Poll: Which style of Judas Priest do you prefer?

Which style of Judas Priest do you prefer?

  • 1. '70s Bluesy/Hard Rock Priest – Sad Wings of Destiny, Stained Class, Sin After Sin

    Votes: 7 21.9%

  • 2. Classic Leather & Studs Priest – British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith

    Votes: 19 59.4%

  • 3. Experimental Priest – Turbo, Demolition, Nostradamus

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 4. Modern Aggressive Priest – Painkiller, Jugulator, Firepower

    Votes: 6 18.8%

  • 5. Somewhere in between Priest – Killing Machine, Point of Entry, Ram it Down

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    32
Azas

Azas

The Trial of Injustice
Which trio of albums—and their corresponding writing approach—resonates with you the most?
 
Someone has finally done it - they've made me, although completely inadvertently, vote for Jugulator.

Somewhere in between the heavier, modern approach and the classic heavy metal approach is my actual answer. My top Priest albums are Painkiller, Firepower, Screaming for Vengeance, Invincible Shield and Sin After Sin. I like Priest on the more metallic side, obviously.
 
As much as I love Painkiller, I’m choosing the classic Leather & Studs-era Priest. To me, that’s the very essence of the band.
 
The Priest that was able to come up with Last Rose of Summer. I love Defenders of the Faith, but something's been lost with the start of the 80s, something which would never come back again.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
The Priest that was able to come up with Last Rose of Summer. I love Defenders of the Faith, but something's been lost with the start of the 80s, something which would never come back again.
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I would choose option one over option four. So, my ranking would be: 2 – 1 – 4.
 
An appropriate look at their discography and styles.

I prefer ''metal Priest'' the most, so option #4 should be the pick, but I'm not a fan of Jugulator (no melodic approach at all), although I really like the heavy sound and riffs. If it was Painkiller-Firepower-Invincible Shield, it would definitely be that one.

Option #2: British Steel-Screaming For Vengeance-Defenders Of The Faith is classic metal and Priest, so it should get my vote. 2 and 4 are for me.

That being said, I have a soft spot for option #3 - not all the songs, but I genuinely like some of the material on Turbo, Nostradamus and (surprisingly) Demolition. Option #1 has cool ideas and songs, but but it and option #5 weren't even considered by me.
 
Brigantium said:
Current Priest? Their older sounds worked well in the past but for years they sounded incredibly dated
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JudasMyGuide said:
The Priest that was able to come up with Last Rose of Summer. I love Defenders of the Faith, but something's been lost with the start of the 80s, something which would never come back again.
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I think it's just a sign of the times, and it's normal and not bad. They became more metal in 1984. Like Maiden's early style.
 
Kalata said:
I think it's just a sign of the times, and it's normal and not bad. They became more metal in 1984. Like Maiden's early style.
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I think it's the complete opposite, actually. Maiden changing their production, acquiring Bruce and so on did give them some of the "cleaner" sheen and moved their sound from "hard rock"-adjacent do outright "metal", but if anything, they leaned into their idiosyncracies - the ever-present love 'Arry always had for prog and art rock and the general high-brow attitude became only more prominent with time (and more obvious with the clean production and Bruce's soaring vocals) and Maiden post-TNOTB were more unique than they were before; they actually managed to leave all of their NWOBHM brethren far behind.

On the contrary, Priest moved from quite a bit of an idiosyncratic, experimental and downright emotional band, dumbing it down, becoming more stereotypical and predictable in the process. The juiciness was lost, the metal streamlining did sometimes work (Defenders, about a half of Screaming), but the true creativity kinda took a nosedive.

Even with Prodigal Son/Remember Tomorrow/Strange World, which are some of the biggest outliers in Maiden's early career, I can see the latter versions of the band doing something like that - after all, they always had the tendency to throw the occasional spitball; Still Life, The Prophecy, Isle of Avalon, Journeyman... But I can't imagine post 1979 Priest covering Joan Baez or Spooky Tooth. Heck, I don't even remember something similar to that funny Exciter's "Pet Shop Boys section" on the latter albums (though correct me if I'm wrong in that regard).

To me, with the unification and the homogenisation of the sound, Maiden only became more Maiden, whereas Priest became more "metal". If that is a prime example of a double standard, in that classic "quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi" way, so be it.
 
SFV.

Painkiller and most of modern Priest just sounds like Spinal Tap to me. Everything cranked to 11 and that horrible clicky clacky drumming from Travis. He fucked the sound of the band up.

Not sure why they keep trying to rewrite Painkiller all the time, SFV sold four times as many copies as Painkiller did. It’s a bit like Maiden trying rewrite Fear of the Dark for the last 30 years, when the stuff that made them popular didn’t even really sound like that. Too many repetitive choruses and playing straight chords, not enough riffs.
 
BludBrutha said:
Painkiller and most of modern Priest just sounds like Spinal Tap to me. Everything cranked to 11 and that horrible clicky clacky drumming from Travis. He fucked the sound of the band up.

Not sure why they keep trying to rewrite Painkiller all the time, SFV sold four times as many copies as Painkiller did. It’s a bit like Maiden trying rewrite Fear of the Dark for the last 30 years, when the stuff that made them popular didn’t even really sound like that. Too many repetitive choruses and playing straight chords, not enough riffs.
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I actually liked Painkiller a lot (apart from the angry smurf vocals of the title track and the cold opening to All Guns Blazing - like you say, a genuine Spinal Tap moment) and I still kinda do, but them turning to it as to the winning formula and trying to go to the well repeatedly and continually, Mike Love-style, I could definitely live without.
 
I chose the "leather and studs" option because I love Defenders and Screaming. This is the Priest that made me fall in love with the band. But the Sad Wings-Killing Machine run was overall their best, with no mistakes such as Point of Entry. Painkiller is their best studio effort tho.
 
Kalata said:
An appropriate look at their discography and styles.

I prefer ''metal Priest'' the most, so option #4 should be the pick, but I'm not a fan of Jugulator (no melodic approach at all), although I really like the heavy sound and riffs. If it was Painkiller-Firepower-Invincible Shield, it would definitely be that one.

Option #2: British Steel-Screaming For Vengeance-Defenders Of The Faith is classic metal and Priest, so it should get my vote. 2 and 4 are for me.

That being said, I have a soft spot for option #3 - not all the songs, but I genuinely like some of the material on Turbo, Nostradamus and (surprisingly) Demolition. Option #1 has cool ideas and songs, but but it and option #5 weren't even considered by me.
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Invincible Shield is a direct continuation of Firepower—stylistically, sound-wise, and in terms of modernness—so this album definitely falls into the fourth category. You can change your vote if you want. Plus, you’ll get Jugulator for free. :cool:
 
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