Where’s the Ripper Era Judas Priest Albums.

(TheBRHM.com) It’s not unusual to see bands with a past they tend to not acknowledge or don’t include in their discographies. Part of this is that the band becomes so associated or known with a sound or genre that those early albums or that transitional album has to go into the vault.

Originally, we were going to look at three bands of this ilk but let’s look at Judas Priest’s previous attempts at modernizing and how those albums played out.

Judas Priest and the 14 Year Run

It’s always easy to start with Priest for most things. Long-time metal and Judas Priest fans will know which albums tend to get left out of streaming music catalogs. Released in 1997 and 2001 respectively, Jugulator and Demolition are two albums that came about in the Tim “Ripper” Owens period of the band.

After roughly 19 years as lead singer, Rob Halford decided to dip out and see what else he could do musically and just do life. Priest had been heavily active throughout the 1970s and 1980s churning out quality albums, some divisive pieces, and delivering some exciting live performances on their tours.

Just looking at their discography from Rocka Rolla until Ram It Down, you’re looking at 12 albums in 14 years. Total iron horses. One issue that arises is creativity. Sure, they have the work ethic and had been putting projects together with a high level of quality overall sans a lengthy break but those creative juices need time to replenish.

Early Attempts at Being Hip

This kind of dovetails into the other issue: change with the times. The heavily sci-fi, love-of-metal, and life themes of the band were good throughout the 70s and early 80s but the rock and metal industry was changing rapidly in the late 80s. Glam rock was hot and bands wanted their bag. The genre had some impact of Judas Priest as heard in 1986’s Turbo.

I felt that Priest was at its best just evoking the word of the Metal Gods at varying speeds while sprinkling one or two romance or veiled sex tunes per album. A good mix where even the romance tracks are heavy as hell. Turbo is the band’s second attempt at hanging with what’s hot and while I actually like the album (there are bangers here, folks), I can see that the glam-tinged approach didn’t take well to my fellow Judas Priest hardcores.

Again: long run of the same approach for over a decade. I’ll let them slide on Turbo. It’s not a bad album at all, it’s just not as heavy as other releases. Their first attempt came in 1981 with Point of Entry when new wave and arena rock were big mainstream-wise. The band took cues from arena rock and turned out a fun album that was similar to Turbo in a lack of heaviness.

What I like to check is what albums these releases are sandwiched between. Point of Entry came after British Steel, a good project but an even better international introduction. The album came before the incredible Screaming for Vengeance. So, treat PoE as a brief break to see if the hook catches any new fans that don’t care for heavy Priest.

Turbo fell between two monsters in Defenders of the Faith and Ram It Down. That’s a tough roll but the late 70s and the 80s was mostly a murderers’ row of very strong albums. It was going to be viewed as a drop off to some and an enjoyable side trip to others. A mixed reception, I suppose.

1990 and The Ripper Arrives

The Metal Gods would kick off the new decade with another tempt at hip with my favorite Priest release: Painkiller. It was released in this interesting time where the thrash bands had already thrashed throughout the late 80s.

Some bands were slowing it down and delivering more layered music in part distancing from thrash or just adding something new. Other thrash acts just kept thrashing or moved into other extreme subgenres. Of course, you had those bands that ended or went on an extended hiatus.

Glam metal had gotten its hands on the power ballad nuke, so there were a couple of those that actually became some of those bands’ better known songs. However, glam metal was about to get wiped in popularity by fast-growing grunge and groove metal bands. Never mind the growth of west coast and east coast hip-hop at that time.

Apparently, there was only so much air time for metal (and later, music videos) on MTV at the time. I can’t personally speak on how the radio was going for metal at the time since I wasn’t regularly listening to it until the late 1990s but I don’t reckon it was any better.

Painkiller releases and it’s like Judas Priest was attempting to catch up when other bands that regularly did that kind of speed and aggression had matured. In a way, JP had matured as well then again, I’m very biased towards this album since it hits every I want in a speed metal album from start to finish.

Fortunately, it came in largely uncontested as it followed Ram It Down and Priest had a little more time between the albums. When there’s time between musical projects, films, books, or games that’s when you have to bring something truly amazing. You can’t bring more of the same and Judas Priest understood the assignment.

Then lead singer Rob Halford leaves the band and forms the band Fight and later own forms Two, giving him the means to dip a toe into groove metal a bit. Now Judas Priest gets that extended hiatus. They would load up on compilations before picking up Tim “Ripper” Owens in 1996 as their lead singer.

Jugulator and Demolition

The band dropped Jugulator in 1997 and I’d eventually listen to it in my first Judas Priest binge a decade later. Prior to that I’d heard Halford’s Resurrection and Crucible. While those were a few years later, that cleaner production and more aggressive approach was familiar. The guitars in Halford could have that heavy, crunchy bite or sound crisper for something more like an anthem or one of Halford’s romance tunes.

Jugulator featured a more aggressive, thrashy—and darker—Judas Priest. It was like “Turn the darkness up some from Painkiller”. Both albums I felt were fine, I preferred Jugulator much more. They keep some of the Judas Priest tropes including my favorite: epic character songs. You don’t exactly get “Painkiller”, “The Sentinel”, or “Exciter” but they’re solid offerings.

I’ve read reviews and a few posts discussing the Ripper era and it’s a mix of views. Some felt that Ripper is powerful singer but wasn’t a good fit for Priest. The songwriting was a topic of discussion, the overall tone of the albums, and so on. Then you had those who at least liked Jugulator or they’re similar to me and liked songs from those albums but didn’t care for the albums overall.

When streaming music became a thing, I noticed that Jugulator and Demolition weren’t in the discography on Spotify. Just Painkiller to Angel of Retribution. Having looked at Apple Music recently and I see Demolition is in their albums and that’s the album I felt was the weaker of the Ripper era.

It’s always interesting to see that because it raises questions. In Judas Priest’s case, there’s some legal stuff preventing it from appearing. Also, you could say there was some other distancing from that era with Halford returning even if Halford himself feels they’re valid entries. For our wrestling fans, it’s similar to the question of if Jeff Jarrett was ever a member of the Four Horsemen.

The face of the group might say it’s acceptable but everyone else is either mixed on the notion or shuts it down. Add in legal restrictions and you get an situation that can look like erasure of that era. It’s s shame because it’s part of the band’s overall history and Jugulator was a fine release.

Overall, I wouldn’t say it’s a Pantera and the Terry Glaze era situation.