Review by Rexorcist for Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance (1982)

I am so disappointed in Metal Academy right now.  New reviews are posted everyday, this website is old enough for many Priest fans to flock here, and yet their isn't a single review for Screaming for Vengeance.  Well, if it's up to me to write the first official review for this quintessential metal album, I will.

Of course, it should be noted that I'm not the biggest Priest fan.  My introduction to real metal is all thanks to Ozzy/Sabbath, Metallica and especially Scorpions.  Because of this, I am a Guardian first and foremost here.  But compared to Metallica, Ozzy and Scorpions who all felt a bit different in their own way, Judas felt a little standard for the time.  Maybe this is because they had been emulated so often that they came off as less original to me?  But overtime I've come to accept them much more.  Painkiller was my first Priest outing.  Absolutely incredible metal energy that I was CERTAINLY not prepared for thanks to the radio centering around the 70's and 80's stuff.  Screaming for Vengeance was my second, and as you can see, at first I could NOT favorably compare the two.  And today I still don't.  But I totally get why this is a metal classic.  Like I really do GET it.

Now the first thing I should mention is the varying levels of heaviness between songs.  Sometimes we have songs steering a bit towards the hard rock side like Devil's child, and a few of these songs are just teetering on the thin tightrope separating the air above the rope from the net below, with the air being metal and the net being rock.  Some studio production is noticeable here, so that does as much of a job amplifying the metal as much as it potentially hinders the album with its vague similarities to AOR and other arena rock genres.  of course, this was right before hair metal was cemented, so this album easily avoided the comparison for the time.  You've Got Another Thing Coming and other like songs have a certain metal personality about them, cementing them in the big leagues, but despite this quintessential biker-boy persona, it's still hard rock.  But then you have some serious metal bangers like the title track, which is easily the heaviest song on the album, and Riding on the Wind, which works in tandem with Electric Eye to give you everything you can expect from this album.

Now what I REALLY like about Screaming for Vengeance is that Judas Priest create a variety of attitudes, personalities and tones within their one specific persona: biker rock and metal.  They had greatly evolved from the days of dorky medieval robes and fantasy lyrics that defined their Sad Wings of Destiny days and had gained the nickname "metal gods" with this.  Some songs focus more on the drama, especially where the short intro track is concerned.  Some songs are just about having fun, and others are all about the energy.  Thanks to tonal and tempo changes, no two songs sound exactly the same, which I can't even say for Painkiller as All Guns Blazing feels similar to the title opener there.  But with things changing every song, there are a lot of ways to have fun here.

Now the consistency of the quality is high.  There are absolutely no skips.  I would even go as far as to say every song is great if not close to brilliance.  None of these songs really reach "brilliance" to me, but they're way catchier and more melodically healthy than so many other heavy metal albums I've heard over the years.  I guess this is really what makes Screaming for Vengeance a classic.  You could play this whole album when riding in your convertible and just let the atmosphere take you away as easily as electronic fans like Tangerine Dream's Rubycon.  In fact, those two are only four spaces away on my list of every album I've ever heard ranked from best to worst.  I can't consider this a favorite as none of the songs took me to heaven and back, but it's a lot of fun and perfectly healthy and diverse where the album's main focus is hard rock and heavy metal.