Review by Sonny for Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)

Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny was the second most important record after Sabbath's Paranoid in my personal journey through the metal universe. After hearing a schoolfriend's copy of Stained Class I went out and bought Sad Wings (we traded taped copies afterwards) and then I absolutely played it to death. My view back then was that a day without Sad Wings was a day without sunshine! Nowadays I prevaricate between those two albums as to which I think is the better, but both are classics and this in particular is chock-full of metal anthems - Victim of Changes, The Ripper, Tyrant and Genocide are all instantly recognised by most metalheads.

Interestingly, the released tracklisting is not what the band originally intended. Somewhere the sides were mixed up for the original release and they have stuck with it ever since, but the album was intended to start with Prelude and end with the Dreamer Deceiver / Deceiver couplet. When listened to in that order, the tracklisting does make more sense and flows better, I think most people would agree.

At this point, SWoD being Priest's second album, the band had not yet been transformed into the metal gods they would later become (that came with the release of 1979's Killing Machine) and they still retained a little of the rock ethic from their debut, although at a reduced level. That isn't meant in any way detrimentally as I think it gave the album a greater variety than an all-out metal assault would have done. That said, the metal is the real draw here, but I think it is at it's best when accentuated by a bit of a build up, such as when Prelude builds it's pomp and circumstance into the release of the killer opening riff of Tyrant or when the balladic Dreamer Deceiver builds during it's own runtime and then bursts out into the riff of Deceiver.The twin guitar attack was fairly unusual at the time and Glenn and KK's fretwork really set Priest apart and was the big revolution in metal music that had enormous influence on future metal heroes from Iron Maiden to Metallica and Slayer. Of course there was also Rob Halford's incredible vocal range which few have ever been able to match and was the other defining element of Priest's sound which set them apart from and above their peers.

Priest were well and truly on the rise at this point, which coincided with Sabbath's descent from the metal mountain peak and were really the only game in town, true heavy metal-wise, Motörhead's debut still being over a year in the future. This metal vacuum certainly did Priest no harm as it enabled them, over the course of this and the succeeding three albums, to pretty much define the heavy metal archetype. I know many, particularly those not around during the Seventies, cite Painkiller or even Defenders of the Faith as Priest's peak and those are indeed fine albums, but for me the run of albums from this to Killing Machine were their pinnacle and Sad Wings is a hell of a way to kick off such a run of releases. Not for nothing does the triplet of tracks from this, Victim of Changes, Genocide and Tyrant climax the 1980 live album - it is because they are absolute killer metal anthems and live they will rip your fucking head off!