Judas Priest, Painkiller, A Review (1990)

Judas Priest, Painkiller, A Review (1990)

By: Ghost Writer

Rock N Rolla Animal

September 4, 1990 Painkiller was an album that I loved since the first time I heard it, it sounded direct as no other heavy metal could at the time, it wasn’t meant to be as transcendental as British Steel or Screaming for Vengeance, singer Rob Halford put it clear when he declared that its lyrics mean nothing, trying to stay away from previous controversies and demanding the focus be set on music exclusively, and the fact that Judas Priest were including now amazing drummer Scott Travis, featured on the pulverizing intro to the album, was impossible to deny, guitarist Glen Tipton and KK Downing were unleashing the fiercest riffs of their careers, Painkiller showed a band totally connected to the present and hungry for recognition from fans of new metal acts like Slayer, Megadeth or Metallica, Painkiller as a record that updated the heaviness of heavy metal and left it ready to compete with new and more noisier genres like Thrash or Speed Metal.

As Painkiller starts, Travis proves himself as a clue to the new musical development by the band, Rob Halford inspired pushing his impeccable vocal range to its limits with grandiose results, creating a title track that immediately escalated to the upper ranks of Priest´s classics, it was a song full of maniac guitar riffs and an amazing work also by buzz saw bassist Ian Hill, making it impossible to deny the tremendous influence of Tipton and Downing on the guitar attack of new shredders like Hetfield and Hammett or King and Hanneman, not bad for a group of guys who started the group in 1969 and who many thoughts its fiercest years were way back in the 70s, and their commercial peak in the 80s.

Hell Patrol bring a wonderful sense of complexity to the Priest circle, Halford carrying the melody in a superb manner always perfectly escorted by Tipton and Downing, paying their strengths at best creating a perfect melodic antithesis to blasting title track, and then coming back with the prefect thrashing mad of All Guns Blazing, the 70s boogie that run underneath the overall sound of the band is substituted here by a galloping Maiden like intensity, and if guitar is your thing, just check out the prodigious riffing put on display on Leather Rebel, again the band working with clear focus and determination, in a perfect match of fury and melody, creating another piece with an air of classic to be include among the best pieces the groups has pinned, or be prepared to be blown away by the guitar intro to Metal Meltdown, again the whole band playing here to the limit of their skills and ending up as a winner, the band sound again is devastating and Travis giving the band a surplus of energy expressed on every note in the album.

Now, Night Crawler, taking a name from a Marvel Comic character, is not only another highlight included on the album, is pure and classic Judas Priest, a song with the perfect gothic touch (a direction repeated on almost every song from this pont on) making it a song that could have easily been featured on an previous classic JP recording, with Haldford carrying again an untouchable and memorable melody, and if you miss that “boogie thing” the Priest used to carry on in the 70s listen to Between the Hammer and the Anvil, where the band perfectly recreates its 70s sound without losing a bit of its 90s update, I wouldn’t call it a “weak spot”, but the increasing presence of synths on Touch of Evil, despite the gothic undertones is a little bit disappointing, and the band sounds a little bit short of ideas right in the end with Battle Hymns or Living Bad Dreams, with only One Shot at Glory making up for a great finale, Painkiller is obviously dwarfed among many other classic JP albums of the 70s and commercial high points of the 80s, but it certainly represents a high point in the career of a band that not to many people thought could return to its prime in the 90s, it was a glorious moment to see such a classic heavy metal going eye to eye against the heavy metal band of the 90s and witnessing that despite the years the Priests still knew how to make good noise better than many of the bands that grew up listening to them.