One thing I have always loved about the Internet, and blogging in particular, is how quickly ideas can be exchanged and processed. In a recent entry I almost absentmindedly referred to Rob Halford’s vocal work in Judas Priest’s “Screaming for Vengeance” as one of the best screams in rock history. A commentator pointed out Priest’s “Victim of Changes” as another example of Halford’s chill-inducing vocal gymnastics, which got me thinking for the first time in a long time about the awesomeness of the band’s 1976 album Sad Wings of Destiny and, indeed, their mid-‘70s trilogy which also included Sin After Sin (1977) and Stained Class (1978); to me three of the finest and – yes – most intelligent works ever filed under the genre of heavy metal.
Listening to some selected tracks from these three albums on YouTube today (my original versions were all on cassette and to my shame I have never replaced them digitally – a mistake I will soon be remedying), I was astounded at how disconnected this material sounds from its era. At a time when most people equated “heavy metal” with the likes of Kiss and BTO, Priest were recording songs of such sublime intensity as “Dissident Aggressor” and “Beyond the Realms of Death.” Forget being “ahead of its time” – this stuff is of its own place and time. I don’t think the world of metal – or even Priest themselves – have managed to catch up with these sounds captured on vinyl dangerously close to 40 years ago.
My question is where is the predecessor for this kind of sound? Up until then, what was then known as “metal” was really not much more than a louder variant on blues-rock. Let’s face it: even Sabbath, as godly awesome as they were, made a career out of finding ways to re-record “Sunshine of Your Love” over and over again. Zeppelin and Sabbath made great heavy rock, but it was still rock. A song like “Victim of Changes,” however, plays more like Wagnerian opera. This was no longer metal as rock’s bastard offspring – this was metal as a genre unto itself.
The only precedents to the mid-‘70s Priest sound I can think of are Deep Purple’s “Child in Time” and Uriah Heep’s “Bird of Prey” (both 1970). However, Purple would never achieve that level of intensity again and Uriah Heep were, well, Uriah Heep. But offhand, I can’t think of anything else. And despite what a handful of influential music critics have said, heavy metal – at least THIS kind of heavy metal – did not have its origins in the MC5, the Velvet Underground or The Stooges. All great bands in their own ways, but not metal.
So, you may ask, if the mid-‘70s output of Judas Priest is so great, why has it never received its critical due? Why does it wear a scarlet letter of unlistenability among many music fans, even among some who have embraced the work of followers such as Metallica? Stay tuned – I have some thoughts on that very subject that I plan to convey in my next entry.
Rock 'n Roll Rehab 