Judas Priest . Metal Gods . (by Ashish Dani)

Judas Priest is one of the most influential heavy Metal bands of the 70's .
Hammering out of Birmingham , the core band compromised of Rob Halford ,
Glenn Tipton , K.K Downing and Ian Hill . Full Blown Metallic sound ,
awesome solos , great lyrics and God like vocals is how Judas Priest ..the
true Metal Gods are best known as ! Decked out in Leather Chains , the band
fused screaming vocals with fast riffs as well as adding vicious twin lead
guitar attack . In doing so they set up the pace for the much popular Heavy
Metal from 1975 as well as laying the groundwork for the speed and Death
Metal of the 80's .

Judas Priest comes from the same town as Black Sabbath in 1971 . Former
classmates Ian Hill and K.K Downing asked singer Alan Atkins and drummer
John Ellis to form a band . Playing out in clubs the following years , the
band went through many drummers . Atkins eventually left the band as he
thought they were heading nowhere . He was replaced by Rob Halford , Hill's
brother in Law . In 1974 Priest added a second guitarist Glen Tipton .
Following they were signed by a small record label and released their first
album Rocka Rolla to poor sales . But things changed with the huge
underground success of their second album, Sad Wings of Destiny. The album
did so well that they received a record deal from Columbia Records in the
US. Columbia released Judas Priest's next album, Sin After Sin.

The next album Hell Bent For Leather, released in the UK with the title
Killing Machine, was Judas Priest's US breakthrough album. It gained the
band a lot of success within the metal community. After touring with the
likes of Kiss, they quickly headed back into the studio and released British
Steel, which entered the UK chats at No. 3. British Steel made them a world
famous band . Three tracks "Breaking the Law" , "Living After Midnight" and
"United" were made into singles and received wide radio play . Priest's
performance at the first ever Donington 'Monsters of Rock' festival
cemented their position as the Metal Gods !

In 1982, Judas Priest released Screaming for Vengeance. The album entered
the US charts at No. 17 and in time went platinum. Till date it is regarded
as one of the best Metal Albums of all time . In the next couple of years
Judas Priest would release Defenders of the Faith and Turbo. These were
considered by most critics as a more mainstream pop-metal because of the
electronic effects and keyboards. By the late 80's the band was loosing its
British fan base but still popular in the US.

In 1990 the band was dragged into court to defend themselves in a
multi-million dollar lawsuit. It claimed that their song "Better By You
Better Than Me", was the cause of two teenager's suicides. The judge ruled
in favor of the band.

Also in 1990 the band released Painkiller. Even though the band was well
known because of the trial, the popularity of heavy metal was waning and the
record did not sell well. In 1993 Rob Halford left the band to form a new
group, Fight. He was replaced by Tim Owens. Owens was previously fronting a
Judas Priest tribute band. The band, back in action with a new singer,
produced three albums with Owens ( Seems Similar to the story of the motion
picture Rockstar isn't it ? ) .