Judas Priest - Painkiller(1990)

Track Listing:

1. Painkiller
2. Hell Patrol
3. All Guns Blazing
4. Leather Rebel
5. Metal Meltdown
6. Night Crawler
7. Between The Hammer & The Anvil
8. A Touch Of Evil
9. Battle Hymn
10. One Shot At Glory

Lineup:

• Rob Halford
• Glenn Tipton
• K.K. Downing
• Ian Hill
• Scott Travis

even though Judas Priest were formed in 1974, & have several great albums to their credit in the 80's, it was only after 16 years they virtually pulled the proverbial rabbit outta the hat. this album rules.....

there were shades of things to change in their previous effort, 1988' RAM IT DOWN, but the whole world was in for a surprise shock when they released this masterpiece.

there are no words to describe this. 'awesome', 'brilliant''classic', 'timeless' are words that come to mind while trying to describe this. each & every song is a class in its own right.

Downing & Tipton shred the guitar to bits, with their thrash tinged riffs coupled with really melodious solos, while Travis destroys the drum kit. Halford never sounded more powerful ever. one listen to the opening killer of a track 'PAINKILLER' shuts up all critics of true metal. the madness never stops, 'LEATHER REBEL', 'HELL PATROL', 'NIGHTCRAWLER' are your typical in your face heavy metal to its best. 'Metal Meltdown' has one of the craziest solo intros ever.

'A TOUCH OF EVIL' is one of the best power ballads ever written in metal history. & they end things on a fine note with 'ONE SHOT AT GLORY'.

like i said, this is one of those rare moments in music history, where everything was going right for a band. after creating this & reaching the top, they could only go downwards from here. an all time classic. a must have for fans of all genres of metal. even brutal black metal bands like EMPEROR, DIMMU BORGIR, BEHEMOTH bow their heads to this jaw breaking album.

my rating
10/10

review by Pritham 'Metal farmer' D'Souza