Label: Sony Music
Release date: February 3, 2017
Produced by: Tom Allom
Album length: 40.58 min
Bonus live (2CD) album length: 101.45 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 9.5/10
At the end of last year, thirty years after its original release, the classic Judas Priest album »Turbo« came out all over again. It’s the so-called ugly duckling in the huge discography of this legendary English band, founded in Birmingham in 1969, who pioneered so much of what metal looks like today and have walked a long, long career path.
»Turbo« itself already got a review on our pages more than a decade ago. You can read it in full HERE. So this time we won’t dive into the nitty-gritty of how the album came together.
It’s well known that after the hugely successful tour promoting the excellent »Defenders of the Faith« (1984), still considered one of the best works of the band’s career, Judas Priest itched for a bigger excursion into the world of experimental sonic adventures. Judas Priest had always been a band with exceptional creative guts, taking bold steps of sonic and stylistic transformation from album to album and pulling them off. But on »Turbo« that move didn’t exactly pay off. This was the era when synthesizers flooded the world of commercial music and slowly gnawed their way into AOR and hard rock first, and that fad definitely didn’t skip metal or its development at the time either. Thrash metal was young and thriving, the NWOBHM movement was down to a smoldering ember, Iron Maiden remained the titans (with Metallica catching up and gradually overtaking them), death metal and black metal were still in labor pains, and thankfully nobody was thinking about folk metal yet As far as synth experiments in metal back then go, it’s no secret anymore that Iron Maiden got off by far the best, straying the least from their original sound when their outstanding, unforgettable »Somewhere In Time« came out in 1986. Saxon, meanwhile, were right on the verge of being dropped by EMI and tried feverishly (and unsuccessfully) to break the American market one last time with the sugarcoated, AOR-flavored »Destiny«, which buckled under the weight of its synthesizers. Judas Priest, in this respect, seemed quite carefree. They had conquered America ages ago, so “Turbo” is a strongly commercially minded album, yet as a whole definitely an absolute musical oddity, the likes of which has never been released anywhere in the galaxy. Sadly, the synths are in places arranged very clumsily where they cross with raw metal distortion, so with »Turbo« Judas Priest can barely justify their hard-earned credibility, fame and lofty price tag when you look back at their predecessors and the unforgettable achievements of their career, including the standout moments like »Screaming For Vengeance« (1982), »Defenders of the Faith« (1984) and/or »British Steel« (1980).
That compressed synth sound crept in among the guitar phrases. In the opening Turbo Lover it doesn’t make for such a big hurdle, but it spoils things a bit later, especially in the rather awkwardly placed, dry intro of the ballad Out in the Cold, which is otherwise one of the compositional peaks of »Turbo«. »Turbo« does have a few strong moments of songwriting. Among them: Turbo Lover, Locked In, the aforementioned Out in the Cold and the closing Reckless, which the movie industry bigwigs tried in vain to woo the band into handing over as the soundtrack for the film »Top Gun«. Had Judas Priest agreed, the song couldn’t have been used on »Turbo« later. Instead, the excellent Cheap Trick song Mighty Wings ended up on the »Top Gun« soundtrack. Hot For Love just about squeaks into the category of »Turbo« highlights.
The weaker moments in terms of songwriting are: Parental Guidance, Private Property, Rock You All Around the World and Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days. With the pretty silly lyrics that go with these songs (Judas Priest were never known as particularly sharp poets), Judas Priest “hitch a ride” on the »party time« vibe much more heavily here, but there was already plenty of that on the softer »Point of Entry« (1981), so this time around it just doesn’t ignite. The digital coldness of the production, a sonic alienation totally foreign to metal, is further amplified by the drum machine, which takes center stage in the songwriting. Drummer Dave Holland played the role of a complete extra this time, and a similar fate awaited him in 1988, when Judas Priest released the album “Ram It Down”. But that’s another story. The rhythms on “Turbo” are one-dimensional, transitions are rare, if there are any at all, and a dance step easily takes the place of the »headbanging« that metalheads wrongly and futilely counted on when this album came out in 1986. In short, today this album would get three stars out of five here at RockLine. The remastered version of this reissue doesn’t bring any particular sonic differences either when you compare it with the remaster of the 2002 reissue of the album.
So what’s the real gain of the expanded, newly remastered, reissued version of »Turbo«? Not hard to guess. It’s the extra CDs, which capture a full concert played during the US leg of the world tour of the time, when Judas Priest played Kansas City, at the Kemper Arena. It’s a snapshot from the same tour (“Fuel For Life World Tour”) that gave us the official live document released in 1987, »Priest.. Live!«. Because the vinyl format of the day imposed time limits, »Priest… Live!« is a cut-down, trimmed album. So it never came out in one piece, from head to toe. Only its 2002 remaster served up a few extra songs that Judas Priest played on this tour. The recording from Kemper Arena in Kansas City is a surprise, not just for its divinely polished sound, which with its ravenous “destructiveness” gives you goosebumps right away, but also for the set list from the get-go. In the number two spot there’s no Heading Out to the Highway, but the excellent Locked In, which is missing from »Priest… Live!«. The buyer of the new version is also rewarded further on, when you get to one of the best moments of the »Point of Entry« album, the song Desert Plains, while the crown jewel of this document is the performance of the »Sad Wings of Destiny« (1976) classic Victim of Changes. Flawless execution. The question is how much Judas Priestt “ironed out” the sound before releasing this live document, since they’re known to have always loved doing that, and to have seriously overdone it too. Halford holds up decently on vocals throughout the show. But even on these recordings you can tell he struggled with carrying his vocal power across. Halford liked to sing mostly from the throat, and once the power builds up, the voice gets noticeably thin and nasal as he carries it from the mid range into the higher register (the verse of Some Heads Are Gonna Roll). He also wobbles and drifts here and there off the ideal pitch for the lead vocal lines. In plain speech, that means a few mild vocal “flubs” sneak onto this document, though they’re not as pronounced as on the bonus concert of the expanded reissue of the »Defenders of the Faith« album, which also came out again in 2015 for its 30th anniversary.
So, bottom line. If you’re a Judas Priest fan, you won’t deliberate for a second over whether this document is worth buying. Even if you’ve had »Turbo« in your collection of favorite albums for ages, and even if you’re not its fiery devotee, it’s worth reaching for the »Turbo 30« version for one very simple reason. Waiting for you on it (on both bonus discs) is an outstanding live document that in many respects upgrades the official live release »Priest… Live!« and overshadows it with ease. The difference is so big that you’ll forget »Priest.. Live!« in no time.
And “Turbo”? Despite all the heavy sonic experimenting it went through, it remains a Judas Priest classic. Take it as it is. If you’re listening to this album for the very first time in your life, or you’re not hung up on the “purism” of eighties metal retro-sound, “Turbo” will undoubtedly fascinate you and reward you richly.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
CD 1: “Turbo” (remastered version of the original album):
1. Turbo Lover
2. Locked In
3. Private Property
4. Parental Guidance
5. Rock You All Around The World
6. Out In The Cold
7. Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days
8. Hot For Love
9. Reckless
CD 2: “Live at the Kemper Arena, Kansas City”
1. Out In the Cold
2. Locked In
3. Heading Out To The Highway
4. Metal Gods
5. Breaking The Law
6. Love Bites
7. Some Heads Are Gonna Roll
8. The Sentinel
9. Private Property
10. Desert Plains
11. Rock You All Around The World
CD 3: “Live at the Kemper Arena, Kansas City”
1. The Hellion
2. Electric Eye
3. Turbo Lover
4. Freewheel Burning
5. Victim Of Changes
6. The Green Manalishi (With The Two -Pronged Crown)
7. Living After Midnight
8. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
9. Hell Bent For Leather
Line-up:
Rob Halford – vocals
K.K. Downing – guitar
Glenn Tipton – guitar
Ian Hill – bass
Dave Holland – drums
