One the things I find fascinating about British blues rock of the 60s and 70s – and by extension, the heavy metal sub-genre – is the hard-scrabble environment which the vast majority of the bands came out of. Unlike America, where at least there was some semblance of hope around the corner – however fleeting the thoughts were – in the UK they were dealing with the absolute dregs and leftovers from the Industrial Revolution. By the mid-1970’s Judas Priest (name taken from a Bob Dylan song on the John Wesley Harding album) had been through the ringer - through countless lineups, a debut album, and while working on the second album they were desperate enough to subsist on one meal a day. What they recorded and eventually released as their second album may not even compare to their future output, in many departments, but it does stand as an interesting landmark for a number of reasons. First of all, this is the record which establishes the Judas Priest as everyone knows them – maybe not the complete image, but certainly the technical style and execution. I am not really convinced that JP were all that original for the metal genre, except in one aspect – they took what came before them and made it more extreme and dangerous. The two big factors here are Rob Halford’s vocals and twin-guitar interplay between K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton. Regarding Halford, it seems like overdubs or related tricks are used here and there in specific spots to accentuate his effect on the whole proceedings, especially on “The Ripper”, and I guess you can’t blame production for this. The guitar interplay fits into the overall scope of the sound – most everything is dramatic, but I’m not sure I would say it’s over driven, either. And it’s not like I can really remember specific solos sticking out or anything like that. There are meticulous details they get right, though, like the spiraling guitar section that leads into the “gong” midsection on “The Ripper”, which all sounds strangely out of tune, but just devilishly perfect. So, my favorite tracks are the first two – “Victim of Changes” and “The Ripper”. They get so many twists and turns and details and well – damn near everything on these two tracks go how it should go to a freakin’ tee – plus I can listen to them non-stop and never get bored. After that, it’s good, but not as dead-on as those two songs, so the album loses some luster. The whole “Dreamer Deceiver”/”Deceiver” bit is really hit and miss for me – at times I feel like they could break out into a “Planet Caravan” cover, then a Joni Mitchell tribute, then Rob Halford screaming at me for catharsis – but the “Deceiver” bit does rock for the little section of time that it is on. The piano interludes (“Prelude”, “Epitaph”) are just strange, still feel like they are a slight bit out of place after all of these years. This leaves us with three relatively standard rockers (“Tyrant”, “Genocide”, “Island of Domination”) which, in general, I do not feel are as well-developed as the first two tracks. Of the three, “Genocide” works best, and the spoken-word midsection would provide the band with the title of its’ next album – Sin after Sin. I still think the first side of this record is way better than the second side, just from a pure finished songs standpoint. So, in the end, a fairly interesting, if somewhat spotty document, which in the very least established the group as a force to be reckoned with.
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