I'd easily say the Electric Eye intro riff invented the style of guitar playing that would end up being all over metalcore in the mid-2000s. That pedal-point with the E minor top notes shifting over top of it is just such a metalcore thing.
This is a little later Priest when they have more found their sound. To hear more “experimental Priest”, you really need to check out songs from their second album “Sad Wings of Destiny” (1976) or their third album “Sin after Sin” (1977). This is more comparable but still uniquely different to the Sabbaths, etc. It also shows, I think, the start of their own unique branch of heavy metal. Recommend songs: “Victim of Changes”, “Dreamer Deceiver, Deceiver”, “Sinner”, or “Dissident Aggressor” (an amazingly heavy song for its time). Enjoy!
Priest is the quintessential metal band... there were proto metal bands before Priest, but nobody epitomizes dual-lead based, pure HEAVY METAL more than Judas Priest...
LOL he said Judas Priest is not who he thinks of for original heavy metal. Sabbath may have started it, but Heavy Metal became what its BECAUSE of Judas Priest. One of the first bands with the twin guitar attack and exchanging solos. They started the leather and studs look, high pitch vocals, and constant double bass beats. This is the band that should come to mind when you think of Heavy Metal.
TWELVE years after the song Black Sabbath (and 21st Century Schizoid Man was even earlier)... But I'm really glad this got picked to show "typical" heavy metal since you've had a hard time regarding anything "lighter" than extreme metal as anything but "more hard rock". Serves as good education 😊 It's right that metal took different directions (taught to you by great comments) but e.g. doom- and stoner metal has been named just that and what is namned "heavy metal" is very much exemplified by songs like this.
Ian Hill, the bassist, played some lovely walking bass lines in the first albums, I think he also played some of those songs with fingerstyle. When JP finaly was going full metal, there was not room any more for walking bass lines any more. From there on vocal and guitars has been dominating their music.
Good evening from New England.... One of the many Priest songs in my playing arsenal..The drummer and bassist are one of the most underrated duo in metal..Great pick.. Peace from the Northeast..
You have to go earlier in Judas Priest's catalogue to get the more classic 70s sounding metal. They came out in the mid 70s and were part of the 2nd wave of hard rock and metal after Sabbath, Purple, Zeppelin and Uriah Heep. AC/DC, Iron Maiden were also part of that mid to late 70s 2nd wave.
it's amazing how, four decades after its release, someone with a vastly different musical background from the people at that time and a knowledge of heaviness far beyond what they could have even imagine, at 04:02, made the same face of "ooooh that's badass" and proceeded to make the same tiny rock and roll hips swings that people were doing in that momment.
oh the first guitar line that you outlined make me think of some recent lines from Sabaton. Judas Priest was one of my first discoveries of metal in my young ages. I like the clear voices, the voice are almost pop in some of their singing accent. I like the distorsions too, very 80's in a way. I know more the album Ram It Down, so I'm glad to discover earlier years of their work
The Judas Priest equivalent of ‘Black Sabbath’ - is their second album Sad Wings of Destiny which was released in 1976. Very much amped blues... but by the Electric Eye era they had a ‘sound’. They then reinvented themselves in 1990 with Painkiller. At this stage, Judas Priest looked at younger faster, harder metal bands - and was like ‘...ok... hold my beer’...
Judas Priest were essentially the band that synthesized the innovations of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath. Their work in the 70s essentially laid the foundations for all of the metal bands from the 80s onwards. This is a slightly later track, coming out in 1982 (this is over a decade later than the Black Sabbath track!); this is around the time when Priest were first hitting the mainstream, and songs like this were something of a middle ground between there harder, more aggressive, more progressive tracks and their more commercial tracks like Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight. FWIW, this is one of my favorite songs to play on guitar! Another way to think of a track like this is as the blueprint for all later power metal. There's a lot of power metal bands that made a career out of copying songs like this and early Judas Priest and Iron Maiden in general. This isn't quite hair metal. Hair metal was, generally, much more commercial/poppy rather than being this driving and riff-based. Hair metal also generally had much "wetter" production and wasn't this dry. The production differences between this and the other tracks we've heard this week is simply the time period: this is early 80s, the other tracks we've heard have been late-60s/early-70s.
I think it's important to note that while this song is very representative of priest's sound up until painkiller, they definitely had a variety of songs that you'd be hard pressed to consider anything other than metal even on this same album. The title track, screaming for vengeance, is one of priest's most high energy tracks across their whole catalogue and really shows halford's banshee screams off well. Edit: Unrelated, but I feel like the last time you did meshuggah (even though clockworks is an amazing song in its own right) you didn't really get the full scope. Clockworks is primarily all about the syncopation, where the song Dancers to a Discordant System has one of the most creative uses of abstract melody I've ever heard while also evoking some really thought provoking imagery both in the lyrics and the instrumentation itself. It also does quite a good job of displaying their variety in that it is far less monotone than the average meshuggah song, vocally and musically.
Rob Halford of Judas Priest sites Black Sabbath in his words "Numero Uno" No one considered Sabbath or Purple metal at the time. Priest cemented the term.
Hi Bryan, it is indeed Heavy Metal, with that duality (of rythm & lead guitar often together defining the heaviness of the subgenre). It is not remasterised, the production was indeed brilliant for its time, but so was "Piece of Mind" from Iron Maiden in 1983; one year after, or "Restless & Wild" from Accept (a band this time from Germany). But like I said, if you check out King Crimson's "Red" album (1974), you'll get that super clean production too...Other than that & maybe it is anecdotical, but "Blade Runner" movie dates from 1982 too, and then first "Terminator"' movie dates from 1984...I think there was some Sci-Fi revival in early 1980s which probably influenced some bands on the "machines take over thing" theme...Best example maybe of Sci-Fi influenced album (even if they spoke about that before) is "Fire of Unknown Origin" (1981) from Blue Oyster Cult, and the masterpiece within the masterpiece which is "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", a song co-written by the band with Science-Fiction writer Michael Moorcock, so something which not happens not every day...I hope this helped...Cheers !
Great context there on the state of sci-fi storytelling at the time. Pop culture has a way of influencing itself across mediums so it's quite possible it had some part in shaping the theme of the track. Also, it's wild to hear about the production. I might need to listen to some more 80s stuff to get a better feel of it's production quality. I kinda lump it in with the 60s/70s lower fidelity sound (in my mind).
@@CriticalReactions Thanks, Bryan ! Yes several producers (& sounds engineers) did record a lot of great albums at that time & have certainly to be credited if not lauded for their contribution to Metal music & Pop/Rock too, I'm thinking there of Scott Burns, Martin Birch, Dieter Dierks (in Germany this time), Steve Lillywhite (U2, The Smiths, XTC, Peter Gabriel, etc...), Rick Rubin (Slayer, Run DMC, Beastie Boys), Mutt Lange (AC/DC), Mike Chapman (responsible for me of the sound of one of my Top 30 albums of all time, Blondie's "Eat to the Beat" 4th album (1979), mixing a lot of genres including punk, rock, pop, reggae, disco !
I guess you do not understand the song, as back then people had backbones, dignity, independent thinking, love for freedom, self worth and balls. None of that exists anymore, so you just don not get it So sorry.
It's odd that I had an opinion that didn't line up with the widely held opinion of this song and yet I'm the one lacking independent thought 🤔 Also you might want to look out your windows. People are showcasing their backbones and solidifying their self worth as they fight for the basic freedom to exist. This is happening all over the world. I don't understand how you could think those ideas aren't around anymore given the times we're in.
@@CriticalReactions My comment is about you, saying, this song is about a sattelite, that is like saying Noahs Ark is about some rain. Total ignorant..This song was a warning, bring totally ignored by your generation, cause most of them are really happy with being controlled and manipulated to the core, as long as they have TicToc and Netflix and can make Selfies of them together with their breakfast Your generation is a disgrace of the human race, and you are a good example.
You should understand the basic principles of extrapolation and when that technique could, or should, be used. Your number of data points are obviously too low to make that general of a statement given that it's entirely false. Once again, take a look out of your window and talk to people rather. I think you'll find that people my age are quite clued into the world and how it works. That doesn't even bring up the idea that my generation, Gen Y, isn't on TikTok that much. We make up such a small demographic of that userbase. And should I bring up the overwhelming amount of Gen W and Xers who spend a ton of time on Facebook? What about the viewership of news programs like Fox News or CNN (for the US at least)? You're focusing on exactly what you've been told to focus on -- a reductive view on the tiny differences between you and I. You've been manipulated no different than the people you want to feel better than. When your real enemy, all of our real enemy, are those in power who continue to do nothing while we tear each other apart. Because at the bottom have no singular power, we gain power through numbers and unification. Keeping us divided is in their best interests. And so you've been fed lies about the next generations being lazy and addicted to tiktok dances. Can't forget our over-reliance on $10 coffees. If you actually talked to any of us, if you spent any time on TikTok at all and saw what it was used for (I don't suggest this because of it's parent company, but that's another issue entirely) then you would realize everything you mentioned is fabricated. TikTok is just RU-vid in a vertical format. And you've spent a lot of time on RU-vid -- does that make your whole generation lazy and RU-vid addicted? No, that's ridiculous for the same reason you can't boil down people younger than you to simplifications either. So please, take a moment to assess where you learned the biases and then figure out what those people or sources have to gain from our division. Then I'd highly suggest sparking up some conversation with the upcoming generations. Take the time to break down the strawman version of us that you've been fed. It's time to build some independent thinking and to stop allowing yourself to be controlled and manipulated to the core. Iron Maiden warned us about this very thing, you should heed their warning.
Fact is, despite your many use less words, you have not even been able to understand the simple and obvious meaning of the song, that is pretty sad to see.But talking ears off but no Essence. Sorry to see.
