Metal Archives

Search:

Advanced search Submit
Help Rules Forum
FAQ Support Us Add-ons
Username
Password
Login
Register Forgot login?
Bands
alphabetical
country
genre
Labels
alphabetical
country
Reviews
R.I.P.
Random Band
User rankings
News archive
Reports
Contribute / To do
2002-2014
Encyclopaedia Metallum
Best viewed
without Internet Explorer,
in 1280 x 960 resolution
or higher.
Judas Priest > Painkiller > Reviews
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Buy from...
BlackScaped
Amazon.com more... >>
Search on eBay more... >>
Search on Gemm.com
Painkiller
Judas Priest
Write your own review
A masterpiece held back by its running time - 82%
psychosisholocausto, February 13th, 2013
NextLast
There are some albums that absolutely everybody should hear at least once in the
ir lifetime, due to the fact that they are written so well that anyone, no matte
r what their preferred genre, can get into them. Judas Priest wrote several of t
hese releases, but the one that was slightly overrated, Painkiller, is also the
most interesting of these. Upon the time of its release, there was simply nothin
g out there that could boast quite the brash, unadulterated nature that Painkill
er carried so proudly, and for this reason it truly is a landmark album, despite
not being perfect as one would expect from an album of such a stature.
Kicking right off with the thrashy title track, it becomes immediately clear tha
t something has changed about Judas Priest. Gone is the softer, more radio frien
dly styling of albums such as Screaming For Vengeance, and in its place we have
a stunning, extremely heavy drum solo, before diving headfirst into a very aggre
ssive song. This is one of the highlights of the album, coupling intense drummin
g with memorable riffing and Rob Halford's signature high pitched vocals, that m
atch the apocalyptic feel of this song very well. However, in my opinion, it is
the soloing on this song that really makes it as good as it is, with some incred
ibly powerful use of solos that are almost unmatched in all of metal.
Painkiller showcases that which is great about this album to great effect, showi
ng off some very talented guitar work and fast drumming for its time. Rob Halfor
d's vocals are still the high pitched style that much of the metal community wil
l be familiar with, but it seems as though on this album he took it up a notch,
hitting some ridiculously high pitched notes. Rob Halford really is one of the f
ew metal vocalists out there who can come close to hitting some of the notes tha
t fellow revered metal vocalist Bruce Dickinson can hit, which is an achievement
in itself.
This album is considerably heavier than anything they had put out before, really
pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in its day and age to a near insa
ne degree, but without ever being too off putting. When stacked against the extr
emities found today, it does not give off quite the same atmosphere nor impact,
but when put into context, the true magic of this album seeps through. The music
ianship on its own is stellar, but imagining what this must have sounded like up
on release is where the beauty truly comes from. This is faster and far more agg
ressive than anything of its day, and delivers a truly lasting impact that does
not deteriorate following numerous listens.
Despite having memorable riffing, however, Hell Patrol does not quite pack the s
ame punch as the title track. In fact, only one of the songs on here can claim t
o be quite on the same level as Painkiller, and that is track 7, Between the Ham
mer And The Anvil. This has some of the most well thought out guitar work of its
age, and is pure heavy metal at its finest. Night Crawler suffers from being a
little too long but has some great drumming , whereas All Guns Blazing has an an
noying vocals only intro, before going into some nice guitar work throughout, in
cluding a nice lead lick near the start. Metal Meltdown is another great song, w
ith the chorus in particularly standing out as being rather catchy and having so
me great vocals to it.
This album, however, is just not a consistent one. Many of the tracks have one o
r two points that really do drag them down, with All Guns Blazing having the wor
st vocal performance on the album by a long way, and Battle Hymn feeling exceedi
ngly unnecessary, despite just being there to prepare the listener for epic clos
er One Shot At Glory. This is another song that is just a tad too long, being th
e most drawn out song on the album, but having some brilliant vocal work and exc
eptional guitar playing to keep it away from being a poor song.
This is just an album that feels a little underwhelming when stacked up against
the countless albums that have come out since that are a lot better. It is not a
bad album, having a lot to love, especially the incredible guitar work througho
ut the entire release. The guitars on here are some of the best ever written, wi
th crazy soloing across the board, and memorable riffs by the dozen. However, so
me of the songs are either too long or just have something dragging them down.
Heavy metal perfection close at hand - 95%
TheSkrypter, March 26th, 2012
PrevNextFirstLast
Even though Judas Priest are considered a heavy metal band, the songs on this al
bum are played with such intensity that I dare wonder whether it wouldnt be more
fitting to label this album thrash metal. Why? Well, for starters I listen to it
alongside early Slayer. Painkiller is probably the best Priest work and it defini
tely deserves the recognition it has had for over two decades now.
The album is formed by 10 tracks that are each and every one all-time classics.
Ask anyone whos been into metal for awhile about any of these songs and they will
surely tell you that the raw power present in this record is an unstoppably ful
l throttle, full force hammer ripping through your ears, pummeling your brain an
d leaving you begging for more.
The secret behind this albums success is the excellent performance of all five me
mbers of the band. Truth be said, these guys had already been very good on previ
ous works, but the very special ingredient that catalyzed Painkiller was the inclu
sion of drummer Scott Travis, a true genius behind the kit. From the very beginn
ing of the opening track we can acknowledge the crushing power of his drumming,
completely sweeping away every resistance before guitarists Rowling and Tipton,
perfectly secured by bassist Hill, and introduce the devastating riff that sets
the mood for the whole album: incredibly powerful, twisty, and heavy as hell. Th
e stage is set for Halford to deliver his heavy duty vocals, comparable in inten
sity only to Bruce Dickinsons, but far more evil than the Iron Maiden man.
The whole album is highly intense. The guitar duo present crushing riff after cr
ushing riff as well as some uniquely thick and intricate solos that nobody else
can match with such quality. The drums are simply unbelievable; Travis must have
reached the end of the recording sessions completely sore judging by the way he
uses and abuses his double bass pedals, conferring an over the top intensity th
at is amazing.
The lyrics are amongst the coolest you can find anywhere, from vicious hell patr
ols that will get you anyway to horrific monsters with wings, heroes with steel
wheels, explosive fire power guns, and heart-inflaming desire for love and lust,
you have all that a true metal heart may look for. Evil is everywhere and the J
udas Priest members are still black leather bad boys.
No track stands out here because every single one is an absolute classic. The wh
ole album is a relentless heavy metal attack that makes your heart race wildly,
your head bang like hell, and your brain completely surrender to the pace of the
music.
The production is killer as you can hear everything perfectly and yet the overal
l sound is quite brutal and as heavy as heavy metal can be. In fact, it is such
a powerful album that listening to it alongside thrash metal acts will actually
make sense.
If you like raw, powerful music wrapped in furious whirlwinds of state of the ar
t twin guitar perfection, crushing drumming, enveloping bass, and very high-pitc
hed vocals that reach incredibly high notes and sound extremely powerful, yet hy
pnotically melodic, grab this timeless classic. A true masterpiece.
"Thundersteel" Meets "Refuge Denied" - 78%
WishmasterTheDark, January 7th, 2012
PrevNextFirstLast
Judas Priest had their rock music discography (1974-1981) when they played class
ic/hard rock, then they turned into heavy metal music (1982-1984) when they play
ed classic heavy metal. Then comes pop music break with Turbo, and again they go
back with heavy metal (1988-onward) where they did classic heavy metal releases
, power metal release (this one) and symphonic metal (Nostradamus). Too many gen
res and sub-genres. This studio album deserves respect, but not too much, 'cause
things are not always how we imagine. This was one of the most influential albu
ms which had special impact on power metal bands. In fact, this is Judas Priest'
s power metal release. However, it's one of the most overrated albums ever. I me
an, not excellent one, and definitely far from being perfect. This studio album
is very good, but I can name tens of other albums where you can find every song
which is excellent. It's not the case here. This is the only interesting and the
most creative Judas Priest album, where you can find more excellent songs than
in 2-3 albums together from the rest of their discography.
I give a limited respect to this release because it is so well-known, but the fa
cts about its sound and idea are not well-known. This is known as one of the won
ders of heavy metal music, one of the most original, unique studio albums and sh
it like that. But really, is it so? The answer is simple - no. This album is a p
ure rip-off, its sound, the whole image and idea. Distortion is improved, and do
esn't sound like the stuff they did before. It sounds like Sanctuary's Refuge De
nied. Sanctuary is underground band, but their studio album was known back then,
and was accepted well. I bet they got it in their hands, and decided to sound l
ike Sanctuary. Maybe I'm wrong, but no-one can deny the identical sound. Another
reason why this release is not unique, because they stole the whole idea from R
iot's Thundersteel. Just like Thundersteel, Painkiller is some kind of powerful
fictive messiah who comes from the sky, rides horse of steel/metal monster, and
slaughters evil, etc. Not just that they stole lyrical image, but both songs hav
e fast drum work in the beginning with sharp riffs, although Painkiller's drum i
ntro is more creative, high-pitched screams, fast tempo, technically demanding s
olos etc. Basically everything, just this studio album has better production.
So, whole work from album Painkiller, was inspired by work on Thundersteel. Thun
der-steel, Pain-killer. Hm, kinda has the same feel. I did not come just to comp
are these three albums (Thundersteel, Refuge Denied and Painkiller), so I'll sti
ck to the Painkiller now. I'm not hate-boy who came to piss on Judas Priest's wo
rk. I just state the facts. From these excellent songs which this studio album h
as to offer, Painkiller is the absolute highlight. A furious and powerful opener
, which will catch every listener's attention after the very first listen. High-
pitched singing parts and screams, blazing riffs, killer drum work, fast tempo,
very good technical guitar solo, everything is perfectly packed. It really made
impact on Kai Hansen who used this song as inspiration for some songs in Gamma R
ay, and specially Ralf Scheepers, who made his entire discography with Primal Fe
ar, influenced with this song. But both Kai and Ralf are god-like singers, and R
ob can't match with them. Face it fanboys, Rob sucks live. He was never capable
of singing this song live, and he rarely pulls some higher notes from other song
s where he screamed. When he attempts to sing this song, he sounds like a baby c
rying, even worse.
Metal Meltdown is another excellent song done with the same pattern. The only di
fference is that Metal Meltdown has insane guitar solo in the beginning, and the
rest, well... again lyrics without deeper meaning, blazing riffs, fast tempo, h
igh-pitched screams and again very good technical guitar solo. Between The Hamme
r And Anvil is rare song which has lyrics with deeper meaning. If I'm right, it'
s probably about Judas Priest, when they were accused for having hidden messages
in their songs, when two fans of theirs committed suicide. It is slower song co
mparing to these two above, but still it has faster tempo, heavy riffs, enjoyabl
e rhythm, tempo etc. One Shot At Glory is another heavy riff-driven song, with R
ob's higher register, Manowar inspired lyrics. I can feel Manowar influence in t
his whole release, specially influence from the aggressive, furious, and powerfu
l song Black Wind, Fire And Steel. A Touch Of Evil is much different song than t
he ones I mentioned above. Mainly because it is powerful ballad-like slow, lustf
ul song ('cause of lyrics of course, yeah, second song with meaningful lyrics).
The rest of the album is not impressive at all. Leather Rebel's intro sounds lik
e Helloween's Victim Of Fate, which is another rip-off part of this album. It ha
s mediocre lyrics, great riffs and drum rhythms, fast tempo, but fast doesn't me
an excellent. Hell Patrol is mid tempo song which has enjoyable drum and guitar
rhythms, nice singing parts, but guitar solo is not special at all, lyrics are c
rap and Rob's screams are annoying here. All Guns Blazing has annoying opener sc
reams. It has similar guitar solo to Painkiller, tempo which is the same like in
Painkiller and Metal Meltdown, in fact, it was done with the same pattern like
Painkiller and Metal Meltdown, but not as half as good as these two songs. Mostl
y because of shit lyrics again, and making so many similar songs in one album is
not impressive at all. Night Crawler has some catchy rhythms, but that's all.
Good sides of this release:
Some excellent furious, aggressive, melodic songs with blazing riffs, fast tempo
, great high-pitched screams, also great slower songs.
Bad sides of this release:
Fairly overrated, mostly crap lyrics, some boring songs, and songs with less cre
ative effort, whole thing is a big Riot's Thundersteel and Sanctuary's Refuge De
nied rip-off. It's not the most unique, original or whatever studio album. Howev
er, it had influence on other bands.
Highlights:
Painkiller, Metal Meltdown, Between The Hammer And Anvil, A Touch Of Evil and On
e Shot At Glory.
Great Album - 100%
Schneider225, December 9th, 2011
PrevNextFirstLast
I felt that I needed to leave a review for this album because it is probably my
favorite Judas Priest album. Although some of the lyrics in the song in this alb
um can be a bit cheesy, it is still great due to the fact that Rob Halford is si
nging them.
To start out, the title track, "Painkiller", starts out and just instantly crush
es you. The drum solo at the beginning is just spectacular. Even the first guita
r solo is amazing. This whole song just crushes you for the whole 6 minutes and
is easily the best song on the album. I was once watching "That Metal Show" and
Rob Halford was a guest on it and the audience was asking him questions and one
of them was asked what is the greatest song ever. Rob Halford replied that the g
reatest song ever was "Painkiller", and I must say that I will agree with him. T
his is just a kick ass song.
The next songs, "Hell Patrol" and "All Guns Blazing", are also awesome. The guit
ar parts and drumming in it are just great. I also personally feel that the chor
us of these songs rock. When the high scream comes up in the song "Hell Patrol",
it is probably my favorite part of the song. The song that comes after that, "L
eather Rebel", is another fantastic song. The opening guitar riff (fast and heav
y) is what instantly tells you that it will be a great song. Even the chorus of
this song is just like classic Priest, having the high pitch scream in the backg
round and it is just awesome.
"Metal Meltdown" is what comes next and the opening guitar solo in that song is
remarkable and even when that ends and the rest of the song starts, it is fast a
nd awesome. The song "Night Crawler" is also amazing. It opens up with kind of a
n eerie sound to it which is what to me adds some of the greatness to it. The st
yle of how Halford does the vocals is just amazing and with his voice right besi
de that is a key to making this song awesome.
To sum it all up, this is maybe the greatest metal album of all time and I would
recommend any metal head to listen to it. The intensity and the speed throughou
t the whole album is just fantastic and is why i love it so much. You are just a
mazed with the whole 46 minutes that it plays and you will not be able to resist
to head bang or at least move your head a little bit when listening to this.
I can do this for all of the songs on this album. I think that all of them are r
eally good. I have heard some people say that this isn't a good Judas Priest alb
um. Sure it isn't like other Judas Priest albums but that doesn't mean that it i
s bad. I just can't fathom why people would think that this album isn't as good
as the other Judas Priest albums. I must say that this is probably my favorite J
udas Priest album along with "Screaming For Vengeance."
Faster than a bullet, terrifying scream - 100%
headlesscross, November 9th, 2011
PrevNextFirstLast
Shocking: this is the best way to describe Painkiller, the studio album publishe
d by Judas Priest in 1990. If the band from Birmingham during the previous decad
e had rewrote the rules of heavy metal with masterpieces like Screaming For Veng
eance and Defenders Of The Faith, in 1986 they published Turbo, in which they le
ft their classic style introducing a softer sound and using synthesized guitars,
causing discontent among fans. Then they retraced their steps with Ram It Down,
a good work with some good songs but certainly not a masterpiece and not partic
ularly original. So at the beginning of the nineties Judas Priest appeared as an
almost tired and without ideas band until they incredibly published Painkiller
that stroke as an hurricane on the metal world.
This album, even if it keeps the continuity with the best works of the group, sh
ows a power and a rage never heard before in the discography of the English band
as well as an incredible perfection and attention for the details, thanks to th
e production of Chris Tsangarides. All the members of the group seems rejuvenate
d and revitalized. Ian Hill is very fast and rigorous and Glenn Tipton and K.K.
Downing are perfectly integrated and play duels that reach surreal levels. And a
bout the drums, we find a new entry in the group, Scott Travis, who presents him
self with the introduction of the first song (Painkiller) and who, throughout th
e whole album, builds a powerful and very firm wall of sound that seems like rei
nforced concrete. At the end, Rob Halford's falsetto is even more shrill and at
the same time less melodic, and in this way it becomes almost strident, showing
an effect of evil and malice.
Among the songs, there is never a step-load or a loosening of tension. We can fi
nd songs that are fast and sharp like blades (Painkiller, All Guns Blazing, Leat
her Rebel, and Metal Meltdown), while others are more similar to the classic Judas
Priest style (Hell Patrol and Night Crawler), then others that sound almost epi
c (Between The Hammer & The Anvil and One Shot At Glory), and even one with slow
and crawling tones (A Touch Of Evil).
In conclusion, Painkiller is highly tense and a destroyer of an album, showing a
fully fit band like it will probably never be. In fact, Judas Priest couldnt con
tinue with this new stylistic subject started with Painkiller because the follow
ing year Halford left the band and when he returned in 2003, he was no longer ab
le to sing in such a extreme way. This is a pity, but in this way Painkiller has
remained an absolutely unique masterpiece.
Is My Face Supposed To Be Melting? - 98%
Metal_Jaw, October 7th, 2011
PrevNextFirstLast
There my friend sat. He sat on his leather chair, slumped in curved ball of mass
in front of his computer screen. His face was trapped in a near-orgasmic expres
sion, as though his mind literally been blown. What appeared to be drool leaked
in a little drizzle from his mouth, a warped grin. Upon closer inspection, I rea
lized that it wasn't drool; it was mercury. LIQUID METAL! Turning my head oh so
slightly to the right, I faced the monitor. The words "Judas Priest-Leather Rebe
l" were scrawled across the top of the screen. Morbid fascination overtook me, a
nd as a happy smirk began to crawl across my mortal lips, I clicked the play but
ton...
or some shit like that.
But seriously, this is IT! THE most metal album from THE best metal band of all
damn time! There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this album. You want bone-crus
hing speed? You got it! You want head-exploding vocals? You got it! Do you want
Olympian heaviness? You got it! How about merciless guitars and sizzling drums?
You got that too! Do you want a beatbox? Fuck that shit!
"Painkiller", released in 1990, is oft considered to be Priest's magnum opus, a
complete triumph in speed, aggression, and heaviness. And I totally agree. It's
my favorite album from my favorite band. There's just nothing wrong with it! Rob
Halford's voice is practically demonic, a wailing scream of immense proportions
that he has never achieved before or since. Glenn Tipton and KK Downing's guita
rs twin-shred in such a way that me thinks the mighty sea god Poseidon has just
shit his flipper in terror. Ian Hill's bass is shattering; totally a maker of ea
rthquakes and volcanoes! Last but certainly not least, the blasting, light-speed
, monster-sized double-bass hammering of Scott Travis, JP's then-new drummer and
arguably the best thing to ever happen to the band.
The songs are all just perfect in their own ways. From the soul-mincing speed an
d legendary aggression of the title track to the upbeat hyper-speed of "Leather
Rebel" to the monstrous solos and heavy ferocity of "Metal Meltdown" to the dark
atmosphere of "Nightcrawler", all 10 tracks scorch with an all-mighty blaze of
technical perfection that no other band has even come close to measuring up agai
nst.
Now, why 98% instead of the full hundred? Well, just some nitpicks. The lyrics o
f most of the songs are rather cheesy nonsense, but it never gets on my nerves e
nough to stop listening to any particular song. Also, while still really good, t
he songs "All Guns Blazing" and "Battle Hymn/One Shot At Glory" tend to be forgo
tten soon after a single listen.
This album is the epitome of speed metal perfection. If you don't own it, then y
ou are no metal fan. If you've never heard of it, then you are NO music fan. THI
S...IS...THE PAINKILLER!
STANDOUTS:
Everything, although the two previously-mentioned songs are slightly forgettable
.
The best can suck it, THIS is what I'd rather hear - 100%
BastardHead, September 29th, 2011
PrevNextFirstLast
Oh lord, another glowing review for Judas Priest's foray into the heavier side o
f metal. Let's face it, the praise isn't thrown this way on accident, this is a
beast of an album. There is one thing I'd like to address before I even really g
et down the grit of the review here, and that is that Painkiller is NOT Priest's
best album. Not at all, I'd never claim otherwise. Sad Wings of Destiny, Sin Af
ter Sin, and Stained Class are all better albums from a musical standpoint. The
holy trinity of S albums in the '70s carry a monstrous wealth of musical depth a
nd complexity that Painkiller can only dream of reaching. The dynamics and vocal
acrobatics are completely otherworldly and quite ahead of their time. I mean re
ally, how many straight up heavy metal bands, that can still be classified as su
ch by today's standards, were there in the mid '70s? Priest wasn't only in a lea
gue of their own, but their seminal works of the time still hold up today as abs
olute milestones of songwriting. Painkiller can't claim any of those technical l
andmarks as its own, not at all. It's nothing but big stupid speed metal riffs a
nd mindless double bass. But honestly, given the choice, I'll pick Painkiller ev
ery single time, without even hesitating.
Perhaps this makes me a dullard, but god damn I'd rather hang out with the cavem
en than the physics professors if this is how they party. This album is a perfec
t example for dissecting the difference between an album being "the best" and "m
y favorite". Some examples, like Megadeth's Rust in Peace, are both my favorite
and what I would also consider the band's best work. But Priest is different, th
ey completely fucking nailed it early on and only got dumber as time went on. Th
is, to me, seems to be their zenith. This is the perfect combination of retarded
silliness, the leather and rock n' roll attitude of their '80s era, and the mod
ernization of their music with heavier, faster songs and a much more aggressive
approach. I mean look at the album cover. That ridiculous image right there sums
up this whole album perfectly. It looks like Silver Surfer finally got his wing
s and then celebrated by stealing Wheel Gator from Sigma's Fortress. If that one
-two punch of nerd references was lost on you, I'm sure you can still just look
at the damn thing and see how over the top and silly looking it is. It's the per
fect visual representation of what you'll find underneath.
The album begins with the title track, which probably still, after all these yea
rs, ranks as my #1 most favorite metal song of all time, across all subgenres. T
here's nothing wrong with it, this is Judas Priest working out some immeasurable
amount of pent up anger and aggression, and the addition of drummer Scott Travi
s shows its merits right away as the album begins with a moderately short drum s
olo. It's fast, it's pounding, it's double bass out the wazoo, and it shows what
Priest is now capable of with this young fellow behind the kit instead of the d
roning, mustachioed kiddie fiddler of Dave Holland. Once the song itself picks u
p, Rob Halford also shows off his pipes in a way he hasn't done since the glory
days of those magical three S albums I mentioned earlier. Some of the passages h
e belts out are amongst the most heartfelt and agonized of his career, you can r
eally tell he's giving it his all on this record. At not one single moment on th
e entire album does he sound content or laid back, he is always a snarling, ragi
ng beast behind the mic and is determined to scare off all of the infidels in th
e area. The title track also contains some of the best soloing that heavy metal
has ever witnessed, the legendary Tipton and Downing team are also completely on
top of their game here. They shred like they never have before, pushing themsel
ves to the limit and beyond, which is quite remarkable considering Tipton was we
ll into his 40s at this time.
With all of the band members pushing themselves so hard and possibly even trying
to outdo each other, the whole album carries an inescapable frantic pace. Even
the half ballady track, "A Touch of Evil", carries a sense of urgency unlike any
thing the band had ever done. In a way, this is kind of like the Judas Priest co
unterpart to Anthrax's Persistence of Time, which came out around the same time.
Both albums are the band's darkest and heaviest works to date and were a result
of outside factors and tension within the band. On tour for this album, as we a
ll know, Rob Halford managed to wreck his motorcycle onstage, which somehow acte
d as a catalyst for him to essentially give the band the finger and walk away, t
hus ushering in the oft maligned Ripper era of the band.
And again, that tension and aggression shows itself throughout the duration of P
ainkiller. "All Guns Blazing" is one of the more violent tracks in their reperto
ire lyrically, and the title track, "Leather Rebel", and "Metal Meltdown" are al
l completely balls out speedfests. "Between the Hammer and the Anvil" and "Night
Crawler" are both sheer heavy metal anthems with catchy choruses and huge, hard
hitting riffs. This is abundant in the one element that I always felt the '70s
era lacked, fun. This is one of the most fun albums in heavy metal history, and
while this is overblown and idiotic, I never feel like going out on a Friday nig
ht and cranking Sad Wings. This is over the top, headbanging fun and there's no
other way I'd rather have it. This straightforward speed metal is something that
Priest apparently completely rocks at, and even though they never really expand
ed upon the sound found here, it's still an everlasting testament to what makes
Painkiller so damn awesome. It was a glorious one-off in an already glorious car
eer. The internal strife and pent up frustration with the band members resulted
in some of the most high octane music heavy metal as a whole has ever put out, n
othing gets the blood pumping quite like throwing on "Metal Meltdown". It retain
s their '80s signature of being incredibly infectious while providing the goofy
AOR anthems with a much needed shot in the arm.
And that's what makes this close to being the perfect album in my eyes. It's a m
agnificent mixture of everything that made the band so noteworthy up to this poi
nt while also keeping it fresh and interesting. The aggressive style really work
s with Priest's songwriting skill and Painkiller is absolute proof of it. I'll b
e the first to admit, despite my vigorous masturbation, that this is a flawed ma
sterpiece. The album loses steam at the end, with "One Shot at Glory" not being
quite as big, over the top, or anthemic as it wants to be and preceding the kind
of disappointing ending with the ballady track really seems to give it a weak b
ack end, but in the context of the entire album it's just a quirk that I don't t
hink brings the album down all that much, if at all. You'd still bone Marilyn Mo
nroe, regardless of whether or not she's got that mark on her face, and I'd stil
l bone this album, even if it does have that mark on its butt. I still recommend
this to every newcomer who seems interested in metal, to every jaded veteran wh
o for some stupid reason hasn't heard this, to anybody with a pulse who seems to
realize music exists, really. I write love notes to this album weekly, and this
time I decided to publish it.
Call me!
Heavy Metal Defined - 98%
octavarium, February 25th, 2011
PrevNextFirstLast
In 1990, Judas Priest had already been a well-established band and were consider
ed one of the first true heavy metal bands since the 70's. However, some accused
the band of losing a few steps with the releases of Turbo and Ram it Down. What
ever criticisms were thrown in their path, Priest blasted them into the air with
the quintessential Painkiller in 1990. Twenty years have passed since then, but
metal has still never been the same.
Perhaps Judas' Priest's first "speed" metal album, each song sounds like a heavy
metal anthem injected with jet fuel. The album starts off with the title track
and features a fast-paced, rattling drum solo by then-newcomer Scott Travis befo
re ultimately erupting into a booming riff. Not just heavy, but booming. Halford
shows off his range with shrieking vocals telling us the story of the metal sav
ior, the Painkiller. Duelling guitar solos by the always excellent K.K. Downing
and Glenn Tipton fill the bridge before Halford delivers one final verse and cho
rus before ending with a note held for what seems like twenty seconds while Trav
is plays another drum solo that starts slow but picks up in speed and intensity
before the song ends in an explosion of sound with Halford shouting "Pain!" How
can the rest of the album possibly follow that? Surprisingly, it does.
Hell Patrol has a griding riff that sounds similar to that of a military march,
All Guns Blazing features more shrieking and high-pitched vocals by metal god Ha
lford, Metal Meltdown is quite literally a metal meltdown with a mindblowing ope
ning guitar solo, and Night Crawler tells the story of a viscious monster with a
bridge that is strangely quiet, but dark and sinister. All of these aforementio
ned songs are classic, but nothing prepares one for A Touch of Evil. Starting of
f with what sounds like wailing winds in a graveyard is followed by a spine-ting
ling keyboard and then heavy riff. The keyboard and later guitar solos give the
song a real chilling and haunting feel with a mix of Halford's baritone and shri
eking vocals. A song about forbidden and forsaken love, this about as close as y
ou will get to a power ballad, but to say that it is isn't even close.
The bass by Ian Hill is sometimes lost in the speed and loudness of the guitars
and drums, and songs like Between the Hammer and the Anvil and One Shot at Glory
may not be as memorable as Painkiller or a Touch of Evil, but there is really n
othing at all wrong with this album. Incredibly fast and incredibly heavy with s
ongs of appocalypse and impending disaster, the emotion deliverd by Halford in h
is vocals is as powerful as the sound of the music. Judas Priest were already me
tal legends before this album, but Painkiller is what makes them immortal. If on
e looked up heavy metal in the dictionary, one would see the iconic album art of
the Painkiller and the faces of the band members next to the definition. This i
sn't just metal. This is the Painkiller.
Blazing Speed+Soaring Vocals=GLORY - 90%
blarg223, December 10th, 2010
PrevNextFirstLast
Awe. That was my initial reaction upon hearing this for the first time. On a nor
mal occasion, it might not be as such. But, this was one of my first metal album
s; I bought it at a garage sale on cassette for 50 cents. This was when I was be
ginning my love affair with metal, so this sonic assault was entirely new to my
virgin ears. This intense amalgamation of speed, power, NWOBHM, and maybe even a
tad bit of thrash remains just as aggressive two decades later.
The album certainly looks menacing enough from its cover. A winged, metalloid de
mon riding a flying, draconic motorcycle with lethal buzzsaws for wheels, roarin
g at the sky in triumph?! Metal enough for you?! It was amazing for me as a pada
wan of the metal order. The booklet has the pronged Priest insignia inscribed be
hind the lyrics on every page and a black and white photograph of the band in tr
aditional leather and studs. Immediate icons for a boy of 15.
Anyways, onto the music! The guitar work is absolutely blazing in all senses of
the word. The riffing is fast, tight, melodic, and original. Chugs, staccato, me
lodic wank up on the high frets, it's all present. A tinge of technicality is de
finitely present; not just boring power chords anymore. Glenn Tipton and K.K. Do
wning have stepped up their game to keep it extremely innovative. The riffing st
yle is normally fast and melodic, but some are more mid-paced, and Between the H
ammer and the Anvil starts with slow, doomy chords. And the solos! RADICAL!! Bot
h guitarists trade off lead and rhythm duties, and each of them do both jobs to
a T. Tipton seems to be more structured and Downing seems to be slightly more ch
aotic with squeals and dive-bombs. The tone is crisp and saturated with brightne
ss and distortion.
The vocals are generally high pitched and soaring way above everything, with som
e slight reverb at times to add some epic effect. Halford is a legend in his own
right, on par with Bruce Dickinson, and Ronnie James Dio, and has set the bar h
igh on this album for future power and speed metal vocalists and is THE example
to be emulated. He sings generally cleanly, with a coloring of harshness and ang
er at times.
Ian Hill, the resident bassist, is audible, but nothing of true note here. He th
unders along behind the rhythm guitar and never anything very special, but then
again, keeping up with the ferocity is quite a feat.
The best thing they ever did was hiring Scott Travis to sit behind the skins. Re
placing the mundane Dave Holland, who could have easily been in AC/DC (yes that'
s an insult) was a wonderful move, for he without a doubt could not have kept th
e pace Travis sets forth and would have been a liability to the rest of the band
. Scott relies heavily on double bass, relatively simple beats, and lightning fa
st fills and rolls.
Lyrically, the album is both "trve" and goofy at the same time. The poetic verse
s about glory, mythical and apocalyptic beings, leather, metal, and more leather
are amazing but also somewhat ridiculous. They are over the top at times but ar
e also extremely metal, in the most literal sense. Also, Touch of Evil sounds li
ke a totally romantic cheesy plea of infantile lust.
The production is very clear. Every instrument can be clearly heard, or at least
felt. The vocals are a center point obviously, rising above the writhing guitar
. The drums are audible and the bass pounding with the kick drum can be clearly
felt as well as heard. The snare has a nice sounding snap to it.
Standout Tracks:
-Painkiller is a blazing song complete with killer, pounding double bass intro,
melodically deadly riff, greased lightning solos.
-Hell Patrol has a really interesting staccato riff syncopated with the snare dr
um and some lower-end singing which is a nice touch.
-Metal Meltdown has a lovely fast-paced thrashy riff in the beginning, an insane
intro solo, and an interesting chord progression.
-One Shot at Glory is an anthem of metal, hands down. It has a great riff, choru
s that makes you wanna run and never stop, and singing that sounds like a call t
o war if I've ever heard one.
Overall, this is a really good album, for either a beginner like myself or a sea
soned metal veteran. No real weak points, and every song is good by itself or in
sequence. There are no real bad songs, and even the filler, Battle Hymn, is pre
tty gnarly. It has everything a metal masterpiece should have: pounding drums wi
th awesome double bass, soaring vocals from a legend, heavy, melodic, and fast r
iffing, magnificent, chaotic solos, and production where everything is audible.
Pros:
-Amazing Guitar, both riffing and solos
-Much Better drumming
-Clear, Thick Production
-Rob Halford (yes, he is a pro by himself)
Cons:
-Can be same-y; same basic structure, solos similar
-All Guns Blazing intro is kinda gay
-Touch of Evil sounds like a pre-pubescent romantic attempt
Old timers invest in a bowflex - 100%
autothrall, April 9th, 2010
PrevNextFirstLast
Though they had already delivered numerous masterworks in British Steel, Screami
ng for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith, it is Painkiller which stands the t
est of time as both the de facto Judas Priest experience and their heaviest effo
rt to date. Which begs the question, why in the Nine Hells did they not continue
in this direction? I realize they had the falling out, and the 'Ripper' Owens p
eriod (my head still aches), but even the two reunion albums so far have been ga
rbage by comparison.
Painkiller was like the culmination of an architectural masterpiece: the foundat
ion had been laid, brick by brick, carefully for years; the riffs a geometry of
melodic aggression; each of Halford's vocal lines delirious with ham-fisted meta
l imagery and stark passion. The title track EXPLODES, the heaviest fucking anth
em this band has ever manifested. Halford soars forth like an escaped asylum inm
ate who wants to end your pain AND YOUR LIFE. Who cares that the song is about s
ome figurative alien metalloid angel of salvation (Jesus with a flying motorcycl
e and double chainsaw action). That's just bonus.
'Through boiling clouds of thunder
Blasting bolts of steel
Evils going under deadly wheels'
Ride on! Right on! It doesn't hurt that the rest of the album is equally solid s
upport for this blazing avatar. "Hell Patrol" is a melodic anthem which celebrat
es the machinery of final judgement. "All Guns Blazing" is just...well, let's ju
st say when I saw the band on their Painkiller world tour back in the day, Rob H
alford dedicated it to Saddam Hussein.
"Leather Rebel" opens with a whirlwind of melodic speed picking before glorious
verse and chorus, a sweet and pure tribute to the tr00 metal elite. "Metal Meltd
own" ranges from shredding to thrashing, with it's ominous and silly chorus. Fuc
k, just how many songs on this album have the word 'lazer' in them? Okay, only t
wo, but that's two more lazer references than YOUR favorite metal album! En gard
e! "Night Crawler" is a creepy horror anthem and yet another hybrid of power and
thrash metal with poppy melodic riffing similar to "Painkiller". "Between the H
ammer & the Anvil" starts with some slower, doomy chords which are revisited lat
er in the track with an actually beating of such solid objects together. "A Touc
h of Evil" is a seductive tune with silly synthesizers, it's similar to the stuf
f Ozzy was doing at this period, and a little Zeppelin influence. I love it, esp
ecially that chorus:
'In the night, come to me
You know I want your Touch of Evil
In the night, please set me free
I can't resist a Touch of Evil'
Touch me, Rob! Oh, touch me! Too much information. The majestic instrumental "Ba
ttle Hymn" sets up the album's final number "One Shot at Glory", which is pure P
riest and again features that amazing, unforgettable chorus.
Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing once again proved their worth as the genre's pre-em
inent straightforward axe duo. Tasteful leads when required, but never over-wank
ing or attempting to upstage the vocal and verse. Ian Hill has never been an ama
zing bass player, and here he just continues to follow along with the guitars. S
cott Travis delivers a pretty stellar drum performance, especially the memorable
fills which open the title track. The lyrics are hokey but loveable throughout;
they function perfectly with the pseudo-metallian concept. The album has been r
emastered but the original still sounds fantastic.
To describe the influence of this band (and album) is beyond the parameters of a
mere mortal's humble review, but I can assure you, it's worth the hype. You did
n't need me to remind you, of course, because you already have and love this. Or
so the voices told me. Now I just need to forget about what the slew of atrocit
ies the band issued post-Painkiller, so I can sleep.
-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com
Camp. - 63%
failsafeman, January 6th, 2009
PrevNextFirstLast
I've never been able to understand why this album gets so much praise and acclai
m; or, rather, I've understood why it gets the praise and acclaim, but never see
n why people have found it deserving of such. Scratch that, I see exactly why pe
ople have found it deserving of such, but I'm not fooled by the bells and whistl
es that dazzle so many and don't believe it actually is deserving of such. The s
ound and fury signifies nothing.
To start with, the band wisely chose the title track to open the album; it's bas
ically the only really good song of the bunch. Just listen to it: after the drum
barrage, the razor-sharp guitar riffs slice in, shortly followed by Halford's f
alsetto, probably more aggressive than we've ever heard him before. Then the mel
odic solos, hot poop! If you don't turn into a flailing neanderthal during this
song, you hate metal. The lyrics are kinda stupid, but in this endearing tongue-
in-cheek, over-the-top way that can't help but make me smile. I mean, a man made
of metal on a flying motorcycle is going to ride down from the sky and save the
world? And fuck your speeding bullet, the Painkiller is faster than a goddamn l
aser bullet!!!!! The song is so good, the positive feelings and adrenalin spill
over into the rest of the album, coloring its mediocre pace, lack of quality rif
fs, and the repetitive crowd-pleasing tripe they call melodies. That adrenalin s
till left in your system from the title track makes these feel like good songs.
They're not. "Hell Patrol" is plodding and devoid of good riffs; mostly the guit
ars just go through chord progressions with a lick or two. The drumming is flash
y but can't hide the mediocrity, and Halford is still a great singer but even th
e best voice in the world can't save crappy songwriting. "All Guns Blazing" is l
ike the title track with all quality leeched out, leaving nothing but blandness
(except the little opening vocal bit, which is cool I guess). "Leather Rebel" is
OK, decent speed metal but without much more going for it than speed and energy
; it's repetitive as hell, and what it repeats wasn't even that good the first t
ime around.
I could go through every song like this, but I would essentially be saying the s
ame thing over and over, which is pretty much what the album is after the opener
. Each song has the required one cool bit to carry it, after which Halford and S
cott Travis try to distract you as much as possible from the boring songwriting.
"Metal Meltdown" has a good main riff, "Nightcrawler" has a cool chorus, but th
e songs are pretty bare-boned with a facade of drums and vocals stretched over t
hem, like a big zeppelin or something. Looks solid from a distance, but there's
only gas inside. I know metal isn't the most serious or lyrically intellectual o
f genres, but come on, how can anyone listen to the chorus to "Metal Meltdown" w
ithout feeling retarded? It would make Manowar blush. The tongue-in-cheek of the
title track seems gone in the boring-ass description of a metal meltdown; whate
ver the fuck that is, this song isn't. More like popping a paper bag. And then w
hat's with "A Touch of Evil"? Sounds like "bad touch", you can't tell me Halford
was thinking about some buxom wench while writing those lyrics! I'm sure it was
some barely pubescent metalhead with peach fuzz on his balls, or perhaps some b
ig burly biker type. Any subliminal messages that may have actually been in Juda
s Priest songs were assuredly trying to convince people to bugger ol' Rob's lone
ly cornhole.
You mesmerize slowly
Till I can't believe my eyes
Ecstasy controls me
What you give just serves me right
Yeah, I'll bet Halford's getting it just right. The whole song sounds like he's
wrestling with being in the closet: "I'm so afraid/But I still feed the flame" f
or example. It seems somehow appropriate the song is saccharine, plodding, and r
epetitive as FUCK. That fucking drum beat is like getting pounded in the ass ove
r and over and over and over. I've never engaged in homosexual relations (you'll
just have to trust me on that one), but somehow after listening to "A Touch of
Evil" I know just what it's like.
Painkiller is essentially a comic book movie. At first there's the joy at recogn
izing a beloved character up on the big screen: for a second, all your childhood
nostalgia comes rushing back, and you think for that fleeting second that this
movie will portray the superhero with all the bells and whistles modern special
effects can provide, yet still remain faithful to the original character you kno
w and love. After that initial thrill, you slowly realize that aside from those
bells and whistles, the plot and characters have been trivialized. Corny romance
, laughably inept villains, eye-rollingly bad dialog, clearly family-oriented hu
mor - all serve to bring home the reality that no, this is not the beloved Judas
Priest of old. It's cartoon versions of themselves, two-dimensional, with the t
arget demographic clearly being the Saturday morning market. Watch the music vid
eo for "Painkiller", Halford looks like a Looney Tunes character. Homo Hal, or s
omething. Metal isn't always the most mature of genres, sure, but these are no y
ouths, swept up in dreams of knights, gore, and Satan; these are middle-aged men
with huge budgets indulging in regression. Midlife crisis? You betcha. There's
nothing wrong with traditional metal themes, but there are much better ways of d
ealing with them. You know, like Judas Priest used to, over a decade before writ
ing this crap. Unsurprisingly, the thought put into the music reflects the thoug
ht put into the lyrics.
The return of legends - 100%
Torwilligous, December 12th, 2008
PrevNextFirstLast
"Painkiller". What is there left to say about a true classic in the pantheons of
metal? This surely remains one of the greatest 'comebacks' in music history, as
the legendary Judas Priest - after two sorely lacklustre records - reinvented t
hemselves in a blaze of molten steel. "Painkiller", from the thunderous drum-rol
l-to-the-power-of-100 intro of the title track to the cathartically epic closer
"One Shot at Glory", showcases metallic masters firing on every cylinder they po
ssess.
What immediately impresses is the sense of vitriolic rage that blazes from the m
usic. This is priest burying the synth-pop horrors of Turbo, and rediscovering t
he dark, Sabbath-ian-plus-extra-epic sense of Romantic (big R; I'm talking "Fran
kenstein" here, not "Love Actually"), Gothic gloom that haunted their early 70's
classics. Channelled through a ripping post-Thrash sensibility, the results are
truly immense. This is Priest sounding angrier, hungrier and more dangerous tha
n they have in a decade; the slow degeneration into a strange kind of camp comed
y metal - "the REAL Spinal Tap!", as one eminent British rock publication put it
- is swiftly and irrevocably wiped out. This, I contend, is the album which cem
ented their place as true legends of Metal.
Bold words? Think of Priest's 80's output; slick, heavily produced, streamlined.
Along with the bombastic Bruce Dickinson-era Iron Maiden, they set the blueprin
t for 80's metal. But as the new wave of metal forged on, and as thrash, black a
nd death metal formed around them, Priest were in danger of being left behind. W
here once they were the leaders and innovators of a burgeoning, revolutionary ge
nre, now they led huge tours with numerous stage props and enough pomp to bankru
pt a small African country. Where once they plied their trade with fury and dead
ly determination through the clubs and pubs of England, now they resembled nothi
ng so much as a strangely mobile Broadway musical production. This album was a s
ymbolic turning point for Priest; it is the sound of a sleeping beast awakening.
For if any band - or any human for that matter - can truly claim to have pure ME
TAL flowing through their veins, it is Priest. Casting aside the big, anthemic c
horuses and fruity excesses of their 80's sound, they blast forth with a lightni
ng bolt of pure steel. Scott Travis - their new drummer - invigorates and energi
ses the band immediately; unlike the plodding and pedestrian Dave Holland, he at
tacks the kit with a frankly blistering combination of power, intricacy and rhyt
hmic perfection. Glenn Tipton and K.K Dowing unleash raging, dark and relentless
ly powerful riffs left, right and centre, adding a sprinkling of furiously techn
ical, face-melting solos. And Rob Halford lets rip with the most hair-raising pe
rformance of his entire career; a tour-de-force of shrieking vocal mastery, deli
vered with intense power and conviction.
The lyrics follow suit. You'll find nothing here but nearly formless expressions
of rage, violence, terror and glory; archetypes of metal. These lyrics delight
in the exultation of pure power. They are great because they invoke; rather than
sticking to the descriptive, story-telling aspects of traditional metal, Halfor
d summons the primeval energies that fuel these dark fantasies, and expresses th
em directly and viscerally. Music and Lyrics together constitute a clenched fist
; a mighty blow that lays a true benchmark for traditional metal. There may be m
any imitators, but none come close to this; a true masterpiece.
This... Is... The Painkiller!!! - 90%
Edward_The_Great, November 12th, 2008
PrevNextFirstLast
Generally, "Painkiller" is considered Priest's opus amongst their huge and varie
d discography and I strongly agree, as I've found this to be their only album th
at doesn't fall short from songs that are either plain crappy or generally weak.
The overall feel of the album is pretty much an extreme Judas Priest evoking the
powerful spirit that has become synonymous with their legacy. The whole first h
alf of the album is ripe with fiery guitars, high falsetto vocals, and cheesy ly
rics about metal messiahs, dudes in leather, and hellish militias. Good stuff. T
he second half is a bit darker and epic with the medieval-ish "Between the Hamme
r and the Anvil", the gothic-ish "Touch of Evil", and "One Shot at Glory" which
is as glorious as its name suggests.
The band performance of this album is excellent. Rob Halfords singing is very div
erse, ranging from high pitched falsettos ("Painkiller" or "All Guns Blazing") t
o his more masculine gruff style ("Between the Hammer and the Anvil" or "Leather
Rebel"). K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton go all-out with their solos on the album
, (they range from fiery to plain gripping) and often arent satisfied with just o
ne. As usual, not much to say about the bass but it seems to do its job. Lastly,
Scott Travis makes his debut with Priest on this album, and gives a very solid
performance. He does a great job adding some double-bass action into Priest and
also contributes an incredibly memorable drum solo at the start of the album.
As far as being innovative, "Painkiller" is fairly notable with its pretty disti
nguished sound, and its famous title track which is incredibly aggressive for tr
aditional metal with Halford's ferocious screamed vocals being especially uncomm
on in the style. The band also makes heavy use of sound-effects in "Nightcrawler
" and keyboards in "Touch of Evil". I find the double-bass in the drums to also
be of noteworthy interest for classic Priest.
Perhaps the greatest thing about this album is how memorable it manages to be. T
he songs aren't incredible pieces, but they end up sticking with you and thus yo
u become quite attached to them over time, making this album an often nostalgic
blast to relisten.
To close up, I've found that this release deserves its place as a metal classic
for its consistency, memorable songs, and its powerful spirit. It was a perfect
album to close up the first Halford era and its top-form performance really repr
esents the great things about 80's metal one last time as the golden decade of c
lassic metal came to its close. "Painkiller" continues to be one of the most end
uring metal albums of my life and is naturally recommended. Just don't expect a
revolutionary landmark, but a very solid and meaningful piece of heavy metal.
Almost perfect - 98%
VampireKiller, March 7th, 2008
PrevNextFirstLast
After the good but nonetheless quite mediocre "Ram It Down", Priest decided to g
o ahead and make THE ultimate metal album. I can't say they really succeeded wit
h this as there are tons of better albums IMO, and you also had the death and bl
ack metal scenes around that time that churned out heavier releases than this on
e, but the bottomline is that the album is still heavy as fuck. It seems that Pr
iest were deciding to eminate the fan success with "Defenders of the Faith", and
put a slightly commercial twist to it. This album definitely re-shaped power me
tal even though this album has more elements of old school power metal to it
On this album they'd also found a new drummer in the form of ex-Racer X drummer
Scott Travis, which is a vast improvement over the boring Dave Holland. The prod
uction is another significant element to this release, and it's fucking br00tal.
The drums have a thick and heavy yet vibrant sound to them. The guitars have a
killer tone to them and Rob is at the front of the mic, as good as always. Ian H
ill's bass is still pretty much non-existent, but he never was a great bass play
er to begin with
And so the album opens with the title track, which is the definitive centrepiece
of this album along with "Night Crawler". Scott bashes his drums apart during t
he intro, and believe me, the intro is a fucking killer. Rob screams his lungs o
ut and Glenn and KK deliver ass kicking solos
The next two songs "Hell Patrol" and "All Guns Blazing" are pretty similar in st
ructure. The main difference between them is that the latter is a bit less "popp
y" than the former. Both are fast cookers with great vocal lines, melodies and g
uitar solos
Then we have another duology with "Leather Rebel" and "Metal Meltdown". Both son
gs begin with shredding guitar intros, the main difference between is that "Meta
l Meltdown" is a very doomy song whereas "Leather Rebel" is a bit more "happy" i
n mood
And then comes the album's second centrepiece in the form of "Night Crawler". Th
e intro is the perfect mood setter, and the rest of the song is even better. It
features probably some of the best guitar riffs written in the history of mankin
d. The only thing I can't stand is the god awful spoken/rapped part
"Between the Hammer and the Anvil" has an opening riff that I'm not too fond of,
but the song evens out after a while and becomes another smasher. It also featu
res some cool sound effects
"A Touch of Evil" is a very atmospheric power ballad that features some extraord
inary keyboard work from mr. Don Airey. Rob once again gives us some memorable v
ocal lines
And finally we come to the last song "One Shot at Glory" which is preceded by a
little instrumental interlude called "Battle Hymn". It's the perfect album close
r IMO. It's very anthemic and it kicks some pretty mighty ass. It also contains
some melodies reminiscent of Maiden's classic song "The Prisoner"
Buy this album...now!
He Is The Painkiller, This Is Just ... Bleh - 82%
Luvers666, July 7th, 2007
PrevNextFirstLast
Because of the popularity of this release, there is going to be just as many peo
ple dismissing it's greatness and those who praise it's merits, however it does
not deserve to be in either. The album is a fine line along sheer talent and res
pectability and utterly dull mediocrity. Sure there are some ruthlessly amazing
tracks of boiling metal here, like: Painkiller, Nightcrawler, Between The Hammer
& The Anvil. But for every legendary track here there is a stale and fruitless
slab of predictable metal, like: Hell Patrol, One Shot At Glory and Metal Meltdo
wn. What this album seems to suggest is that Priest decided to abandon all their
talents of skill and precision for brutal aggression that is either spot on gre
atness or uninspired boringness.
We start with the title track which needs no description, just look at the ridic
ulous album cover. A machine man(pun intended) with wings riding on a motorcycle
made out of a snake with large saws as wheels. It leaves you to wonder who they
were trying to impress, the young teenagers who, unless they embraced any info
page on the internet, does not have a clue on where the band has come from. Or t
he long-time fans who have put up with the childish lyrics that accompany the al
bum art with horrible cliches and screaming dullness? Either way both can find e
njoyment with the title track, from it's powerful drum intro to the melodic riff
s driving every second of the song. To the guitar solos that set new standards f
or the band to every single world being screamed so loud the aliens 25 million l
ight years away could hear and hear well.
Hell Patrol?, okay Priest we know you like to talk about made-up creatures but y
ou met that quota with the title track, move on. The music is great and vocal de
livery is nice but it could have been better. Leather Rebel is a monster track w
ith strong double bass drums that remains consistent throughout, but becomes awe
some far to late. Waiting until thirty seconds before the songs conclusion befor
e that spell-binding "Leather Rebel" scream comes in and sends you head banging.
Now we have Metal Meltdown and you have to ask why they chose to put the song he
re. Sure it has a great speedy solo at the beginning, very reminiscent of Victim
Of Changes, which leads into Hell Patrol Part 2wo. The only redeeming qualities
are the fact that the mind-numbing lyrics do not deal with a specific character
and that totally awesome bridge at 3:45: "It's Coming, Meltdown. Start Running,
"Countdown". But the last minute proves the song had very little ideas to begin
with.
Night Crawler brings the album back up, where we finally get a good character, o
ne not buried in cartoonish futility. With the spooky keyboard intro, highly mem
orable main riff and verses that head bang with authority. Plus that bridge is s
imply amazing, then slowed down section, with it's horrifying lyrics about a vil
lain who is about to greet it's unfortunate? victims within a chamber. The major
flaw with this song is the fact that the '98 Live Meltdown version some eight y
ears later and with a different vocalist take this song where it should be here.
Between the Hammer and the Anvil is where things take a sudden trip back into ti
me, back when Priest were writing tales about darkness and doom and religion, ba
ck when most people revere them at their greatest. But with that in mind it beco
mes sad that the band has the ability to make it work even now as this song is e
asily the second best on the whole record. Admist the 240 BPM on almost every so
ng is this slower song that is not really slow. The band cuts down on the distor
tion and details their feelings towards the utterly stupid trial they sadly had
to go through. A great mesmerizing solo and screamed lyrics later the song unfor
tunately reaches a conclusion as it is tunes like this that you wish would never
reach a conclusion.
Touch Of Evil is a mid paced pseudo-ballad with epic atmosphere, which is increa
sed by the dark, tingling keyboard work of Don Airey. Complete with bell chimes
and blowing wind the song takes you on a thrill ride you wish would not end with
dark and twisted lyrics. But the highlight is the mind blowing solo by Glenn, w
hich is simply out of this world. That song should have ended the album but inst
ead we are given "One Shot at Glory", which is a boring and useless anthem, some
thing that, aside from the solos, could be and has been done by Priest and count
less others before.
The bonus track Living Bad Dreams is good and should of replaced One Shot At Glo
ry, with it's driving verses that build to a lackluster chorus at first but once
repeated gets better. Overall a good song, while the live version of "Leather R
ebel" is okay at best.
But the best song on the album is the brutal driving force known as All Guns Bla
zing, which should be sought after by any sub-par metal band on how to be brutal
and aggressive yet remain talented. If that solo by Glenn does not wipe the flo
or with creativity then nothing will, mind-blowing or amazing are understatement
s. It's astonishing that the band could give us everything they were aiming for
with this album in this four minute span, simply the best.
So in conclusion I would say spend time with other releases because this, while
is still a good album, is bested by at least a handful of other albums by the ba
nd.
Redefining Power Metal. - 100%
hells_unicorn, November 3rd, 2006
PrevNextFirstLast
In the year 1990 metal was going through a strong period of reckoning. Many of t
he previous masters of metal were beginning to have their credibility questioned
due to the over-the-top image the many bands had exhibited, and the lack of mus
ical intrigue to back up the flamboyance. The thrash scene was on the verge of b
eing overrun by a group of minimalist groove bands, whom ultimately grew out of
the seeds of Metallicas overrated Master of Puppets album and its similarly overrate
d mainstream counterpart in The Black Album. Bands such as Pantera and Sepultura w
ould end up completely dumbing down their sound soon after and the way was paved
for a generation of musical malformations which properly labeled themselves Grun
ge.
However, as all was seemingly slipping away from metal and the end seemed loomin
g, a seed was planted that would start to grow even as the old guard began to fo
ld the tents and the metal mainstream would go back to the underground that it c
ame from. The seed was an album that had all the melodic hooks and technical int
rigue that defined 80s power metal, and yet had the speed and the attitude of ea
rly 80s thrash, and the resulting growth would be the rise of a generation of ne
w bands who would focus on the untapped potential of this innovation in Europe,
most notably Germany and the Scandinavian countries. And that new generation wou
ld come gradually from obscurity to laugh at the short and utterly pathetic rule
that the so-called Nirvana wave had at the top.
Painkiller is, from start to finish, an all out assault on the conventional wisd
om that heavy metal is either fluffy glam music or inaccessible/atonal art domin
ated by nihilistic darkness. It throws caution to the wind and blazes away with
blinding speed and technical flair from start to finish, forcing the listener to
take a musical breather after the close of a listening session. Even the more m
id-tempo tracks such as A Touch of Evil, Nightcrawler and the somber lead-in to the
bonus track Living Bad Dreams are pulsating with power and glory. It takes the sof
t ambiences of the synthesizers that dominated Turbo and married them to the endle
ss assault of metal riffs and dueling solos with a genius that would inspire man
y speed metal bands to pursue the possibilities outside of the traditional bass,
drums, and guitar arrangement.
We kick off this album with a thunderous drum intro to the title track, which se
ts the tone for the rest of the album. Rob Halford screams away with the best of
them, and the atmosphere is dominated with a driving heavy guitar riff. Hell Pat
rol follows with more double bass work, though a bit more melodic emphasis. We ha
ve a riff on here that somewhat resembles Children of the Grave, a riff that is of
ten looked to for inspiration by the early thrash fold. All Guns Blazing brilliant
ly continues the merging of melody and speed that the previous track exhibited,
with some brilliant drum work. Leather Rebel is probably one of the most inspirati
onal songs to the current wave of power metal acts, and showcases a trademark ri
ff that is often paraphrased by speed metal bands in the late 90s to now.
The high octane thrill ride continues with an amazing guitar shred fest of an in
tro that leads into Metal Meltdown, which showcases more of the brilliant marriage
of thrash and melody at work on this album. Probably the easiest chorus to reme
mber and sing along with on here, especially considering that the verses are mos
t likely not within the range of most male metal fans. Nightcrawler is a more mid-
tempo anthem with a spooky keyboard intro, but bear in mind that it is mid-tempo
in comparison to what has come before it, which means its still pretty damn fast
. The main guitar riff is highly memorable, as are the horrifying lyrics which p
rovide a super-villain contrast to the heroic figure depicted in the title track
. Between the Hammer and the Anvil has a quasi-doom inspired intro that reminds a
bit of early Sabbath, though the rest of the song is more amazing riffs and a go
od amount of speed. A Touch of Evil is probably the only track on here that could
be qualified as down tempo, but the guitars are heavy and dominant enough that y
ou still cant sit still. We also have another brilliant, yet less spooky keyboard
intro that would later be paraphrased by Nocturnal Rites on their latest album.
Battle Hymn is a brief instrumental segue to One Shot at Glory which is a highly me
morable metal anthem loaded with melody and yet still kicks ass in the riff depa
rtment, great closer to a riveting album.
The re-mastered version of this album contains a bonus track titled Living Bad Dr
eams and a live version of Leather Rebel to complement the collection of brilliance
on here. The former is a ballad that is still loaded with power and amazing gui
tar work, though it doesnt have the speed that dominated the original album. The
latter is what I would call a perfect performance of a highly difficult song, as
I had a hard time distinguishing it from the studio version, except for the sou
nds of the crowd.
People may ask, what is the significance of this album? Especially when consider
ing all the groundbreaking work that was done on Priests earlier efforts, one wou
ld definitely be tempted merely to shelf the significance of this release as a g
reat band merely going out with a bang. To this I respond, look at what is conta
ined within this bang of an album that they ended their 80s era sound with. Even
Panteras Power Metal, though having a good deal of speed and power, doesnt quite ca
pture the groundbreaking formula at work here. The problem is that it took 7 yea
rs for the full effects of this album to be realized, when Gamma Ray released Som
ewhere out in Space and Iron Savior released their debut, which ushered in a new
era of melodic speed metal. Metallica may have killed metal in the 80s, but Prie
st brought metal back in the late 90s, and the fruits of this work are still be
realized in the metal world as bands such as Rhapsody, Luca Turilli, Sonata Arctica an
d a bunch of other European bands mix the standard set by Painkiller with their ow
n unique symphonic and electronic influences.
In conclusion, this album is essentially for any fan of speed metal and melodic
power metal. Fans of the current scene in Germany and the rest of Europe will no
t only find a great album, but the very manifesto of the music that they love an
d cling to as a haven from the mediocre garbage that has dominated the radio for
the past 15 years. Some may downplay this album as merely being good, but I kno
w better, and am unapologetic in giving it a perfect score.
They finally caught up with their peers! - 100%
overkill67, September 2nd, 2006
PrevNextFirstLast
I don't believe that an album of this magnitude will ever be achieved by this ba
nd ever again. To be perfectly honest with you, this was also the first time in
their career that they'd managed to achieve such a level of greatness as well. H
ere is basically how things occurred;
Priest, is generally viewed as the forefathers of heavy metal, alongside Sabbath
and to a lesser degree Deep Purple and the Scorpions. If you listen to many of
the aspiring metal acts from the eighties, including the Bay Area thrash bands f
rom this time, you will hear a lot of striking similarities with Priests' earlie
r efforts. More notably albums such as Sad Wings of Destiny, or even Screaming f
or Vengeance. But as the 1980's came to an end, Priest slowly changed their soun
d to a more "friendly" sounding collage of songs. Hence giving birth to albums s
uch as Turbo and Ram It Down.
At this same time however, many of the bands who began their careers, citing Pri
est as a major influence continued to get progressively more technical and heavi
er. This included bands such as Forbidden, Metallica, Pantera, and Overkill. It
wasn't until 1990 that Priest was able to release an album which was a fusion of
past formulas, mixed with some of the current and explosive elements of thrash
metal into what many still consider to be their pinnacle achievement...Painkille
r.
Everything about this album, from the lengthy compositions, to their technicalit
y, the anger of Halford's delivery in the vocal department, or the addition of n
ew double bass monster Scott Travis, Painkiller was a tour de force for this ban
d, and I believe that this album was worthy of re-establishing Priest as one of
the genre's leading artists.
The most predominanty technical aspect of this album is without a doubt the guit
ar solos of Glen Tipton and KK Downing. Where the fuck did these solos come from
? Are these the same guys who do the lead on Living After Midnight? Yes, by poin
t of fact it is! And although many revere the solo in Painkiller (the title trac
k), to be the greatest solo on this album, I actually can't pinpoint the best on
e, since every song with the exception of Nightcrawler has a face melting guitar
solo.
The production on this album by Chris Tsangarides is phenomenal for its time. I
did recently purchase the remastered version of this album, but don't really not
ice that big of a difference in the sound quality from the original, it was pret
ty much done to perfection the first time around.
Each song gets 10 out of 10 for being true metal greatness. Lyrical content is d
iverse and intelligent, with the mandatory cliched heavy metal hero context from
time to time (see Leather Rebel or Metal Meltdown). Even though I am a self pro
claimed Priest fanatic, this is the only album from their lengthy catalogue that
I never neglect for more than a month before throwing it on for about a week at
a time. A classic in a league of its own!
From shopping, the shed, to the disco... - 93%
Thamuz, March 17th, 2005
PrevNextFirstLast
Last night I was out shopping, looking for the perfect present for my adorable g
irlfriend, of whose name Ive forgotten at this stage. I wanted something cute, so
mething cuddly and something as trendy as a lipstick tube that contains over one
thousand and one shades of pink. Then I saw it. I locked eyes on it, going into
stealth mode as I crept down the aisle, making sure that others were oblivious
to my movements. My hands grasped the jewel case of the large ringed object, a g
em on anyones mantelpiece. It was Judas Priests Painkiller. The album that stole my
girlfriend and saw me land out of her door into the mud-filled gutter with a spi
ne-crushing thud as she wrapped the wrapping paper on my head like a broken part
y hat. The CD came last, striking me between the eyes, knocking me out with the
force of an origami spoon, a soggy origami spoon. Not that I cared, I was in hel
l.
Drill sergeant Robert Halford gave me my mission as we stood on the edge of the
world. I was dressed in an over-worn faded black t-shirt, jeans with ripped knee
s and a broomstick strung around my neck with an ingenious strap made out of a m
ix of an old kite string and a colourful collection of rubber bands. I was not w
earing a backpack. The edge of the world doubled as my garden shed, made out of
corrugated iron that had reached boiling point in the sweltering sun, causing my
bare feet to tingle as my the warm northerly wind blew through my hair. I did n
ot feel any pain, as a painkiller was present in my blood stream, or should I sa
y, THE PAINKILLER. My mission was simple to destroy all that opposed, with stren
gth, honour and bravery. I set off zealously, but not before falling eight-feet
to the ground, back first, careering into the concrete below. Again no pain was
felt.
Adrenaline was rushing to my head as the thunderous drums spurred on my one-man
army, as we attacked the enemy with frenetic riffing, in mixture with intricate
soloing. They did not know what hit them as the Metal reigned supreme, unleashin
g its fury like a dragon scorching a prince into crispy smithereen. No sex for y
ou, you lascivious wench-like princess. Comrades rejoiced everywhere as Speed Me
tal influenced by traditionally flavoured Metal, incorporated with palm-muting,
melodic tremolo and the epic embrace of tonic power chordal structures. This was
brutal. Even more brutal than those modern gore bands that blast at 391.62 beat
s per minute over visceral guitars played using a bone from a small child as a p
lectrum. They could not match our purposeful mindset as we stormed at them, All G
uns Blazing. The voices in my head were relentless, even higher in pitch than the
queen of banshees, and yet as melodic as a tenor, as they guided me to the fina
l glory.
I ventured to hell and back, seeing vast landscapes of fire, as Satan bid me Good
luck. Down picturesque streams I flowed, harmonious choruses rolled by in clockw
ork motion, as cleansing as the grandeur enforced by the Painkiller. As soulful
and as elegant as the night sky, yet as mysterious and ominous as the stars that
fill it like a back-lit canopy. The end was nigh, but not before one final stop
through the LSD trip of 70s influenced disco era. In my bright pink suit I stoo
d. Of course, slaying the teenyboppers I found with my handcrafted plastic pirate
sword, then I ventured back to my garden fernery and held a seance with a friend
ly brigade of garden gnomes, feeling A Touch Of Evil. The battle was won, as we st
ood under the banner of heavy fucking metal, pride in our people, the saviour wa
s found. We crushed the machines as they attempted to invoke a Metal Meltdown, des
troyed the enemy and in the process saved ourselves from facing the wrath of an
enraged Mother Nature.
The British lads obviously sat first row of the class all year in economics, as
this is the perfect example of capitalist efficiency, six beautiful solos in the
first song! (Hell, the chalky haired, glasses toting nerd that is their economi
cs lecturer would have been proud of this practical application! An A+ for you c
hums, even a complimentary chocolate chip cookie because you did so damn well.)
Not once does it let down from that point on. That was until tears formed in my
eyes as I realised that the last track was fading out One Shot At Glory, indeed. Wh
at else, you say, chaps? Nothing, just a sullen silence after the CD stops spinn
ing. I sat there for an hour, not moving, not knowing what to do next. My whole
left arm still trembling a week later. This sure is better than getting a haircu
t from your next door neighbours lawn mower, getting chased by the dog that still
has a huge chunk of the postmans leg between its jaws or drowning in a pool of l
iquidised Siamese cat shit. It may rank up with some of the great inventions, su
ch as convicts, snooze alarms and Vegemite. In fact, Ill be audacious enough to r
ecommend it to you, faithful student of Metal. Skip along now, children, I need
to rest my weary body. For some reason I felt a dull ache in my back, and my fee
t were red as a lobster, warm enough to cook a piece of toast on
Requires an absence of coherent thought - 60%
OlympicSharpshooter, August 5th, 2004
PrevNextFirstLast
I guess I'll never understand the metal world's love affair with this one. Yes,
this is better than Turbo and Ram it Down, but it's not one of Priests best effo
rts. I love the fact that these guys stood up and said 'yeah, we fly the flag fo
r metal and we're actually gonna try to participate in this whole thrash thing',
and when this album is hot it's red hot. It's hard to find better slabs of boil
ing metal than "Painkiller", "Metal Meltdown", and "Between the Hammer and the A
nvil", but in between it's like biting tinfoil, Priest writing dumber lyrics tha
n I'd thought possible (remember, Jugulator wasn't out yet) and really just tryi
ng too hard to recapture their youth.
This not to say that musically Priest has rarely been better. Halford is like a
man possessed, really taking his vocals to their logical extremes and just gener
ally screaming his head off. At times it's eerie, Halford displaying an almost K
ing Diamond-like flexibility in taking off from growl to screech, but with about
a million times more force and technical ability. Downing and Tipton have compl
etely forsaken the more melodic soloing of Turbo in favour of an even more extre
me version of what was attempted (and failed at) on Ram it Down, shredding like
men half their own age. The solos throughout, but particularly the title track,
are about as loopy and speedy as they'll ever get, but perhaps lacking in the in
telligence of some of their classics. I also sorta feel that new drummer Travis
is a little intrusive, his double-bass insanity and generally busy style almost
getting out of hand.
This is a Priest album crafted for the metal heads who wanted "Freewheel Burning
" for a whole album, edgy and extreme in every way, but with a slightly glassy e
yed stupidity that has been crippling this band since approximately 1979. It's l
ike a comic book, every song seeming to wish to escape from the reality into thi
s brightly coloured and shallow world where you can say words like 'vaporapeize'
. I understand this, because Priest was in a bad way at this point, slowly being
usurped by Maiden as the classic metal of choice, slumping album sales, and of
course the idiotic trial and Rob Halford's struggles with living a lie. That is
the simple explanation for why this album is totally obvious, everything on the
surface with no depth and really no thought required. Bang head, sing the chorus
, everything is okay.
While the lyrics are the all-to-obvious Achilles heel of Painkiller, there are o
ther issues that gang up and ruin the parade. Consider "Leather Rebel" for a sta
rt. There's nothing all that wrong with the catchy chorus or rockin' riff, but i
t just feels warmed over, like any one of a dozen Priest albums served up to you
to gobble down once more. The drumming too, man, just a Racer X drum track graf
ted onto a regular Priest song, disconcerting and totally throwing off the whole
feel of the song. Hell, on the live track thrown onto the remaster Rob seems bo
red off his ass and itchin' to get out of the damn chaffing leather and into...
well, he did wear it in Fight and Two as well, but cut me some slack.
"Once Shot at Glory" is a boring, boring, boring anthem, something that aside fr
om the man on the stick and the man banging the skins could've been performed by
any third-tier power metal act without creating any waves. The "Hell Patrol" ha
s a really kickin' chorus too, but the lyrics are just absolutely laughable. The
re's just something about Halfie screaming about 'devil dogs' and making up word
s to fit a rhyme-scheme that reeks of a man totally fallen out of love with this
metal muse, a fire that would wane through a pair of adequate Fight albums, be
completely snuffed out on the infamous Two project, only to reignite on his solo
records, although there's something about them that indicate a slight depressio
n that he's locked into this figurative straightjacket, or even an iron maiden i
f you will.
Regardless, this is Judas (fuckin optional) Priest, and they are still one of the
greatest metal acts of all time. The love affair with this album, like British S
teel and Screaming for Vengeance, is not entirely unwarranted. "Between the Hamm
er and the Evil" brings back the religious themes of the early records with stun
ning results, band tight and locked in, Travis behaving himself as the Metal God
rewards us with a conventional (!) singing performance, and therefore a relativ
ely unique one on the album.
And hey, I never said Priest and speed metal couldn't be cozy bedfellows, and th
e energy of the musicians combined with their sage-like knowledge of how it work
s (they were one of the primary practitioners of the early form) serves them wel
l. "Nightcrawler" works both as a creepy Halford vocal platform and as an instru
mental knock-out punch, the guitars lusty and feral and Rob ferally lusty (for t
he blood of innocents), also recalling favourably "The Sentinel" with it's spoke
n break and epic style, thankfully without that song's mechanical window-dressin
g. "Metal Meltdown" is exactly what you'd want from a track called "Metal Meltdo
wn", a thrashed out guitarfest that is all intense, all the time, and with an es
sentially great base (or at least essentially hot performances on a hot riff) so
that it stands out from the rest of the maelstrom.
Of course the best track is "Painkiller", that conceded by everyone with a pulse
and brainwave activity who has heard the album, screaming through your skull an
d pounding away at the tasty mush inside, six minutes of pay-off, amazing bit le
ading to amazing bit, from the crazed drumming to the multi-tiered solos, to Rob
grabbing his balls and incinerating ours. The song is absolutely astounding, be
cause it should not work. There are about six false endings to this thing (or ma
ybe this is just how Scott does fills), and the lyrics are uniformly stupid, but
unlike on the rest of the album where you just wish you were listening to somet
hing of substance, it's just like 'yeah, I'm rocking so hard that it doesn't mat
ter'.
"Painkiller" the song is what Priest wanted for this whole album. Alas, thoughts
can only be suspended for a short time, and only when what they're being aborte
d for is worthy of the effort.
Stand-Outs: "Painkiller", "Between the Hammer and the Anvil", "Nightcrawler"
The best album of all time. - 100%
Nightcrawler, July 6th, 2003
PrevNextFirstLast
I know there are already shitloads of reviews for Painkiller, and I probably won
't have alot to say that hasn't already been said. But I feel that I must pay ho
mage to what is in my opinion the greatest heavy metal of all time, and always w
ill be.
While Judas Priest have always been, in my opinion, the greatest band ever, this
is where it all came together. Tom Allom, a great producer in his own right, wa
s dropped in favour of Chris Tsangarides, who along with the band created what i
s easily the best production the band ever had. The riffs sound heavy, sinister
and really fucking evil (with a monstrous guitar tone as well), yet they also br
ing forth the amazing memorable melodies in a way that creates a totally mad atm
osphere and sound. Check out the remaster for full enjoyment on this note.
Drummer Dave Holland was a pretty decent guy but somewhat repetitive. On Painkil
ler, they dropped him for Scott Travis, who completely fucking annihilates the d
rumkit, and by far owns all their previous drummers, and most other drummers in
history. Special note again to the amazing production, giving the drums an aweso
me, thick and heavy sound- just check out that monster double bass onslaught on
Leather Rebel.
The guitarwork of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing is at it's very finest here. The
riffs are inventive and varied, and most importantly they kick a whole truckloa
d of ass. And the soloing has never been better. They are incredibly memorable a
nd always add to the atmosphere of the song. Every single note adds to the pictu
re as a whole, and gives us masterful solos in each and every song.
The opening track, and also the title track, features Glenn Tipton's greatest so
lo ever, and also one of K.K.'s finest moments, even though his is a bit short.
But K.K.'s very finest moment can also be found on this album, with his awesome
atmospheric solo on Between The Hammer And The Anvil. A Touch of Evil features a
nother mindblowing performance by Glenn, presenting an absolutely spinechilling
atmospheric and melodic solo. And the final lead section on One Shot at Glory is
just unbelievable.
And of course, let us not forget about Rob Halford. If anyone ever doubted his p
lace on the throne as the Metal God, his mind will be changed whenever he hears
this album. The demonic falsetto shrieks reeks with pure fucking evil and insani
ty, and his powerful midranged voice has never been better.
As a whole, the band puts up what is by far the best performance they ever had,
sounding incredibly tight and energetic, and puts their entire hearts into the e
ffort, making a musical experience that surpasses anything ever known to mankind
.
This does not have the party metal spirit that most other Priest albums contain.
Instead, Painkiller runs you over with monstrous aggression, devastating brutal
ity, bestial insanity combined with a lethal sense of amazing melody.
But the album does let up at one point, namely track number eight: A Touch of Ev
il, a midpaced semi-ballad with an atmosphere that will lift you off your feet.
The atmosphere is increased by the dark, spinechilling keyboard work by Don Aire
y, Glenn's mesmerizing solo and the chiming bell and blowing wind during the int
ro, and it's accompanied by wicked vocals, a badass midpaced riff and an amazing
ly powerful chorus, seemingly exploding out of nowhere, not to mention the dark
and twisted lyrics.
The second half of the album is in general more atmospheric than the first. Song
s like Nightcrawler (Yes, I got my name from it) and Between The Hammer And The
Anvil has that incredible sense of melody to the lethal riffwork, and One Shot A
t Glory is just a huge epic speed metal masterpiece, and can give any true metal
head shivers down the spine with it's sheer glorious power and feeling. The firs
t half of the album features blistering heavy fast-paced headbanging monsters li
ke All Guns Blazing and Hell Patrol, the mindblowing speed metal of Leather Rebe
l, the shredding brutality of Metal Meltdown, and the best song of all fucking t
ime: Painkiller.
Scott Travis pounds the song going with an insane drum intro, and then the song
explodes into a madness of sinister headbanging riffs, blistering melodic soloin
g and demonic falsetto. It is completely impossible to describe the sheer awesom
eness of this song. I tried earlier to tell you how amazing the solo was, or jus
t how insane the vocals are, or just how menacing the riffwork is, but you reall
y have to hear it to believe it. This is the best song ever, no doubt about it.
The album's lyrics may seem silly to some, but they are really cool, and go extr
emely well with the music, writing about evil, monsters and death. It complement
s the musical direction very well, and further increases the dark and wicked fee
ling hanging over the album.
Painkiller is heavy metal's finest hour, period. While many other amazing albums
have been made, nothing even comes close to the greatness of this one. Never ha
s there been a greater combination of raw, sheer brutality and dark, atmospheric
melody. This is an essential album for any metalhead, and as it was also the al
bum that from the start got me into metal, I worship it more than any other albu
m ever made. As I said, I simply can not describe how amazing this is or how muc
h I love it, but at least I hope I gave those who haven't heard it some insight
in the greatness packaged in here.
But truly, you have to hear it to believe it.
The remaster also features two bonus tracks, Living Bad Dreams and a live versio
n of Leather Rebel. While the latter is a rather weak and uninspired rendition o
f the masterpiece, Living Bad Dreams is a splendid atmospheric ballad with power
ful vocals that shine the most.
But just to make it clear- I do not count the bonus tracks as part of the origin
al album, thus they do not affect the album's rating.
Highly Influential - 100%
Crimsonblood, September 24th, 2002
PrevFirst
Painkiller was a very interesting release for Judas Priest for a number of reaso
ns. The most apparent reason, in my opinion, is for many years, Judas Priest had
been laying the groundwork for Speed and Power Metal. They never really went fu
ll out, but most bands took their basic sound, and then sped it up to create Spe
ed and early Power Metal. Many of these bands flourished in the 80s and early 90s
and it took the band that influenced them all to show them how its done. After sh
owing hints of their more aggressive sound-to-be on Ram It Down, Judas Priest re
ally went all out on Painkiller, which was very aggressive and powerful, yet sti
ll very Priest.
The CD opens up with the classic drum intro of the title track, which is one of
the best opening tracks ever. Right away you see where Judas Priest is going wit
h their sound. Rob Halford uses his screaming falsetto all the way through and i
t works very well! The leads are amazing, and the riffs are killer, but The Prie
st Machine doesnt let up there though; they continue their onslaught with Hell Pat
rol, All Guns Blazing, and my personal favorite song from the CD, Leather Rebel. Ever
ything in these songs is just amazing, almost beyond words or classification, be
cause it really is the epitome of good traditional Metal played fast and with en
ergy! Its almost a bizarro world situation when you think of Turbo Lover (with its
mid-paced, pop-synth heavy melodic textures), and then Metal Meltdown (with its cru
shing and fast riffs, and dark atmosphere) for example- because theyre just that
much different in feel. Its almost as if Priest said, Ok, all these bands are play
ing Metal that we started, lets show them who the masters are and thats exactly wh
at Judas Priest did with Painkiller. As already mentioned, many bands have come
close since the release of Painkiller, but nothing has surpassed Painkiller yet
in my opinion. And for the record I also see nothing wrong with Touch Of Evil. It
has a great atmosphere, vocals, and a terrific break near the end of the song wh
ere Halford delivers his most shriekingly perfect scream on the CD with the line
, Youre Possessing Me!
The weakest song on here is Between The Hammer And The Anvil, but hey, its still a
great song. Just having a song of this quality being overshadowed by the rest of
the CD really depicts just how good the actual release is. Every chorus is catc
hy (my favorite being on One Shot At Glory), every lead is solid, every riff is un
ique, and Scott Travis is a monster behind the kit.
So if youre into Speed Metal or 80s Power Metal, definitely pick this up because t
his is the CD that everyone from Primal Fear, to Iron Savior, to Silent Force ar
e trying to surpass.
Song Highlights: Everything, but Painkiller, Leather Rebel, Metal Meltdown, and
Nightcrawler are my favorite.