Judas Priest

Galloping bass is not something you'll hear in Priest, apart from Diamonds and Rust and perhaps one or two other songs.
 
Early review of KK’s book.
https://www.houstonpress.com/music/judas-priests-kk-downing-releases-memoir-10825167

Less than ideal were their road trips with Iron Maiden, who Downing calls a bunch of prima donna and unfriendly “arseholes” looking to sabotage the then-headlining Priest. Still, he notes that partially because Maiden had an amazing manager in Rod Smallwood and their own was not nearly as effective, their career did not reach the levels of success that Maiden’s has.
 
mckindog said:
Early review of KK’s book.
https://www.houstonpress.com/music/judas-priests-kk-downing-releases-memoir-10825167

Less than ideal were their road trips with Iron Maiden, who Downing calls a bunch of prima donna and unfriendly “arseholes” looking to sabotage the then-headlining Priest. Still, he notes that partially because Maiden had an amazing manager in Rod Smallwood and their own was not nearly as effective, their career did not reach the levels of success that Maiden’s has.
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Years of excess might have clouded Downing's mind as a support band is highly unlikely to be able to sabotage the headliners show. :lol: Doing that would mean being kicked out of the tour!
 
termbig.jpg
Kalata said:
I think this was the better variant for the Jugulator album cover - the full artwork done by Mark Wilkinson.
#purerage: http://www.the-masque.com/Images/New Images/Jugulator.jpg
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It's ironic, but that cover always reminds me of the Terminator album cover of a friends band from the 80s called "Preyer", who themselves were a Priest clone at the time..termbig.jpg

I knew Pete the singer and played and recorded with him a few times. Great voice!

Check them out, they were pretty cool back then, although they do sound a little generic now
 
GhostofCain said:
Years of excess might have clouded Downing's mind as a support band is highly unlikely to be able to sabotage the headliners show. :lol: Doing that would mean being kicked out of the tour!
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The story from Maiden's point of view was that they showed up with a bag of cans to try and make friends with Priest before the tour. It seems KK was the only one in the Priest camp who had a real issue with it. According to Loopy's book a few gigs into the tour they'd all patched up their differences anyway.
 
He is partially right about Maiden having a much better manager and being one of the reasons why Maiden became much bigger than Priest over the years.
In a post I created asking why is Maiden bigger than Priest this was one of the reasons given and I agree.

Maiden could capitalize very effectively the return of Bruce and Adrian since 1999 whereas Priest just couldn't do the same with the return of Halford and it was in part because Maiden did a great job showing themselves as a modern band and attracting new audiences.

However I don't think that Maiden's success over Judas is only explained for having a better manager. I think Iron Maiden overall have had a more consistent discography and that their output since the 2000's has been very superior to Priest's thus helping them gain more fans.

About classic albums I think both bands have more or less the same amount of classic albums but I thinks it helps that Maiden classic era was bassically one album after another (the first 7 ones) whereas Priest's classic albums are a bit more spaced with some weak albums in the middle.

Also Maiden have been able to keep the same energy live as when they were younger or at least close to it whereas Priest shows their age much more.

So I don't think it's just one reason (the manager) as KK says but a numer of reasons

- Better manager
-Better output since the 2000's
- More energy live
- A more defined classic era
 
Judas Priest was always more reactionary to the trends.

British Steel - More simple music than the previous releases.

Point Of Entry - Oh fuck, that worked, let's simplify it and commercialize it even more.

Screaming/Defenders - OK that backfired, back to metal.

Turbo - How about we give this commercialization a second try?

Ram It Down - OK that backfired, how do we play metal again?

Painkiller - That's how we play metal.

Jugulator - Painkiller was the heaviest, let's go even heavier.

Demolition - OK that backfired, let's go commercial and simple again.

AOR - OK Halford's back, let's just keep it safe but heavy.

Nostradamus - OK we are doing great and we can experiment now again.

Redeemer - OK that backfired, KEEP IT FUCKING SIMPLE.
 
ManuelMaiden95 said:
Maiden could capitalize very effectively the return of Bruce and Adrian since 1999 whereas Priest just couldn't do the same with the return of Halford and it was in part because Maiden did a great job showing themselves as a modern band and attracting new audiences.

However I don't think that Maiden's success over Judas is only explained for having a better manager. I think Iron Maiden overall have had a more consistent discography and that their output since the 2000's has been very superior to Priest's thus helping them gain more fans.

About classic albums I think both bands have more or less the same amount of classic albums but I thinks it helps that Maiden classic era was bassically one album after another (the first 7 ones) whereas Priest's classic albums are a bit more spaced with some weak albums in the middle.
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I think that's a very good point. Priest have a ton of classic albums during their heyday, but each classic album is surrounded by at least one weaker album. Priest's late 70s output was actually the strongest run in their discography (that I've heard so far, anyway). Sad Wings through British Steel is a great run of very good albums, but none of those albums are perfect and all of them contain at least one very poor song.

The 80s/90s were up and down every step of the way, allowing classic fans to drop off and move on to other bands. The new fans the band gained along the way via the commercial route were probably turned off by the less-commercial, far more metallic stuff.

British Steel - great (earned new fans and still satisfied old fans)
Point of Entry - boring (probably lost old fans here who were already conflicted about the commercial approach of British Steel)
Screaming - great (but far more metal than the last two albums, probably alienating some mainstream fans)
Defenders - pretty good (more metal, keeping the core fans happy)
Turbo - WTF? (lost old fans here, probably gained more mainstream fans)
Ram It Down - a middling attempt to recapture the metal sound (lost any new fans from Turbo and probably lost more old fans here)
Painkiller - amazing (but all those Point of Entry/Turbo fans are left in the dust)
Ripper era - lost 50% of their audience due to a long period of inactivity, an underwhelming album with a new singer and a shift in sound

By comparison, Maiden had a couple of early albums that grew their sound and then put out 5 classic albums in the same genre in 6 years. When they declined, they declined once, and then boosted themselves up later with the reunion and remained active in satisfying old fans with quality new material.
 
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For me Judas Priest is the band that defined the sound of classic Heavy Metal but Iron Maiden is the best expression of the genre.
In terms of innovation Judas was more important because it gave its defining sound and features to what we now call classic Heavy Metal. With this I am not saying that Maiden didn't innovate, but not to the same extent of Judas.
But even though Judas defined the genre it was Iron Maiden that was the ultimate Heavy Metal band and the best exampla of classic Heavy Metal.
 
K.K. Downing on Ian Hill's explanation for why guitarist wasn't invited to rejoin Priest -> http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/k-...ejoin-judas-priest-complete-load-of-bollocks/

Asked by the "Cobras & Fire" podcast what he thought of Hill's justification for why K.K. wasn't contacted about coming back to PRIEST, Downing said (hear audio below): "Complete load of bollocks. If I had rejoined the band, obviously, I'd step into my role — that's where people would expect me to be — and Richie is already playing Glenn's parts anyway, and we'd do that. It wasn't the case where I was gonna play Glenn's parts and Richie plays mine.

"I was thinking, 'Ian, was it too early in the day or too late in the evening when you came up with this idea?'" K.K. continued. "I don't know. But bless him — bless him, because we were like brothers; we went to infant school together and secondary school together, and we lived our career together. But I'm not totally happy about what's being said. Ian seems to be [saying] things like, 'None of the fans are missing K.K.,' and, 'Richie has brought a new energy to the band.' And I'm going, 'Ian, dude, on that last tour, I was the energy. I slowed down because people weren't keeping up with me.'"

Downing added: "That's a true story. 'Cause I started off that tour, I played a few shows, and then Scott [Travis, drums] made a comment, and he said, 'What do you mean, man? It's your show.' And I'm thinking, 'Did he think I'm trying to steal the limelight by doing what I've always done?' Then I started to back off, and then I was in an unhappy place from that point — I didn't want everybody to think I was trying to steal the limelight when I wasn't. 'Cause Rob's [Halford, vocals] reading his Autocue [teleprompter system] — he's slowed down — Glenn's going over there for a beer in between every song, and I'm thinking, 'Hmm… I don't know.'

"So I'm thinking, Ian, get a grip with yourself, mate. You've just replaced the energy with some energy. Fine — well, great. But that's not moving forward, Ian."
 
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KK seems very bitter about the whole affair. Whilst his input over the course of Priest's career is surely appreciated by every fan, he chose to leave and that doesn't give him the right to rejoin whenever he feels like it.

Perhaps he thought the band was done creatively at the point of his departure as he has ramped up his verbal attacks on the integrity of his former bandmates ever since Firepower came out and receivded critical and commercial acclaim
 
This guy is absolutely incredible ! <3 Transylvania and Phantom of the Opera bits in there.

 
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Fun fact: Richie Faulkner's top 3 songs from his two albums with Priest are:

1.Sword Of Damocles
2.Traitors Gate
3.Rising From Ruins

Otherwise Faulkner's favorite Priest song and album are - song: Rock Hard Ride Free | album: Defenders Of The Faith

His top 3 albums (on the top of his head right now) are:

1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets
2.UFO - Strangers In The Night
3.Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland

And his top 3 bands are:

1.Metallica
2.Black Sabbath
3.Judas Priest - for obvious reasons.
 
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