Essential Judas Priest Songs (1980's)

 Judas Priest- the "metal gods." I'm sure I had my first real taste of them when an MTV spin-off channel called "MTV X" was available on the expanded cable line-up while in my high school days. The channel featured bands from the 70's, 80's, and 90's, all styles of rock n' roll. I never dug deeper beyond the handful of Priest radio staples until I was talking with the boyfriend of a radio co-worker before a Slipknot concert several years later. He was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt and I said I'd always wanted to get into these classic metal bands. So the guy did a pretty cool thing for me- burned copies of every Iron Maiden album, along with a few live albums, plus a 3-disc Essential Judas Priest collection. All were left for me at the station inside of one of those CD spindles; I was instantly hooked.

10. "(Take These) Chains" (Screaming For Vengeance)
Following my introduction with their Essentials collection, Screaming For Vengeance was the first album I bought and I made the right choice. The band is known for their heavy riffs and Halford's signature scream but this song takes a different direction, in the form of a "power ballad." The lyrics are about a relationship that's beyond it's expiration date but still hasn't ended, which I think is a subject matter that many can relate to. 

9. "The Hellion/Electric Eye" (Screaming For Vengeance)
This song kicks off Screaming For Vengeance with intensity and was also part of their encore when I saw Priest in 2011. I recently saw Loudness perform and their style reminded me of this song, which just furthers the point of how awesome this song is.

8. "The Sentinel" (Defenders Of The Faith)
I recently acquired a copy of the 30th anniversary edition of this album. Before then, this album and many of the songs must've been faded into the background among their vast catalog. It's heavy on synthesizers and started that trend as the 80's went on, but now that's what has made this album unique. It created an atmosphere, much like watching a John Carpenter movie which his scores are heavy on moody synths, so it's as if they just blended Carpenter with metal and created musical magic.

7. "Night Comes Down" (Defenders Of The Faith)
Stylistically similar to "(Take These) Chains" with the theme of a relationship that has ended, except this time the lyrics are from the perspective of someone who's grieving the loss of love.  

6. "Living After Midnight" (British Steel)
Priest's signature rock anthem, much like KISS' "Detroit Rock City", with it's instantly recognizable  drum introduction.

5. "Out In The Cold" (Turbo)
Priest continued with their synth-driven metal on the follow-up to Defenders Of The Faith, titled Turbo. This is a prime example of that "rocked-out" John Carpenter synth score, because the intro to the song reminds me of the opening credits theme from Escape From New York.

4. "Fever" (Screaming For Vengeance)
Another Priest love song, which was an instant standout track upon first listening to it. As I was coming up with a rough list of songs for my top ten list, I noticed just about everything were tracks from their albums in the 80's. That's not to slight their work from the 1970's, I think when it comes to Priest I'm drawn more to these metal ballads than the balls out rockers like "Sinner", which was a song that made my short-list.

3. "Desert Plains" (Point Of Entry)
Upon relistening to "Desert Plains" it bears little similarity to the theme from The People's Court, yet when I first heard it, that's the impression that I got. The song's intro sounded like a rocked-out version of that show's theme song. It's widely known I'm a weird dude, this is just further proof that I might also be tone deaf too.

2. "A Touch Of Evil" (Painkiller)
I absolutely love this song along with "Blood Red Skies." They were the two that stood out to me the most when I first dove into the 3-disc Essential collection. "A Touch of Evil" is not typical Priest and sounds like the band was inching closer to the "prog rock" stylings of Rush or Dream Theater. I like when bands try to grow and expand their range and it paid off for Priest.

1. "Heading Out To The Highway" (Point Of Entry)
Metal isn't always partying, or even power ballads that were a dime a dozen in the 80's, and this is a Priest song with more of a postive message. The "highway" in the title is used as a metaphor for the turns your life may take. So listen to Rob Halford and blaze your own path!