Label: Columbia Records
Release date: February 26, 1981
Production: Tom Allom
Album length: 37.42 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 7.5/10
After forging their steel to a fine edge on “Killing Machine” (1978) and “British Steel” (1980), Judas Priest took a bigger stylistic detour with “Point Of Entry” (1981). I stress “bigger,” because back then everybody expected and demanded another slab of “British Steel”-style metal from the band, and of all the songs on “Point Of Entry”, it’s Hot Rockin’ that ties in with that record most closely in feel, execution, riff and even sound. Instead of raw energy and metal aggression, “Point Of Entry” radiates more hard rock sophistication and sensitivity, especially in songs like Don’t Go, You Say Yes, All The Way or Troubleshooter. This album is far more atmospheric and less explosive than its predecessor. Judas Priest don’t sound hell-bent on charging in at every turn here; instead, they dose their metal noise with a bit more hard rock restraint.
No need to panic over “Point Of Entry”. We’ve still got the metal killers Heading Out To The Highway, Hot Rockin’ and On The Run, with polished melodies, fluid passages and juicy guitar solos, which are longer again and so generally more expressive on “Point Of Entry” than on “British Steel”. The record’s special charm lies in the highly atmospheric Turning Circles, and above all in the ambitious works of art Solar Angels and Desert Plains, where the band managed to conjure up a contrasting mood they’d never pulled off before, somewhere between guitar strumming and drums torpedoing you from every side. Desert Plains is the romantic-tinged epic peak of the record, dripping with atmosphere, and hearing Rob’s emotive vocals on it is a real treat every single time.
The album is bursting with all kinds of emotion. Sure, on first listen it doesn’t go down quite as smoothly as “British Steel” or “Killing Machine”, but if you give it a chance, you’ll enjoy an incredible variety of moods, thanks to a more stylistically contrasting set of songs and Halford’s fantastic, fully immersed performance. Halford’s singing can get downright passionate, especially on tracks with a bigger dose of rock’n roll, like Troubleshooter or All The Way. The remaster sounds terrific. Every time I listen to a new version of this album, I’m struck by the unbelievable difference in sound quality. That goes especially for the drums, which breathe even fuller now, and whose sonic depth is now even more sharply highlighted in the band’s sound.
The remaster once again comes with two bonus tracks. The first is Thunder Road, with an excellent metallized rock’n roll riff, recorded in 1987 with the help of a drum machine and the same rhythm Judas Priest used for their cover of C. Berry’s Johnny B. Goode (“Ram It Down”, 1988). The second is a “live” version of Desert Plains, which showcases Judas Priest’s incredible onstage explosiveness. The song is played much faster live and really feels like Judas Priest want to leave total stage devastation in their wake.
Unlike “British Steel”, “Point Of Entry” radiates greater maturity from the band. That goes for the lyrics too, which are no longer rebellious and reckless across the board; instead, Halford started to deal mostly with himself in them. With “Point Of Entry”, Judas Priest made an excellent album that’s still firmly packed with the raw energy of “going all out” and brimming with emotion at every step. “Point Of Entry” was recorded in a studio on the island of Ibiza, so under the hot Spanish sun. The location surely contributed to the special magic this album captured. At the same time, there’s a feeling that Judas Priest paused for a moment at some point and glanced back along the tracks of their turbulent journey. Once the lads had clambered up onto the fields of glory, they felt a sense of calm and dished out an album of remarkable looseness. In their new face they brought back more complexity and stylistic contrasts, while with Desert Plains, Solar Angels and Heading Out To The Highway they hinted that there were still plenty, plenty of exciting things left that they planned to pull out of their sleeves.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Heading Out To The Highway
2. Don’t Go
3. Hot Rockin’
4. Turning Circles
5. Desert Plains
6. Solar Angels
7. You Say Yes
8. All The Way
9. Troubleshooter
10. On The Run
bonus tracks on the remastered reissue, 2001:
11. Thunder Road
12. Desert Plains (live)
Lineup:
Rob Halford – vocals
K.K Downing – guitar
Glenn Tipton – guitar
Ian Hill – bass
Dave Holland – drums
