Judas Priest is one of my all time favorite bands, so prepare for a lengthy piece of writing here.
My favorite albums are the first seven, Painkiller, and Nostradamus. If I had to pick one absolutely culmination, it would be Sin After Sin.
Sin After Sin
Judas Priest's third album - and their first for a major label. Deep Purple's Roger Glover ended up in the production chair. Somehow, the band had fired their drummer, and young upcoming to-be-famous drummer Simon Phillips was brought in (with whom Glover had previously collaborated). This album has some of Priest's most ambitious musicwriting (they had strong influences from Queen, until their next album when they went for a more mainstream songwriting style), some great vocals, and incredible drumming.
Here Come The Tears http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PVqnDbu5UE
Dissident Aggressor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_mpt8xyZVI
(note that the times on the youtube version are a second or two off)
0:00 Fade in from the previous track
0:08 Here come the drums
0:17 Check out the hi hat clap and snare ghosting here
0:35 Explosive break - those high notes are vocals, and one is Halford's highest recorded vocal note - the high B harmonized in this chord.
0:35 This guitar riff may be one of the earliest pieces of what would become "thrash metal" - the palm-muted distorted single-direction-picked riffing.
0:41 Phillips does some impressive triplets to fill into:
0:43 A very interesting beat - note that the (double) bass drum keeps a steady beat (in 3/4). The cymbal keeps time with some of the bass drum - sometimes every other, sometimes every. The snare is used in a jazz-like fashion with lots of ghosts to embellish the beat.
0:47 Note how Phillips keeps the double bass drum going through this entire fill.
0:52 Rob Halford puts in one of his best vocal performances on this song - where does that head voice begin? Falsetto? It's all pretty smooth - and has great vibrato and range. If you pay close attention, you can hear that he switches voices right around B (this song is in E, so that would be the fifth). Sometimes those Bs are head voice, sometimes full voice.
1:15 I get a kick out of these snare triplets here.
1:22 "unit" sounds like full voice to me
1:25 "face" is a different voice from "unit" but is about the same note.
1:32 Phillips loves to use these on this album - hi-hat claps that are longer than one of the hi-hat beat he's established - in this case, 3 beats.
1:43 More fun triplets.
1:48 KK Downing has a lot of fun with his effects pedal - fleshing out his Hendrix influence.
1:49 Note the snare ghost here.
2:28 I always find it funny how this tom tom fill stops early.
2:34 Another fill where he keeps the double bass going - as well as the cymbal!
2:38 More crazy snare ghosting.
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