, this wouldn't be a calm period for singer Rob Halford. His continued struggles with substance abuse were escalated from growing issues with an ex-boyfriend whom he nicknamed "Brad". Things would take a traumatic turn when Brad committed suicide in 1985. The tragedy would lead Halford to rehab, where he swore to get clean, and by January 1986 he completed the treatment. If there's a light to the story, on January 6, 2026, Rob celebrated forty years of sobriety.

Turbo would be released that following April and be the first to incorporate synthesized guitars and forego the usual sci-fi and fantasy lyrical themes in exchange for love and romance. This was Judas Priests response to the changing landscape of 80's music, which was favoring more synth pop-oriented music over hard rock and heavy metal. The strategic shift proved to be favorable, with the album being yet another success for the band.

The shift is very noticeable from the start, and while it works, it's a bit of a system shock at first. Ultimately though, I dig it. It's like Judas Priest meets Bon Jovi, and the two meld together. I could go for more of this style.

Halford on the other hand considered it his love / hate album, stating in 2008, "The only agenda we've ever had in Priest was to really give every album its own life and I think we've achieved that on everything from Rocka Rolla up to the new one, Nostradamus. That said, if ever there was a controversial record in terms of what people might have expected from us, it's Turbo. It was the fact that we moved into a different atmosphere, but that's where we were at that particular time. Some of the technological advances like the pedal boards that Glenn and KK used were giving us options for different sounds and experimentation. Personally, I think there are still some great tracks on that album ... It's one of the recordings that divide opinion."

That's a fair assessment, and I suppose I'm in the unpopular camp among fans, wherein I liked it quite a bit. Standout tracks for me were Locked In, Parental Guidance, Rocky You All Around The World, Out In The Cold, Hot Love, and reckless.

Despite being a successful, guitarist K.K. Downing would admit it wasn't their biggest selling album. He attributed this to the changing landscape that was visualized across MTV, saying, "Even Ozzy went to the hairdressers." Halford would also admit that he felt his substance abuse at the time contributed to lackluster lyrics.

For better or worse, the remaining tracks initially intended for the double album release were salvaged and made their way to 1988's Ram It Down. Though the band's fanbase would be large enough to push it to gold certification, critically, it was considered a flop. Being their last release in the decade, tomorrow will wrap up my Judas Priest journey.

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Retro Spins: Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

When we last left the history of Judas Priest, the band had just released their 1974 debut album, Rocka Rolla on Gull Records. However, upon its release, the album was a flop, garnering negative reviews. In dire financial straits, the band requested a monthly payment of £50, which equates to £676.42 in 2026. Facing their own financial challenges at the time, Gull declined the request.

Though the reasons are disputed, depending on who you ask, John Hinch would leave the band in 1975. The most commonly agreed upon reasoning was that the other members were looking for a drummer who could match their evolving energy of music. Further, he had musical differences and personal conflicts, particularly with guitarist Glenn Tipton. Alan Moore, who had previously joined and quit in 1972, would return to the band to replace him.

With finances tight, the guy restricted themselves to one meal per day and even took part time jobs while recording their second album, 1976's Sad Wings Of Destiny. Though the band would embark on a tour of the UK in support of its release, the album would struggle, being overshadowed by the emerging punk rock spreading across the county.

Continued tight finances at Gull frustrated the band, leading to Moore quitting again, this time permanently. Fortunately, Sad Wings Of Destiny had caught the attention of CBS Records. With the help of new manager, David Hemmings, Judas Priest signed to the label, finally receiving a significant budget to record with. Unfortunately, the split from Gull required them to forfeit their rights to their two previous albums, including all demos.

Judas Priest would release their major label debut, 1977's Sin After Sin. However, without Moore, who actually quit during the initial recording sessions, Simon Phillips was brought in, who recorded all the songs which appeared on the album. While they offered him the position permanently, he would decline, resulting in Les Binks taking the role.

Both Stained Class and Killing Machine would be released in 1978, the latter receiving a title change to Hell Bent For Leather in the USA and released in 1979. Their three albums under CBS would not only chart in the UK, but become certified gold. Further, their latter two albums would also chart in the USA on the Billboard 200. It would be around this time that the band would also adopt their leather and studs image.

1979's Unleashed In The East would be the bands first of many live albums, and their first to go platinum. However, the album itself would be criticized for its studio overdubbing and enhancements. However, what would come from it would be the retooling of previous studio tracks to their faster and heavier live sound, which became more popular versions among fans.

At the time Les Binks was already feeling underappreciated for his contributions to the band, and more or less didn't feel like a full member of the band. Coupled with management suggesting he forego his fees for the Unleashed In The East album, he quit. He would be replaced by former Trapeze drummer, Dave Holland. The lineup of Rob Halford, K.K. Downing, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill, and Dave Holland would go on to record six studio, and one live album between 1980 and 1988.

Among those releases was 1984's Defenders Of The Faith. For those of you keeping up with my listening sessions, you may be aware that Judas Priest kind of surprised me, and have become a band I'd call myself a fan of. While I've yet to hear an album that I'd consider perfect, what I haven't heard is anything I'd call bad.

Defenders Of The Faith delivers another solid entry in the Priest discography. While I knew nothing from it going in, standouts for me were Jawbreaker, Rock Hard Rock Free, The Sentinel, Love Bites, Eat Me Alive, and Night Comes Down. Not bad for an album I randomly picked up at a used CD shop.

What surprises me most of all is how excited I still am to go from album to album. Typically, when I've tackled an entire era discography of an artist, the music has its ups and downs, but even when good, leads to a bit of fatigue and burnout. I've yet to reach that point with them. I'm just as thrilled to hear tomorrow's album, 1986's Turbo as I was to hear todays, and all the ones that preceded it.

Beyond that, I've not much to say.

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Retro Spins: Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

Judas Priest was never on my want list when initially creating it, and remained relatively out of mind until July of 2022, when one day, "You've Got Another Thing Comin' popped into my head. It was like a lightbulb that had turned on. "Oh yeah," I said to myself. "I know that song." Searching for it, I found that the 1982 album Screaming For Vengeance was not only where it was from, but that it was relatively cheap. So, I picked it up.

The band remained no more of interest to me beyond it, but when I came across 1980's British Steel, and 1986's Turbo at a used CD shop in January of 2024, I picked them up. Again, life went on, and Judas Priest remained generally just another part of my ever-expanding CD collection, but not a priority to dig into further. August of 2025, and another used CD store visit added 1984's Defenders Of The Faith to my collection, but still, no interest in really looking into the band.

Enter April 2026. I'm going through my list of albums to play for a Retro Spin post, and I decide that it's time to focus in on them. It made sense. I was presently in a heavy metal phase, picking up bands and discographies based on what a co-worker was recommending, as well as others which I happened to come across in diving deeper into the rabbit hole. It was finally at this point that I looked into just how many albums the band had in the 80's and got around to actively completing my collection with 1981's Point Of Entry, and 1988's Ram It Down.

I was hyped to hear this one, and playing through it, I got everything I was expecting. What I did notice was that the tracks were harder than those of 1980's British Steel, and 1981's Point Of Entry. Whereas those focused on mainstream pop rock radio friendly type tracks, Screaming For Vengeance was punchier, more so geared towards straight up hard rock.

Overall, it was enjoyable from start to finish, and at this point, I'll even go so far as to call myself a Judas Priest fan. For me, the standout tracks included The Hellion, Bloodstone, Fever, and of course, You've Got Another Thing Coming. But again, as a whole, I liked it from start to finish.

Tomorrow I'll swing back around to the history of the band, picking up where I left off with my post on 1981's On The Run. I'll also be running through their 1984 released Defenders Of The Earth. It's been a good time so far, and I'm down with keeping it that way.

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Retro Spins: Judas Priest - Point Of Entry

Hot on the heels of their decade debut, 1980's British Steel, I'm jumping into 1981's Point Of Entry. My previous listening session had been a bit of an eye opener. Not only did I really enjoy what I had heard, but I realized that Judas Priest had songs I had completely forgotten about. What became more interesting to me was digging into the band's history and finding out that none of the original members who formed it were even part of it when they recorded their debut album, 1974's Rocka Rolla.

The band was formed in 1969 by lead singer Al Atkins, bassist Brian "Bruno" Stapenhill, guitarist John Perry, and drummer John "Fezza" Partridge. This lineup would shift up relatively quickly, as Perry would take his own life at the age of 18. Ernest Chataway would fill the roll, but as part of their history, it's noteworthy that future guitarist Kenneth "K.K." Downing would also try out for the band at this time. While they initially started out as Earth, they would soon adopt, and take their name from the Bob Dylan tune, The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest. Fred Woolley would join in 1970, replacing Partridge.

After recording a demo, the band obtained a three-record deal with Immediate Records. Unfortunately, prior to them being able to record anything, the label went out of business. The band would split up in 1970.

Later that year, Atkins would come across the band, Freight, who were rehearsing without a singer. It featured K. K. Downing on guitars, his childhood friend Ian "Skull" Hill on bass, and drummer John Ellis. He'd join them, and they'd adopt the name, Judas Priest. While they performed throughout 1971, but 1972 Ellis quit, and was replaced by Alan Moore. Prior to the end of the year, Moore too would quit and be replaced by Chris "Congo" Campbell.

Judas Priest signed on with Black Sabbath bassist, Tommi Iommi's management label, Iommi Management Agency, where Atkin continued to write material for the band. However, with a family to support, and bills to pay, he left in May of 1973. Campbell too would depart around this time, with both being replaced soon thereafter by drummer John Hinch and vocalist Rob Halford. With Atkin's departure, Judas Priest officially had no original members in the band.

After performing their first tour of Europe, Judas Priest returned to England and signed with Gull Records. At the suggestion of the label, they took on a second guitarist, Glenn Tipton. The lineup for their 1974 debut, Rocka Rolla consisted of Rob Halford on vocals, Gleen Tipton and K.K. Downing on guitars, Ian Hill on bass, and John Hinch on drums. Though a 1987 remastered release would also include credit for Alan Moore for his drums on the bonus track, Diamonds and Rust.

At the rist of this post becoming a novel, we'll pause there and get into the album.

Point Of Entry kicks off with Heading Out To The Highway, a solid into track to the album. That rocking sound that I familiarized myself with in their previous record was definitely present, and I was all in on it.

As expected, I didn't know any of the tracks on the album. At least, that's what I thought. For some reason, when Troubleshooter started up, I could have sworn I've heard it before, but if I did, I can't pinpoint when or where. Still, I feel in the back of my mind that I know it from somewhere.

Unfortunately, coupling all of the history above together did serve to take a lot of my attention away from the album as a whole, and while I didn't necessarily hear anything I would call bad, I also wasn't really attuned to it all to say what I heard. It was nice background noise, I suppose, but that's also not what I was wanting to get out of it. I may need to take some time and listen to this once again, but that's not going to happen any time soon. I have too many albums to get through.

My next stop is 1982's Screaming For Vengeance, which is actually the first album I got from Judas Priest, and the only one I owned for several years before finally branching out. I'll talk about all of that tomorrow, and then with 1984's Defenders Of The Faith swing back around to their continued history.

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Retro Spins: Judas Priest - British Steel

Today I'm off on a new journey to listen to a little band by the name of Judas Priest. You may have heard about them. Over their brief career they've released a couple studio albums which faired pretty okay with critics and the general public.

By 1980's British Steel, Rob Halford and company had released five studio albums, contributing to the forging of the road of heavy metal created by Black Sabbath. Though they had a steady following of fans, and their first entry into the decade would also become their highest charting album to date, they had not yet broken out into mainstream. Nor was that going to happen just yet.

Judas Priest would reprise the more commercial sound they adopted with their previously released Killing Machine (1978) and drew inspiration from AC/DC on some tracks after supporting them on tour in 1979. In conjunction with this, they also abandoned some of the dark lyrical themes which had been prominent on their previous releases. To further move towards mainstream success, the band focused on shorter song lengths with hooks, in an attempt to push radio play.

Guitarist J.K. Rowling...er....K.K. Downing would say that the band had a lot of fun recording the album in the former home of Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr. Not yet in a digital age of sampling, the boys had to find unique ways to incorporate the layers of sound they were looking for, which included smashing milk bottles, shaking cutlery trays, swishing pool cues, and whipping guitar strings against suitcases. Downing would joke that since it was Ringo's home and cutlery, that essentially the Beatle was responsible for the creation of the metal sounds on their album.

British Steel would be unleashed among the time that was seeing a surge in new wave British Heavy metal, released alongside Saxon's Wheels Of Steel, and Iron Maiden's self-titled debut. Critically, it was well received and later credited for kickstarting heavy metal's glory days. It's also gone on to be listed by Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Metal Albums Of All Time and also noted as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

What I came to find out was that there were songs from Judas Priest which I had forgotten over time. In particular, from this album, that was Living After Midnight. Personally, I bought it for Breaking The Law and wasn't really expecting to know anything else beyond that.

Unlike my previous listening sessions of Megadeth and Iron Maiden, which catered more so to song length and thrashing metal, Priest slows things down. They're not afraid to let the drums thunder, and the guitars squeal, but what they do in all of that is deliver cohesive vocals and lyrics that you can actually understand.

Though I only found one other standout track, United, as a whole, the album was a solid listening session. I'm totally down and excited to hear more from the band, which actually surprises me. I really didn't expect to enjoy this one as much as I did.

There's not much noted, history wise, between 1980's British Steel, and 1981's Point Of Entry. Rather, it's summed up as essentially saying, "Then Judas Priest made another album similar to this one." While that's not much to go on, I'm excited that it's more of what I just heard. That's where I head to tomorrow.

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