Judas Priest: Metalogy : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath in 1979, the way was clear for a new heavyweight champ of metal. Enter Judas Priest (like Sabbath, from Birmingham, England), a quintet that had up to then released four anemically produced albums. That all changed with 1979's Hell Bent for Leather, a record that effectively removed metal's Seventies-era prog-rock flab. Songs such as the title track were compact, radio-ready blasts of fury that set the stage for every Eighties band from Motley Crue to Metallica. 1980's British Steel was Priest's pinnacle. With "Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight," Rob Halford -- perhaps metal's best singer ever -- delivered lessons on how to make hard-rock fans thrill unwittingly to the fantasies of a closeted gay man. What followed -- forays into pop- and thrash-metal, Halford's departure and the tenure of sound-alike replacement Tim "Ripper" Owens -- was just gravy. Metalogy includes all the band's classics from each of its fourteen studio albums, ten live cuts and a DVD containing a 1982 Memphis concert. On that, Halford roars onstage astride a Harley -- advance publicity for Priest's reunion at this summer's Ozzfest.