Review Summary: Stained Class, as an album, explains perfectly how Judas Priest became such an influential band: they were unafraid of experimentation to fit with their unique take on the music of their time, forging new sounds for the future.
When listening to the music of any specific classic band - be it
Led Zeppelin,
Iron Maiden, or in this case, legendary metal band Judas Priest's
Stained Class, we all wonder why the band became classic. If every band knew whether they would be good, we obviously wouldn't have any "classic" bands, because everyone playing would be good.
To me, a classic band has to have done something significant for the genre as a whole; the same reasoning applies for my rating scale, as a 5 rating must advance its genre in a notable way and be pretty much flawless. Judas Priest advanced metal by combining the blues that had come before any metal was around (Sabbath were, of course, strong on the blues), adding new ideas, and most uniquely, through their personalities. These British headbangers knew when to take themselves seriously and when to be less serious, almost funny - listening to
Painkiller demonstrates the band's ability to rely on their reputation for wit as well as producing some killer thrash and power metal.
Stained Class sowed the seeds for both of those genres and more. Highlights such as the speedy picking and dramatic fantasy of
Exciter, the dark, crushing
Saints in Hell (assuredly the heaviest song on the album), the short, anthemic
Savage and
Invader, and the more progressive title track and all-time classic
Beyond the Realms of Death carried similarly unique lyrical themes - dystopia, suicide, Indian colonization, human unity against one common enemy, and the eternal battle between good and evil.
Their approaches show clear precursors to the intelligent, forward-thinking jams of
Dream Theater, the dark, neo-classical thrash of
Metallica (Fade to Black was certainly inspired by
Realms...), classic, speedy power metal with a touch of humor like
Helloween, the good vs. evil adventures popularized by
Dio, and the exploration of either light or dark by appropriately aligned bands.
The musical performance pulls all these disparate ideas together, JP showing clear inspiration from Led Zeppelin in their ability to pull all sorts of influences, often including riffs on a single influence, into one piece of work. The drumming of Les Binks is none too technical, with obvious blues influence in its restraint and muted production, but is always tasteful and remains interesting because the man could play very catchy beats!
Given that this is metal, the guitars are a focal point. The way they are written and played also shows how Judas Priest was developing ideas from blues and hard rock to create their own sound: simple, melodic notes and solos fit the ideas that are being explored, soon becoming more complex and pushing the music into new territories.
Rob Halford, although not at his best here (the main reason for the 4.5 rating) still comes up with some impressive high screams and the sense that he knows exactly what he is doing, even though very few had yet tried such a vocal style. While executed well, the largely pervasive high screeches sound flat in the mix on several occasions and don't contain the more balanced attack between glass-shattering falsetto, gruffer lower registers and normal singing in the baritone to tenor ranges that would dominate even the crushing, over the top attack of
Painkiller. Judas Priest was obviously still trying to perfect their sound, but yet the rest of the album is so polished that you barely notice it.
Assuredly the first NWOBHM album,
Stained Class set down ground that everyone would try to follow thereafter. Even in the nowadays generally uncreative genre of classic metal, Judas Priest were there to revolutionize everything about the way the music was played. Although they fit a lot of definitions of the ideal "metal" lifestyle, they had their own view of what metal should be like, and that is what makes them stand out today amongst all the imitations.
