Judas Priest

And Dave Holland did not play on Ram It Down, Satriani did ninja guitar work (secret session guitarist) on unnamed famous album to pay for extra studio time on Surfing. Honestly, it's not that big of a deal to me and it's not that uncommon. It's the golden era of the recording industry's dirty laundry.
Dan Huff also played on Whitesnake's 1987. ;)
 
Rob really want to do the song ''Rocka Rolla'' live (Richie too)... the last time they played it was in 1976.

Good song with a nice 70's vibe (curious: Adrian recorded a cover of it back in the mid 70's with Urchin, but it was never released).

''I've always wanted to do the title track of Rocka Rolla. It's a song that Glenn wrote. It's a great tune, isn't it? And I don't see any reason why we can't do that. There are a few more, he added. I'll keep 'em under wraps, 'cause I don't wanna give any things away. But this planned 50th-anniversary tour is gonna be something special. So we'll definitely be digging deep into the Priest catalog and pull out songs that we've never played before."
 
Rob Halford's 10 favorite albums of all time (he talks about his picks in the article):

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath [1970]
2.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin [1969]
3.Queen - Queen II [1974]
4.The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night [1964]
5.The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! [1970] (live album)
6.Deep Purple - Machine Head [1971]
7.The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love [1967]
8.David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars [1972]
9.Cream - Disraeli Gears [1967]
10.Pantera - Cowboys From Hell [1990]

 
Rob about playing songs from the two albums without him:

''Tim is a very good friend of mine. I think it's just that with connecting with music, particularly with Priest, I know my place and I know where I wanna be. And so there's never really been a sense of wanting to listen to those records. Having said that, though, numerous times I've been asked would I ever do a song from Jugulator, would I ever do a song from Demolition. Well, absolutely, I would, because those two albums are just as valid as everything else in the Priest catalog. So who knows? That day may yet come.''
 
Ian Hill - songs that mean the most to him:

Dying To Meet You/Hero, Hero
Dissident Aggressor
The Rage
You've Got Another Thing Comin'
Freewheel Burning
Painkiller
Judas Rising
Halls Of Valhalla
Guardians/Rising From Ruins

 
I missed this, back in November, but it appears that Don Airey played bass "guitar" on the Painkiller album. Wow. I mean, maybe not a big deal to some, but this is one the most important metal albums, of not THE milestone of metal.

Weird to realize that not the whole band plays on the whole thing.. but when you think of it, Priest had their way with leaving off musicians, for the sake of "progress". E.g. no Dave Holland on some tracks on Ram it Down, and I bet a lot of songs without Tipton doing his thing on the last Priest album, which especially is a bit of a let down, even if we know he is ill. A Maiden album with hardly the playing of Smith and Murray on it, would that be accepted? I would say many would rather see the band end instead.


ANTIHERO: ... Just to pick out another band that you’ve worked with, that you contributed keyboards to Judas Priest, Painkiller, album. What was your given remit going into creating keyboards in a band that isn’t generally renowned for it using any keyboards?

Don Airey: They were so worried about it, they didn’t even give me a credit I don’t think, on the album. They paid me, which is always the point. But recently, I mean this last month or so… It’s a wonderful album Painkiller.

ANTIHERO: Absolutely.

Don Airey: And Scott Travis has spilled the beans about it that all the bass parts are me playing on the mini. It’s Moog bass on the whole album, that was Ian Hill’s bass mixed in as well on parts. But at the time Ian wasn’t very well. So, he wasn’t at the sessions. So, I got made to do all the bass and they kept it. I mean, it was a funny old job. I only got to play proper keyboards on one track, I can’t remember what the track is. I just read about it yesterday that they’d actually said, I’ve never said a word about it before. I mean, it was an exciting album to do. They’re wonderful people to be around.
 
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Wait a minute...have we talked about this before...?!!!?!



Apparently Don Airey doubled all of Ian Hill's bass parts for the entire Painkiller album?! According to them it's because, "the songs were so fast that a bass doesn't sound good!" and because Ian "wasn't very well" at the time...so Don doubled all of the bass parts on a Moog.

I mean...I've always thought Ian Hill was an absolute shit bass player, but WOW.
I found out about this today...

Well, an absolute shit bass player is going too far. Do you know how fast some parts are, e.g. the brighter than a thousand suns part on the title track. Virtually impossible with one hand. A very machinal part, very fast and uninterrupted, and many notes. I never understood how any bass player could do that. I bet Airey used to two index fingers (one finger from each hand) to play that part.

Another thing: the bass can hardly be heard in the mix, I always wondered about it, though was never bothered, it's all about the rest on this album.
 
And Dave Holland did not play on Ram It Down, Satriani did ninja guitar work (secret session guitarist) on unnamed famous album to pay for extra studio time on Surfing. Honestly, it's not that big of a deal to me and it's not that uncommon. It's the golden era of the recording industry's dirty laundry.

That being said, Halford has talked about this. Ian's bass tracks were mixed with Don's synth bass. I guess they were recorded after Don's, in that case. Don't know what's true though, because the bass isn't very audible, and to be honest, it doesn't matter. The drum machines on Ram It Down and Defenders is a much bigger issue to me.

As for Ian, I think he works great for Priest. There's no room for flamboyant bass playing, and Ian's playing is very tight. Very simplistic, but real tight.
Drum machine on Defenders??
Perhaps Freewheel Burning?
But source please. I do not think I read this before. Also: Holland does play on some RIDown songs, I thought. Or at least one ("I'm a Rocker" comes to mind).
 
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The making of Painkiller with Scott Travis.

Interesting long interview.

And with Atti Bauw. Great article. Very insightful. On the bass:
=======
While the band was still posted up at Studio Miraval in France, the producer brought in keyboardist Don Airey to contribute to Painkiller. Though Airey's atmospheric synthesizers take the lead on "A Touch of Evil" and their mechanized cries reverberate through "Battle Hymn," his work is actually contained throughout the entire record. Airey's contributions were the key to obtaining the low-end that Judas Priest hired Tsangarides to capture, accomplished by recreating Hill's bass parts on a Moog sequencer and blending the two sounds together.

"Now, try and get a low end on something as fast as Painkiller," Tsangarides explained in the Tape Op interview. "It's either going to be a big old mush, or it's not going to be a bass -- it's so damn fast there's not enough time for the thing to speak, for the sound wave to do its thing. It just doesn't happen. The slower the song, the bassier you can get it. The faster the song, the thinner it's going to be. By using the Moog, we could use the attack from the [bass] guitar and the lows from the Moog."
 
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Drum machine on Defenders??
Perhaps Freewheel Burning?
But source please. I do not think I read this before. Also: Holland does play on some RIDown songs, I thought.
To be honest, I don't have a source. It just sounds a lot like a drum machine. Not just talking the heavy gated reverb everywhere, but how the hits sound very similar, the stereo and drum separation, the tightness. It's the sum of all it all. The drum parts are more complicated than on Ram it Down though, which was all a drum machine (Rob's book states this btw), so I might be wrong. In any case, they made it sound like a drum machine on Defenders. Another thing, speaking against it, think it would be a hard pill to swallow to be replaced by a drum machine. He didn't really accept it with Ram it Down which led to his departure. Why would he accept it with Defenders or Turbo? I'm not sure how well developed drum sample reinforcement/replacement was back then, so it could be a case of that as well.
 
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I think it might be a production thing, sound wise, but it sounds less machinal than Turbo or not? At least we know that Holland played the Defenders songs live and well. All doable, no double bass. Pretty sure he played it all, although Freewheel Burning is suspect.

On Ram it Down, maybe it's just wishful thinking but I'll stick to mostly and not all the songs. I thought at least I'm a Rocker is real playing.

Did you like Halford's biography? I haven't bought it.
 
Did you like Halford's biography? I haven't bought it.
It's really good, I'm half way through and have been for quite some time. I haven't found the time to finish it though, and that's not a judgement of the book. Just life at the moment.
 
I had the same with Adrian's book (and well, to be honest with about all books). About halfway I put it away and finished and enjoyed it later.

Good to know you like it. How does it differ from KK's? Less angry at band members?

I wonder if it is also focused on the music and studio experiences, or especially the (rock and roll) life around it?
 
It's really good, I'm half way through and have been for quite some time. I haven't found the time to finish it though, and that's not a judgement of the book. Just life at the moment.

It is one of the best biographies I have read in a while. He comes across a nice guy, but struggled to come to terms with his sexuality out fear of what people would think. Some really funny moments in there.
 
I find JP's rhythm section absolutely atrocious for the calibre of a metal band that sold 50m albums. If you ever wondered why someone would put Lars instead of these guys in a rock magazine's drummer top list, know that they're not tone deaf, on the contrary....Downing/Tipton obviously drive the songwriting and music, those guys have an extremely weak rhythm play. Their picking hands are anchored to the guitars and the accents are shallow or non existent. There is no dynamics in that play. Ofc the rhythm section would be dull. If you just run the straight beat you better bang it out. Like Motorhead. But then these guys wouldn't be able to follow up with the guitars.

Take Creeping Death's bass line for instance, it's Cliff literally killing the bass guitar with the attack to get the aggressive sound. Although playing in itself isn't busy. And then Hetfield and Hammet match that aggression with the picking style. This riff has faster picking pattern than anything in JP's discography yet it is blatantly obvious that it's being played hard, between every note the hand is moved out, so it can strike the strings with power.

Can you even imagine these two with a proper rhythm section. Imagine Harris/McBrain up there, just banging it out. Nothing busy, just the carpet, but on 100% as it should be. KK/Glenn would never ever cut through.
 
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I find JP's rhythm section absolutely atrocious for the calibre of a metal band that sold 50m albums. If you ever wondered why someone would put Lars instead of these guys in a rock magazine's drummer top list, know that they're not tone deaf, on the contrary....Downing/Tipton obviously drive the songwriting and music, those guys have an extremely weak rhythm play. Their picking hands are anchored to the guitars and the accents are shallow or non existent. There is no dynamics in that play. Ofc the rhythm section would be dull. If you just run the straight beat you better bang it out. Like Motorhead. But then these guys wouldn't be able to follow up with the guitars.

Take Creeping Death's bass line for instance, it's Cliff literally killing the bass guitar with the attack to get the aggressive sound. Although playing in itself isn't busy. And then Hetfield and Hammet match that aggression with the picking style. This riff has faster picking pattern than anything in JP's discography yet it is blatantly obvious that it's being played hard, between every note the hand is moved out, so it can strike the strings with power.

Can you even imagine these two with a proper rhythm section. Imagine Harris/McBrain up there, just banging it out. Nothing busy, just the carpet, but on 100% as it should be. KK/Glenn would never ever cut through.
I think the issue with JP’s rhythm section is that they simply lack distinction in any way. Les Binks and Dave Holland were good drummers, Scott Travis is a great drummer, but they absolutely have no signature sound.

Lars might be lazy and sloppy and incapable of doing anything new in the last 30 years, but goddamn when he drums you can hear that it is Lars. Priest’s drummers are just playing drums.

As for bass...I still stand by my comments before that Ian Hill is one of the worst, most boring bassists in the history of the genre.
 
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