Label: Gull Records
Release date: 6. 9. 1974
Production: Rodger Bain
Album length: 38.49 min
Genre; Hard Rock/Heavy Rock
Rating: 7.5/10
This record has very little of what we think of as classic Judas Priest. The band leaned toward clichéd rock’n’roll and dutifully stuck to its bluesy influences. The album kicks off with One For The Road. A solid, heavier riff with the opening line “Where would you be without music” works as an early prophecy that something big is on the way. You can feel on the record that the band members weren’t living in the same musical galaxy. Rob Halford didn’t find a particularly impressive solution for the chorus of One For The Road, so it fizzles out pretty lukewarm, and the same goes for Never Satisfied. There’s also a fair bit of holding back in the drums across the whole record.
Rocka Rolla, the song, is a whole different story: an open, driving rhythm and a great chorus with the sharpened line “rocka roller woman for a rocka roller man” make for the right leap up to a higher level. It’s the first time the band underlines that there are two guitarists in its ranks, as they lay expressive harmonized thirds over the song. Winter is a short intro, its main motif sitting on a slow, rolling rhythm that hints at flirting with early Black Sabbath. Winter, Deep Freeze and Winter Retreat make up a kind of trilogy, and the transitions between them are so featureless that you have to glance at the CD player’s display to notice when one track has slid into the next. They show the band’s experimental side, where Priest calm the record down completely, and in Winter Retreat they fade out almost in the style of some early Pink Floyd. Cheater is a new adventure heading toward proper hard rock: a simple riff, an expressive Rob Halford with his recognizable vocals, and a harmonica. Run Of The Mill is a meditative journey where Priest steer nicely through a gentler pre-chorus that tips over into a punchier, Sabbath-style riff, Halford’s extremely high screams save the song, and with Rob at the center the band manages to hit a real high just as the track closes.
Production-wise, Rocka Rolla sounds pretty shabby, with the clarity of the guitars suffering most. The basic rhythm riffing and the melodic passages over it often eat up each other’s sonic space way too obviously, and there’s a lot of noise across the whole record. The backing vocal lines also got buried a fair bit in the production. When it comes to handling guitars, Priest were undoubtedly ahead of the studio technology of the time. Glenn and K.K. knew right away what they wanted, and that mattered during the band’s first uncertain steps, when you still couldn’t hear in the music that all the guys were on the same page of the rock history they were writing.
Dying To Meet You is marked by duality. The first half is more flower-power oriented, while Judas Priest fire up the engines in the second half and drive home a great hard rock finish. Surprisingly, it’s the prehistoric, raw version of Diamonds And Rust (a Joan Baez cover) that contains elements Judas Priest would later cling to even harder and polish to the max.
“Rocka Rolla” has no unique standout qualities that would put it among the classics of the seventies. It’s questionable whether it would have seen the light of day on a format like the CD if Judas Priest hadn’t become musical giants. The album is hugely important for the band, and of course for the most loyal fans, but there’s no reason why the average lover of distorted sounds would miss it in their collection. Still, the album radiates tremendous courage, hunger and, to a degree, a faith that was growing ever stronger. The guys knew what they wanted, which shows especially in the work of both guitars and in Ian Hill’s excellent, confidently melodic bass playing. “Rocka Rolla” is an album that can serve as nice ambient decor for an evening of munching chips and playing a round of strip poker, while I doubt any of you is studying this album under a magnifying glass.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. One For The Road
2. Rocka Rolla
3. Winter
4. Deep Freeze
5. Winter Retreat
6. Cheater
7. Never Satisfied
8. Run Of The Mill
9. Dying To Meet You
10. Caviar And Meths
Lineup:
Rob Halford – vocals
K.K. Downing – guitar
Glenn Tipton – guitar
Ian Hill – bass guitar
John Hinch – drums
