Judas Priest are one of my favorite bands of all time and easily one of the most influential. I once heard a quote from someone... "Black Sabbath invented heavy metal but Judas Priest perfected it" - I love that quote and believe it's true. My favorite albums are - "Hell Bent For Leather", "Defenders Of The Faith", and "Painkiller". They are all awesome though. I even liked the Ripper Owens albums ("Jugulator" more than "Demolition").
I just picked up Priest's new DVD "Electric Eye". It is so awesome. It has all their music videos, a live concert from Dallas in 1986 on the Turbo tour ("The Sentinel" live kills!), and also several live television performances from the band in their early days.
I am so happy to see the band back together with Halford and ready to go out and kick ass in 2004 with a new album and a tour. I saw Halford last year in NYC but unfortunetly had to leave half way through his set to catch the last train home which I was very upset about. I did get to witness "Painkiller" and "Rapid Fire" from his Priest years which were awesome as well as some Fight and Halford stuff. As I was leaving he was getting ready to do "White Heat Red Hot"! God what I would have done to stopped that train from leaving.
I'm listening to a really cool Judas Priest tribute album right now I picked up in 2002. It is called "A Tribute To The Priest" and features the following...
1. Annihilator - "Hell Bent For Leather"
2. Primal Fear - "Metal Gods"
3. Skid Row (featuring Rob Halford) - "Delivering The Goods" (live)
4. Witchery - "Riding On The Wind"
5. Iced Earth - "Screaming For Vengeance"
6. Siebenburgen - "Jawbreaker"
7. Hammerfall - "Breaking The Law"
8. Benediction - "Hellion/Electric Eye"
9. Death - "Painkiller"
10. Silent Force - "All Guns Blazing"
11. Steel Prophet - "Dreamer, Deceiver"
12. Armored Saint - "Never Satisfied"
13. Therion - "Green Manalishi"
14. Thunderstone - "Diamonds and Rust"
Killer compilation. Death doing "Painkiller" is simply amazing.
Long live the Priest.