1982’s Screaming For Vengeance is the album that finally broke Judas Priest in the United States after years of hard work. Whether you think it’s their best or not is irrelevant, it’s sold more copies than any of the others and it remains one of the most celebrated and iconic efforts in metal history.
If there’s a harder hitting one-two opening shot than The Hellion and Electric Eye, we haven’t heard it, and from that point onward, it’s metal mastery all the way. Riding On The Wind is simply pure energy, a ‘surging rush of power’ that bleeds blackly into Bloodstone’s tale of dark conspiracy.
Unlike the band’s earlier stone cold classic, British Steel, the commercial moments – (Take These) Chains and Fever – take a back seat, the breakneck title track and monster hit single You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ pairing with mid-paced stomps Pain And Pleasure and Devil’s Child to make Priest’s eighth outing as deafening as it is defiant.
This lavishly packaged 30th anniversary addition adds a DVD of the band’s performance at the legendary US Festival in California in 1983, the perfect companion piece to a near-perfect album. This is what metal is all about and if it doesn’t move you, you’re already dead.
