Review Summary: One of Judas Priest's finest records, and the best album they released in the 70's.
Line up:
Rob Halford: Vocals
K.K Downing: Guitar
Glen Tipton: Guitar
Ian Hil: Bassist
Les Binks: Drummer.
Along with 1976's
Sad Wings of Destiny and 1990's
Painkiller,
Stained Class is one of Priest's most consistant albums in terms of quality. At worst, you have two songs that are merely average, and at best you have tracks that are immensly spectacular.
This album is a refinement of the preceding three LPs (For those that don't know, 1974's
Rocka Rolla, the aforemented
Sad Wings of Destiny, and 1977's
Sin After Sin). The riffs are noticably built off of those albums, but they're leaner and heavier, on the whole. The solos are, generally, more fiercly constructed and melodic, (the guitar solos in the opener, "Exciter", and the title track are absolutly huge examples of this) and Rob Halford's vocals are simply mind-blowing. On this record, Halford's range is second to none, and his screeching goes to heights that few singers have ever matched. ("Exciter", "Saints In Hell", and the chorus in "Beyond the Realms of Death" are easily the best vocal performances on an album filled with them.) Basically, Priest were at the height of their technical capabilities on this record, something they would not match until a little over a decade later with
Painkiller.
Lyrically,
Stained Class is a bit more streamlined than the preceding albums. However, it still handles the subject matter of the lyrics fairly intelligently.. something that except in small flashes, you couldn't say about every Priest album that followed this one. Even if the lyrics can get a bit goofy (The choruses to "Exciter" and "Invader"and the entirety of "White Heat, Red Hot"), they're also thought provoking, particularly the second half of the album, which is completly obssesed with Death. "Saints In Hell" and "Beyond the Realms of Death" are the most notable examples, the latter being a ballad about suicide.
The production isn't great. It's certainally not bad, espcially by the standards of the late 1970's, but the guitar tone is a little weak, and the drums still lack punch. Basically, it suffers from the same production problems that befell the the LPs that came before it, but it suffers the least in this regard.
As far as the songs go, the only two that don't really work for me are "Invaders" and "Savage". I'll admit though that the chorus to "Invaders" is actually kind of catchy, and both songs do feature good guitar solos, but other wise they just kind of do nothing. They're not bad, just average.
The 2001 remastered version has two bonus tracks: "Fire Burns Below", which is an outtake from the Ram It Down sessions, and a live version of "Better By You, Better Than Me". Quite frankly, "Fire Burns Below" should of been on
Ram It Down, because it's definately better than the majority of the tracks on that LP. (i.e, it does leave an actual impression, something that about half of that album never did.) And it does have a really great guitar solo that comes in around the 4:10 mark, but I don't like the drumming all that much. (A bit too mechanical for my tastes) The live version of "Better by You" is servicable enough. I mean, it is a fairly nice bonus track, but it otherwise doesn't leave very much of an impression.
Highlights... "Exciter" is pure speed metal at its finest, espcially that melodic guitar solo that comes in at 3:27. The title track has that awesome galloping riff that no doubt influenced a particular up-and-coming metal band. (hint: the bassists for that band's name rhymes with 'barris'.) "Saints In Hell" in addition to having a top-notch vocal performance from Rob Halford, also has a riff that comes in at 3:13 that just screams "thrash!" "Beyond The Realms of Death", for the reasons listen above, and "Heroes End", which has a fantastic solo to bring the record to its conclusion. (The lyrics, which are about mortality [in keeping with the second half of this album], aren't too shabby, either.)
In the end,
Stained Class is a consistantly great record and the last hurrah for Judas Priest's progressive albums before they began going for commercial appeal. When all is said and done, it is completely worth owning. 4.5 out of 5.
