Judas Priest – Metalogy Box Set (2004) (*****)

What’s to like?

Everything you’ll ever need to hear by the metal legends at their peak, nicely lined up across four cds and a dvd, sampling the best of the band’s classic years. “Pounding the world like a battering ram, forging the furnace for the final grand slam…”

The low down

Ever since I was a teenager I’ve been a heavy metal fan. I guess it was a case of being in the right time at the right place. Metal was enjoying a wave of commercial success in the early eighties, and with all my schoolmates carrying around LPs by the likes of Iron Maiden, Scorpions, and Saxon, it was inevitable that I’d get drawn into that scene. We all read the same weekly music papers, went to the same gigs and swapped tapes, and it was an amazing time to be a fan of that genre.

However, the one band that stood out for me was Birmingham’s Judas Priest, who had just released two outstanding albums – the live Unleashed In The East, and its studio follow-up British Steel, which is still considered one of THE metal albums of all-time. I played those two LPs down to the bare grooves, as the guitar riffs exploded around my bedroom, and my parents must have wondered what was going on as singer Rob Halford’s banshee screams pierced through the walls.

Judas Priest’s standing in the UK scene may have taken a dent in the mid-eighties, having been away too long touring the US, but I always felt that they had the edge on Maiden and the others because their songs felt tighter and sharper, and came with an abundance of great choruses to sing along to. The members of Priest were also slightly older and had started out several years before their peers, and I think that experience had taught them how to structure and arrange songs so that every note and riff had its place; crucially, the songs never dragged on. By comparison, this would prove to be a problem with their rivals, Maiden, whose songs were becoming increasingly longer and repetitive in places.

But let’s backtrack to 2004, when the band saw the return of Halford to the microphone after a period moonlighting with other groups, and the announcement of a new album and tour. With the band back in the headlines again, former label Columbia saw an opportunity to reissue the band’s impressive back catalogue, and put together this box set as a warm-up for the reissue campaign.

Unlike a lot of Priest’s other official compilations, some time and thought seems to have been invested in putting together this Metalogy box set. As you can see from the images, the box itself is a cool homage to band’s leather and studs image, and is a sturdy house for the discs inside. Inside the box, there’s a really nice book with details about the band’s history and recordings, and it the text is a little too deferential, it’s still a perfect accompaniment for the music, with lots of photographs from across the years. The cds can be found underneath, inside cardboard sleeves, but at least the sleeves are wide enough to allow the discs to slip out easily.

The music covers all of the band’s albums from 1974 debut Rocka Rolla through to 2001’s Demolition, with each album contributing at least four or five songs to this set. The tracks are more or less sequenced in order of album release, with a couple of side-steps when a studio track is replaced by its live version from a later tour. I’m sure other fans will have their own views about which tracks should have been selected, but for what it’s worth I reckon the chosen tracks represent the very best of the band’s repertoire. You can find a complete track-listing here.

The compilers have also tried to include some rare stuff alongside the obvious choices, but it’s limited to one demo track and live b-sides from singles. Most of the other existing demo tracks were held over as bonuses for the individual album reissues that followed, and while I enjoyed hearing them at the time, I can’t honestly say any of them stood out. I guess that’s why they didn’t make the final cut of the relevant album.

For this Metalogy set, the chosen tracks for each album don’t replicate the same running order as on their source album, freshening things up a bit and broadening an appreciation of the band’s different writing styles. While the core of the band’s sound was undoubtedly heavy metal, the tempos could vary between slower more intense numbers, full throttle pedal to metal pounders, commercial numbers aimed at chart action or songs with more complex structures and sonic layers that showed a band keen to push the envelope beyond the standard heavy metal sound.

One interesting thing I discovered as I revisited each cd, was hearing germs of ideas in some songs that would be revisited and reworked in later songs. For example, Solar Angels (from Point Of Entry 1981) with its layered guitar opening, shares common themes with Out In The Cold (Turbo 1986) and later Blood Red Skies (Ram It Down 1988). Similarly, Exciter (Stained Class 1978) with its speed and double bass drum kick technique would prove a precursor to the likes Freewheel Burning (Defenders Of The Faith 1984) and Painkiller (Painkiller 1990).

The other aspect of this set which struck me was the quality of the audio. Just on the right side of loud but with plenty of dynamics and room to clearly hear everything, particularly the separation between the different guitar parts. One of Priest’s defining characteristics was the unique chemistry between guitarists K.K. Downing and Glen Tipton. Each had their own style of playing and soloing, but together they worked so well playing off each other.

I’ve since read views that suggest this set was remastered too harshly, but having listened to it over the last twenty years, it sounds just fine to me, and certainly easier on the ears compared to the muddier and cluttered audio mixes of the albums that followed in the wake of the band’s reunion.

However, the real bonus in this box is a dvd of the band performing a complete show during 1982’s Screaming For Vengeance tour in the US. The set was originally released on VHS in the eighties, but was then mastered for dvd and given an additional 5.1 audio mix alongside the original stereo. While the picture quality has its technical limitations, the audio is excellent and this concert shows the band in their prime. I rarely start watching the opening number without then sitting through the whole show – it’s that good.

Here’s the opening number to whet your appetite:

If this box set was designed to hook fans in to buy the reissued individual albums, it worked in this fan’s case, as that’s exactly what I did. However, as a slimmed down anthology for listening to while travelling, this box is ideal, and it’s a great way for the less committed listener to enjoy the band’s legacy over those classic years.

The Metalogy set has since been reissued a couple of times, and if you can live without the studded box, then you might try hunting down the 2013 edition in hardback media-book format; unfortunately it comes minus the live dvd but this can still be purchased separately.

As I write this, the band have just embarked on their Invincible Shield tour, to promote the same album, so this might be an opportune moment to hunt down a used copy of the Metalogy box set and relive those glory years.

“When the power chords come crashing down, go tearing through my senses

It’s for the strong, not for the weak, in light and dark dimensions

It stimulates, regenerates, it’s therapeutic healing

It lifts our feet up off the ground, and blasts us through the ceiling.”

(from the song Heavy Metal (Ram It Down 1988)