Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest has been getting the most playing time in my CD player this week -- while driving up to Jersey, and back and forth from AC. It's made me remember why I bought the album in the first place, because it's freggin' awesome.
"Dreamer Deceiver" and "Deceiver"
Tracks 3 and 4.
The album is solid straight through. It has a nice mix of hard-ass songs like The Ripper, and The Tyrant, and some good epic songs like Victim of Changes (which may be Judas Priest's best song). In other parts, they take it easier with songs like Dreamer Deceiver and Epitaph, which they let bleed into follow-up songs, which are more straightforward metal, Deceiver and Island of Domination, respectively.
The pros: The good mix of songs lets you rock out and then go into a mellow phase, and then rock out again. It has a nice balance of songs basically. The variation gives the album depth, and makes it less boring that most metal albums. This is why Priest is one of the best metal bands, because they understand depth and musicianship.
The cons: Not many. The album is kind of short, at 39 minutes in total length. I've certainly listened to shorter albums. The band could have included the song Diamonds and Rust (cover of Joan Baez) on the album, which they were originally planning on doing, to bring the total length up. I don't know why it was left off of Sad Wings, but it was included on their next album Sin After Sin (1977) (which was also a very good album, by the way). The other con is that the lead singer's voice (Rob Halford) is at a very high octave throughout most of the album. He is known for his high-pitch shrill of a voice in the metal world, but this album goes up there in the octaves. When he hits his highest notes, it goes a little too far.
One sentence to sum it up: A very well-balanced album, with a couple of best-of songs, that you can listen to over and over again.
Rating: 8.8/10
