Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Judas Priest
Label: Columbia Records
Release: 1987
Runtime: 74:00
Rating: 4.5/5
It’s incredible what you can whip a crowd into, especially when Rob Halford is the one on stage. Mass delirium, the people screaming in total ecstasy, just how magnetic Judas Priest were and what kind of magic they could conjure up with their stage show — the voice of the people, caught in a properly hypnotic trance, is the proof. Of course. We’re in the middle of the eighties, the golden age of heavy metal, when people truly lived and breathed heavy metal.
‘Priest…Live!’ is a live document that radiates the magic and the full grandeur of Judas Priest throughout the eighties. It was recorded in the middle of the American leg of the ‘Fuel For Life’ tour in 1986. The only shame, or downside, of the album is that the recording is so damn short. The re-release is now a double CD, with the whole live recording split by running time into a good 40 minutes on the first CD and 57 minutes on the second. There are also no breaks between the tracks; instead the recording is laid down on tape nicely in one piece, and a bit more of the band’s banter with the crowd between songs has been left in, even the sound of pyro charges going off (e.g. before Living After Midnight).
The album opens with a surprise, the love drama Out In The Cold. The guitar synths alone sound far more confident live. Priest deliver an incredible effect once they pull the listener in with cannon-shot swings of the drums, which kick off the band’s stage magic. Everything in Out In The Cold, from the solos and riffing to Rob’s singing, sounds on a much higher level live than on the studio version of the track. The same goes for Turbo Lover. Priest set the scene on fire with the classics Metal Gods, Breaking The Law and Heading Out To The Highway, then get more serious and calm down a touch, but at the same time move the mood to another galaxy with Love Bites, the beauty Some Heads Are Gonna Roll, the grandiose ultra-melodic temptation The Sentinel, and then land harder again with Private Property and Rock You All Around The World, which opens the second CD. Another high atmospheric pulse follows with Hellion/Electric Eye, a live version of the band’s usual stylistic “sidestep” Turbo Lover that’s even above average, and the merciless Priest classic Freewheel Burning. After that comes general rocker revelry with the softer Parental Guidance, its rougher version of Living Afetr Midnight, and then the closing passionate knock-down You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ is already here, where Halford is especially devastating with his fantastic screams.
But the record isn’t over yet, and your fuses are going to blow in what comes next, because the re-release includes three bonus tracks: Screaming For Vengeance, Rock Hard Ride Free and Hell Bent For Leather, the only track on the whole disc that dates back to the seventies. All three bonuses were recorded on the same tour.
‘Priest … Live!’ is a classic that’s hard to get around — in fact, you can’t get around it. With tracks from the classic Priest era records ‘Defenders of the Faith’, ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ and ‘British Steel’, it’s a chronicle that only the best live albums can conjure up. Even though Judas Priest had by then more or less started to slip into star territory, they still kicked it on stage with everything they had. The album radiates incredible ease, intensity, sparkle, confidence, and with that a kind of unbeatable eternity.
Line-up
Rob Halford – vocals
K.K. Downing – guitar
Glenn Tipton – guitar
Ian Hill – bass guitar
Dave Holland – drums
Production
Tom Allom
Track list
Disc: 1
1. Out In The Cold
2. Heading Out To The Highway
3. Metal Gods
4. Breaking The Law
5. Love Bites
6. Some Heads Are Gonna Roll
7. The Sentinel
8. Private Property
Disc: 2
1. Rock You All Around The World
2. Electric Eye
3. Turbo Lover
4. Freewheel Burning
5. Parental Guidance
6. Living After Midnight
7. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
8. Screaming For Vengeance
9. Rock Hard, Ride Free
10. Hell Bent For Leather
Album length: 95:27
