Reviews list for Judas Priest - Sin After Sin (1977)

Sin After Sin was a Judas Priest record, that never really stood out to me too much. Even before picking it up to listen to it as a whole, there just weren't any notable singles on the setlist, one would come across just by letting Youtube autoplay or other forms of playlists have their way. Even in terms of the album's artwork, the album cover looks more like some 90's obscure death metal record than the band's typical iconography of mechanical beasts and rebel-lifestyle glorification.

As far as the music goes, it's fine, but it's overshadowed by Judas Priest's other material doing the same thing, but better. Sinner and Starbreaker are fine empowerment fantasies, but in retrospect perhaps too formulaic in structure and their highlights. Last Rose of Summer and Here Come the Tears are the softer entries on the record. The former being a Led Zeppelin-esque ballad, while the latter - and in my opinion superior song - is an honest expression of self-pity and loneliness. Let Us Prey/ Call for the Priest stands out as an upbeat song and while good, still gives me the feeling like it's more of an template for better songs to come on later records with better production and more notable instrumental and vocal delivieries (most notably I always feel like the song is about to transition straight in to Exciter, a staple of Judas Priest's next record Stained Class). I guess my favourites of the record are the Joan Baez cover of Diamonds and Rust for it's well functioning hook in the melody, as well as track #8 Dissident Aggressor.

So overall Sin After Sin is not a bad record, but it's definetly overshadowed by other entries in Judas Priest's discography.

7/10