The Beast that is the Priest

Happy Labor Day Eve.

For no good reason, I thought I'd break out some old Judas Priest tonight. I always admired the original Priest (before Rob Halford's departure) for being "Defenders of the Faith." While some of their peers lapsed into Spinal Tap-like self-parody, the Beast that is the Priest stayed true to form. Even when the music got slightly more commercial, it never went to Scorpions-type blandness.

Since we're probably all familiar with Judas Priest, I'll throw out a little bit of trivia, then we'll get to the music. The name Judas Priest comes from Bob Dylan's song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest." The original band, headed by Alan Atkins, was more of a blues-oriented group. Some evidence of that, albeit a little harder edged, was still present on their second album, "Sad Wings of Destiny."

My other little trivia nugget is a six-degrees of separation from Howard Stern. When Rob Halford left the band in 1991, he was replaced by Tim "Ripper" Owens, who had previously sung in the Judas Priest tribute band British Steel. When Halford rejoined Priest 12 years later, Ripper went on to join Iced Earth. One of Iced Earth's seven drummers was Richard Christy, a writer and self-professed porn expert on the Howard Stern radio show.

Again, like the Alice Cooper post, I just took the records I have and picked what I like. Hope you dig it too.

Hell Bent for Leather.mp3
Hot Rockin’.mp3
The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown).mp3
Don’t Go.mp3
Exciter.mp3
Heading Out To the Highway.mp3

The official Judas Priest site.

Also, just for fun, here's the pre-MTV video for "Breaking the Law."

posted by aikin @ 9:31 PM