Review Summary: A good way to showcase the new look for the band with the leather-and-studs look.
Killing Machine, also known as Hell Bent for Leather (US), was released in 1978 (UK)/1979 (US) and the last album to feature Les Binks on drums. They abandoned the dark, bluesy, progressive elements from the first four albums and started to become mainstream, but that doesn't mean there are no dark songs. Their frontman, Rob Halford, on this album starts to use the leather-and-studs look.
This album has divided fans. The reason for it is because some people preferred the dark, bluesy, progressive elements from the first four, but some people prefered the more mainstream albums such as this one onwards. I personally like the dark era better, because this can't beat anything from that era. Reason is because this album is really inconsistent and some of the songs get really annoying. That doesn't mean for all the songs, because some of them are some of the greatest JP songs.
When I was talking about good and bad tracks, I would start usually with the opener, but the bad songs are very bad.
Evening Star is a semi-ballad and interestingly a Christmas carol, it's too repititive and has a horrible cheesy chorus:
Quote:
Evening star, I can see the light
Evening star, guide me through the light
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And then the absolute low point,
Take On the World. This is them trying to mock
We Will Rock You but only with horrible lyrics and childish vocals this songs like a song you would sing in kindergarten. Here's the chorus:
Quote:
Put yourself in our hands, so our voices can be heard
And together, we can take on all the world
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Evil Fantasies is one of those songs about Rob's homosexuality, which I'm nothing against, but it's really boring and cheesy.
The next section are songs that are not bad, but generic overall for certain parts for either lyrics, music, or both.
Killing Machine and
Running Wild turn out as generic hard rock songs because it's nothing special because it's not really convenient.
Before the Dawn is great but has cheesy lyrics, but has nice guitar melodies and a nice vocal performance.
Burning Up has really bluesy music which is nice, but the lyrics are weak.
Rock Forever starts weak but goes into a good chorus, solo, and harmonies in the bridge.
Now here's the promising side of the album.
Delivering the Goods showcases the new look for the band perfectly. It opens with an interesting riff, and then goes into a heavy riff, which goes into a kickass solo from Glenn and ends with a drum solo from Les. Then we have the high point of the album, the Fleetwood Mac cover,
The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown) , written by Peter Green. The song is about evil money. Priest made the song really heavy and has a guitar solo that sounds like they wrote it because Fleetwood Mac doesn't have a song that has shredding to it, which makes it one of the best covers I've ever heard. Finally there's the song that shows the leather-and-studs look perfectly in
Hell Bent for Leather. It opens with a few chords and goes to the famous riff with an awesome tapping solo from Glenn.
+Simpler than previous work but still neat
+For the good songs, they show the new hard rock sound really nicely
-Not for every metal fan
-3 stinkers
-A lot of cheesy lyrics
Recommended Tracks:
The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)
Hell Bent for Leather
Delivering the Goods
