Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Judas Priest
Label: Sony BMG
Release: 2004
Rating: 4/5
The year is 2004! This year marks 30 years since Judas Priest’s debut “Rocka Rolla” (1974). Judas Priest, with the long-missed runaway Rob Halford back in the lineup, are this year busy preparing a new studio album and, reunited in their golden formation, are conquering the world’s concert halls once again. A new compilation seems like a perfectly legitimate move, especially when you consider that, for all the compilations already out there, only “Metal Works” (1993) really gives people a true sense of what Judas Priest are all about.
“Metalogy” is a limited-edition box set compilation made up of 4 CDs and a DVD. So, five self-contained pieces of music. It’s by far the band’s most comprehensive retrospective. In fact, it’s the first real retrospective of the band, covering a bunch of the biggest moments of their rich history, if not all the peaks of their career. The songs follow each other chronologically, record by record, this time (finally) starting with “Rocka Rolla” (the song Never Satisfied) and running all the way to the album “Demolition” (2001) with the song Feed On Me, 65 tracks in total. Given that most of Judas Priest’s studio classics were made without a single flaw, the average listener of their music won’t really see the point of buying such a massive box, since they’d rather just get all the studio albums. For example, a whole 8 tracks on this compilation come from “Defenders Of The Faith” (1984), so almost the entire record (though it’s true that this one is again packed with divine creations).
For true Judas Priest fans, “Metalogy” is of course a must in the collection. A few unreleased recordings on it will be enough to satisfy them. But the number of “unreleased” tracks gets cut in half the moment you happen to own “Priest, Live & Rare” (1996). A big plus of this retrospective hides in the excellent DVD, which shows Judas Priest at the peak of their powers (the stage explosiveness never lets up, and Halford is in the trance of a real “führer”!!!). The footage is from the 1982 “Screaming For Vengeance” tour (Memphis, USA), which was released once more in 2006 as a separate DVD. On top of that, the box includes a hefty booklet, nicely stocked with photos and text singing the band’s praises. A quick flip through it also makes it easy to see that the photos mostly feature only Halford, Downing, Tipton and Hill, which may be a bit annoying for such a “historic” compilation, since you get the feeling that Judas Priest just hired their drummers for the job throughout their career. While leafing through the pages of photos, I quickly got scared that they had “ignored” Tim “Ripper” Owens too, who did get the honor of (thank God) appearing in a whole two photographs. All in all, as far as biography goes, the “booklet” really offers only a cursory overview and not some in-depth study of Judas Priest. The outer design of the “box” is truly appealing, though. It’s dressed in “fake” leather, and the edges of that leather are completely studded, so holding the box feels like putting on Halford’s leather-and-spikes cloak. At the same time, this design is a great symbolic move, since it unmistakably points out that Judas Priest are the band that introduced leather – tasteless standards into Heavy Metal, which all metalheads soon adopted after them without too many second thoughts.
“Metalogy” is definitely the best Judas Priest compilation. Of course, with such mighty material at their disposal, you couldn’t expect anything else. In scope, it’s reminiscent of the Motörhead compilation “Stone Deaf Forever!” (2003). They were a modest, barely noticeable hippy – blues band, growing and growing through the seventies, swearing allegiance to heavy steel, marching straight out of the concrete jungle, with cries of vengeance, defenders of the faith. A band that offered the faithful not just one but a whole bunch of effective “painkillers”. Judas Priest are the pioneers and fathers of the heavy metal religion. The crowned creators of the eternal, unique and indestructible “metalogy”. They were the chosen ones. However I weigh it, “Metalogy” is the true bible of “Heavy Metal” rock!
Lineup
Rob Halford – vocals
Tim “Ripper” Owens – vocals
K.K. Downing – guitar
Glen Tipton – guitar
Ian Hill – bass guitar
Alan Moore – drums
Simon Phillips – drums
Les Binks – drums
Dave Holland – drums
Scot Travis – drums
Track list
CD 1.:
1. Never Satisfied
2. Deceiver
3. Tyrant
4. Victim Of Changes (live)
5. Diamonds & Rust (live)
6. Starbreaker (live)
7. Sinner
8. Let Us Prey
9. Dissident Aggressor
10. Exciter
11. Beyond The Realms Of Death
12. Better By You Better Than Me
13. Invader
14. Stained Class
15. The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown) (live)
CD 2.:
1. Killing Machine
2. Evening Star
3. Take On The World
4. Delivering The Goods
5. Evil Fantasies
6. Hell Bent For Leather
7. Breaking The Law (live)
8. Living After Midnight
9. Rapid Fire
10. Metal Gods
11. Grinder (live)
12. The Rage
13. Heading Out To The Highway
14. Hot Rockin’ (live)
15. Trouble Shooter
16. Solar Angels
17. Desert Plains
18. The Hellion/Electric Eye (live)
19. Screaming For Vengeance
CD 3.:
1. Riding On The Wind
2. Bloodstone
3. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
4. Devil’s Child
5. Freewheel Burning
6. Jawbreaker
7. The Sentinel
8. Love Bites (live)
9. Eat Me Alive
10. Some Heads Are Gonna Roll
11. Rock Hard Ride Free
12. Night Comes Down
13. Turbo Lover
14. Private Property
15. Parental Guidance
16. Out In The Cold
17. Heart Of A Lion (demo)
CD 4.:
1. Ram It Down
2. Heavy Metal
3. Come & Get It
4. Blood Red Skies
5. Painkiller
6. Between The Hammer & The Anvil
7. Touch Of Evil
8. Metal Meltdown
9. Nightcrawler
10. All Guns Blazing
11. Jugulator
12. Bloodstains
13. Machine Man
14. Feed On Me
CD 5. (DVD):
“Live from Memphis ’82”
1. The Hellion/Electric Eye
2. Riding On The Wind
3. Heading Out To The Highway
4. Metal Gods
5. Bloodstone
6. Breaking The Law
7. The Sinner
8. Desert Plains
9. The Ripper
10. Diamonds And Rust
11. Devil’s Child
12. Screaming For Vengeance
13. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
14. Victim Of Changes
15. Living After Midnight
16. The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)
17. Hell Bent For Leather
