Review Summary: While not quite the consistent metal masterpieces that it is sandwiched between, Judas Priest's third album took the pure steel aggression of much of Sad Wings of Destiny to the next level, pushing heavy music even closer to its 80s golden age.
In 1976, Judas Priest made hard rock history with an album whose heaviness had no parallel at that point, with classics such as "Tyrant" being a model for the refined heavy metal legends of the 1980s. In its peaks, the follow-up, Sin After Sin, pushed the boundaries of heaviness in rock n roll even further. The heart of this increase lies with the riffs of KK Downing and Glenn Tipton, which are even less bound by conventional blues chord progressions than last time, bringing heavy metal closer to the varied, power chord oriented progressions that would be made even more famous by the early work of fellow Englishmen Iron Maiden.
One of the clearest changes from Sad Wings of Destiny besides the growing intensity of the riffs is the drumming. At a mere nineteen years old, future Toto drummer Simon Phillips delivers one of the best drum performances on any Judas Priest album. His drumming is more relentless than the work on the first two albums, while also making much heavier use of fills and cymbal beats. This is noticeable from the opener, "Sinner," a multiple sectioned song similar to "Victim of Changes" from the past album, but with an early career highlight performance from Phillips that meshes well with the somewhat less bluesy riffs and blues scale heavy solos with the more sinister Priest-feel. Even on songs with simpler drum beats such as "Starbreaker," Phillips manages to add hints of variety that may take over a single listen to notice.
Halford's vocal performance on Sin After Sin is one with few rivals in his entire career. He still displays his abilities to sing and sustain absurdly high notes with an astoundingly clean tone and some of the best diction you could ask for out of any rock singer. His delivery can range from massively aggressive ("Raw Deal") to emotional and light ("Last Rose of Summer") with equal mastery, and classics such as "Starbreaker" and the beginning of "Dissident Aggressor" show his massive amount of stamina even when holding notes that are high yet powerful and clean.
"Sinner" as an opener carries on the tradition of the first track on a Judas Priest album being one of the obvious highlights. Although Halford's vocal performance isn't quite as acrobatic as the previous Priest introduction, the mild but noticeable increase in tempo as well as the more metallic nature of the riffs make for a first impression that comes off more sinister than most of what the band did on their original two full lengths. Halford's strengths as a metal lyricist also shine on this introduction, making clever use of different rhyme schemes to match the compound structure of the song, with the theme of a horrendously evil figure that serves as a counterpart to the "Metal Messiah" archetype used on later classics such as "Exciter" and "Painkiller." The longest guitar solo on this track makes use of a classical progression before heading into swift picking on a blues scale, a combination of classical melodies and bluesy or pentatonic scales that would become a metal trope in the 1980s.
The two tracks after "Sinner" are rock solid 70s metal, with even folk cover "Diamonds and Rust" being given a Priest-like identity of its own with the high and harmonized Halford vocals and the rather minimal but still metallic guitar riffs. "Starbreaker" has heavy riffs that are similar to "Sinner," but with a far more simplistic song structure. It is another vocal highlight for the band, with a ridiculous sustain from Halford that ascends from a medium to a high pitch, climaxing with a loud but clean series of high notes. "Call For the Priest/Let Us Prey" is another one of Priest's more metallic songs of the 70s, opening with colorful chords and vocal harmonization that resembles the feel of a classic Queen song. After that, the song completely delivers the intensity expected from a full-fledged heavy metal track, with intense riffs and Phillips' drumming being loaded with fills and consistent sixteenth notes. "Raw Deal" is a bluesier track, one with riffs that take full advantage of what can be done with a blues scale with grooves that complement some of Halford's most risqué lyrics. The two ballads, "Last Rose of Summer" and "Here Come the Tears," while still being beautifully written, are two of the weaker moments of the album, not being quite as atmospheric as their prior ballad "Dreamer Deceiver." However, they are well placed between rather metallic tracks, and provide the listener a chance to cool down before two of the tensest tracks of the entire late 70s.
The conclusion of Sin After Sin, "Dissident Aggressor," is not only the heaviest track on the album, but one of the finest closing tracks on any rock album. It offers a simplistic riff that gradually grows louder for ten to fifteen seconds before Halford lets out a powerful yet massively clean harmonized A5 that is sustained to a ridiculous length, something in heavy metal that hardly had anything comparable to it until Bruce Dickinson's signature wail on "The Number of the Beast" five years later. Although the tempo is not the fastest in Judas Priest's early catalog, the aggression of the riffs more than live up to the song title, inspiring the likes of Slayer in the 80s. The drumming matches the aggressive riffs very well, with Phillips playing a somewhat reserved streak of sixteenth notes while playing short and sweet fills in fairly unexpected parts of the song. With all these factors considered, Sin After Sin remains one of the major highlights of Judas Priest's lengthy career, and is still one of the most defining, if underrated, moments from the older days of traditional heavy metal.
