Judas Priest

So I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I recently just heard Painkiller in full for the first time ever... wow. What a cool album. I particularly like the title track and Night Crawler. It's funny because listening to just this album you can hear where Iced Earth got 90% of their sound from.
 
Yeah, I have to say that Dave Holland's live performances do not impress me beyond his studio performances. He's definitely solid, but I wouldn't put him in the upper echelon of rock or metal drummers. He sounds and plays like Priest's version of Clive Burr, except Clive was better.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
So I know I'm a bit late to the party
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People may find the style boring but they should not mix it up with performance.
Because I was especially talking about Holland's performance. Every hit is just perfect. E.g. the timing of his crash with his bass drum, and the perfect speed and time keeping. Great flow, without sounding like a robot. That may not sound or look impressive to some, but believe me: it is. It is not flashy, it is not spectacular. But it is tight, solid and sounds perfect.

Very nice that Ian Hill could be heard back then. Nowadays you have just loud guitars and sloppy drums. Travis sounds a little off live. Lazy, as if some hits are too late (his two hands do not play tight in unison).

His Painkiller album performance was excellent and he fits well to metal with his double bass. And with him Priest could play harder and faster. Suddenly we got lots of awesome guitar riffs. But he never could play that well live. There is a difference between ability to play several techniques (the choices, quantity of the menu) and the ability to play live (the quality of the served dish).
 
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Detective Beauregard said:
It's funny because listening to just this album you can hear where Iced Earth got 90% of their sound from.
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Iced Earth is rather influenced by Maiden (harmonies, gallopping bass, rhythm and tempo changes) and early Metallica/Slayer/thrash (style of guitar riffs). Schaffer developed his style (was around) before Painkiller came out.
 
Forostar said:
People may find the style boring but they should not mix it up with performance.
Because I was especially talking about Holland's performance. Every hit is just perfect. E.g. the timing of his crash with his bass drum, and the perfect speed and time keeping. Great flow, without sounding like a robot. That may not sound or look impressive to some, but believe me: it is. It is not flashy, it is not spectacular. But it is tight, solid and sounds perfect.

Very nice that Ian Hill could be heard back then. Nowadays you have just loud guitars and sloppy drums. Travis sounds a little off live. Lazy, as if some hits are too late (his two hands do not play tight in unison).

His Painkiller album performance was excellent and he fits well to metal with his double bass. And with him Priest could play harder and faster. Suddenly we got lots of awesome guitar riffs. But he never could play that well live. There is a difference between ability to play several techniques (the choices, quantity of the menu) and the ability to play live (the quality of the served dish).
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These, I think, are all very valid observations.
Holland offers little else, but his timing is impeccable, and he still swings. Travis is the opposite.

I used to make fun of AC/DC’s Phil Rudd’s simple beats, but over the years I’ve come to appreciate how important he has been to the success of the band. He forces toes to tap and butts to move and gives those guitar riffs and melodies the perfect bedrock to do their thing.

The value of playing a perfect beat, yet still being able to swing, is highly underrated.
 
mckindog said:
These, I think, are all very valid observations.
Holland offers little else, but his timing is impeccable, and he still swings. Travis is the opposite.

I used to make fun of AC/DC’s Phil Rudd’s simple beats, but over the years I’ve come to appreciate how important he has been to the success of the band. He forces toes to tap and butts to move and gives those guitar riffs and melodies the perfect bedrock to do their thing.

The value of playing a perfect beat, yet still being able to swing, is highly underrated.
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Though not a huge fan of ZZ Top, I put Frank Beard in a similar bracket. ALWAYS gets my foot tapping.
 
My favourite drummer in Priest is Les Binks. However, I'd take Dave Holland's solid drumming over Scott Travis's playing, definitely live.

The comparison with Phil Rudd is spot on.
 
.... But Halford didn’t get to meet Baez until 1985, when both were playing Live Aid in Philadelphia. “We’re down in Nassau in the Bahamas making the ‘Turbo’ album when we get a call from the Live Aid people via Bob Geldof and everybody: Would the band come up and do Live Aid in Philadelphia with all the other performers? So we just dropped everything and caught a flight. ... I’m just finishing an interview with Martha Quinn of MTV, and Martha’s wrapping up, and she’s leaving, and then we’re all backstage. And then I see Joan walking towards me. And I’m thinking, Oh my God, she’s going to give me hell for what we did with ‘Diamonds & Rust.’ And I’ve never met Joan Baez before in my life. And she comes waving, ‘Hi, Rob.’ ‘Hey, Joan, it’s lovely to see you.’ And we gave each other a hug. And she said, ‘I knew you were playing today, and I just wanted to come over to let you know that my son said to me, “If you see anybody from Judas Priest, will you please tell them that I prefer your version of ‘Diamonds & Rust’ to my mom’s version of ‘Diamonds & Rust’?” ’ And I’m thinking, Oh my God, this giant in the music industry is so self-effacing, so self-deprecating. Just such a beautiful thing to say. Of all things, to come and say that to us. That just speaks volumes about the humanity of Joan Baez. That was really a nice little tie-up of that whole experience into Joan Baez’s world of music.”

read more here:
How Judas Priest turned Joan Baez’s ‘Diamonds & Rust’ into a ‘metal monster’
 
I agree DH was preferable to ST, but in no shape or form could he have handled the Painkiller material, even with his extra drummer under the stage.

DH’s performance at the US festival is really good.

DH was perfect for the more melodic and most successful version of JP, the version many people prefer.

Another vote for Les though as my favourite for the band, crazy they let him go.
 
I read in The Claivoyant (a book about Harris / Maiden) a story by Neil Kay (from the Soundhouse) that it is his doing. He told Priest they should take another drummer. They did that.
 
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At tonight’s Montreal show Priest played...

Delivering the Goods for the first time in 38 years!


According to setlist.fm they also played Desert Plains and Tipton came out for the encore. I wish I was at this show!
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
At tonight’s Montreal show Priest played...

Delivering the Goods for the first time in 38 years!


According to setlist.fm they also played Desert Plains and Tipton came out for the encore. I wish I was at this show!
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Goddamnit, I decided not to go.
 
Well, I must say I'm surprised that Priest rotates so many songs during this tour. - that's what I call a fresh approach. Metallica also rotated many songs on their recent tour - I wish Maiden do that more often. :blush:
 
It probably helps that they have three members (both guitarists and Scott Travis) who likely already know every single Priest song and could do anyone at any time. I've noticed this sort of thing happens a lot when older bands hire younger musicians (Yes, Cheap Trick, Kiss, to name a few).
 
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