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Gods in Decay is the biggest ear worm I have heard in ages. I can’t stop.

I've listened to them all many times. And over the past month or two, I've listened to them again, carefully. Screaming is Judas Priest's best album. It's hooky like Steel, intense like Painkiller, atmospheric and varied like Sin After Sin and exquisitely crafted and powerful like Defenders...

"Guys, what does a modern audience expect Judas Priest to sound like?" I posted somewhere earlier in the thread about Priest being so absolutely purposeful in the studio. Firepower is the purposeful answer to the above question. I don't know if there is an original idea anywhere on this...

I’m not going to damn Firepower with faint praise because I like it a lot. But I can see what @Mosh is getting it. One can make a case that it shows bands like Primal Fear what a really good Judas Priest tribute band playing original tunes in the 2000s should sound like.

Not much to pick at about about British Steel. It sounds magnificent: powerful and overflowing with hooks. It's got a good variety, yet is well-tracked and the pieces fit. Fantastic energy throughout, but with just enough tonal shifts to keep things interesting. And top-to-bottom fun. It took...

One of the things I like best about Stained Class is the range of songs and the way they are sequenced. It's a template that carries over to their very best albums and it's probably the imprint that I personally carry a bias toward when judging how any album is constructed. One of the things I...

I'm kinda used to being on the "Sad Wings is kinda overrated" side of the discussion, but this thread might have flipped me. :) It's got some really interesting, groundbreaking songs, a clear identity and a lot of variety, but it's just not deep enough to rank among the true classics. Changes...

I liked Angel of Retribution a lot when it was fresh and it stands up well today. Here's the thing. All Judas Priest albums are calculated; they step into the studio with a definite goal and work to achieve it. And that's as true for Retribution as well. But what bothers me a little (even as I...

Sin After Sin at 9 is probably the biggest outlier for me so far in this countdown. It's a complete album, with continuity, originality, variety, pacing, performances and depth. Let Us Prey is a massively underappreciated track, a template really for what became speed metal with cool riffing...

As an aside, what an incredible (and incredibly appropriate) album cover.

The best thing about Hell Bent For Leather (it's how I've always known the album title) is the sound. The two previous albums sound good, but also dry and remote and bleak. For this one they leaned hard into the more full, warm and crunchy rhythm guitar sounds that bands like ZZ Top and AC/DC...

Turbo came out at the height of my Priest fandom and I've had a real love-hate relationship with it over the years. From the WTF? of the first time I dropped the needle, to it winning me over as the soundtrack of the party summer that I turned 19, to absolute disdain during my 30s as a symbol...

I wonder if the perception of Nostradamus would have changed if they had mounted a full-blown live theatrical production of the album? Would it have been enhanced by medieval backdrops, representations of the 4 Horsemen thundering across the stage and Rob Halford emoting through visual set...

This one lands at the exact same slot as in my personal ranking. I quite liked it when it was new, but had not listened to it in a long while. Before putting it on for this exercise, I was struck by just how unmemorable it was for me: I couldn't give you the complete track listing, a rare thing...

Terrible plastic production. Cringe-worthy lyrics. Priest is always cheesy, but they're usually awesome cheesy. Ram it Down is a weak attempt to be Motley Crue and the worst of the Halford albums. I mean it's Priest, so there is some interesting stuff on there. Everyone is right about Blood Red...

Agree with both of these. I’d rank the album higher than it arrives here. For me, Point of Entry is a mood album: not varied or deep enough to reach the mid-point of my list, but a fit for certain situations: backyard or background. And I like how it sounds. It’s easy, and while that has its...

Unfortunately, they don't have a lot of material like that in the catalog. They kinda mirrored Priest in how they moved in a more commercial direction into the '80s. But at the top of their game they had a lot to offer, stuff like this.

@Forostar are you familiar with this? This sort of '70s proto-prog-metal seems right down your alley.

Return of the Sentinel was a pleasant surprise. Not a great song, but a good one. Cheesy for sure, but 11 steps above the derivative dreck that was released previously.

9 - The beginning of this song might be my favourite Maiden opening ever. The way the drama slowly builds and the music accentuates the vivid pictures Bruce is painting (those tom hits as the cliffs erupt in flames!) and the release when “sliding we go”. Tears. Chills. Maiden is at its best...