Judas Priest - Freewheel Burning

While conventional wisdom does dictate that “Screaming For Vengeance” is Judas Priest’s best album, there does exist an ongoing comparison with it’s follow up album “Defenders of the Faith.” Like a lot of Judas Priest fans, I am torn between “Screaming For Vengeance” and “Defenders of the Faith” as to which I love more. The back to back rocking of “Screaming For Vengeance” does make it Judas Priest’s best single sitting listening album, so in theory with that “Screaming For Vengeance” wins, but only in theory. In truth there are more of my favorite Priest songs on “Defenders of the Faith” and that means a lot. I mean come on, “Defenders of the Faith” has, what is possibly Judas Priest’s best song, “Freewheel Burning.”

“Freewheel Burning!”

My second earliest memory of “Freewheel Burning” was being at the gym in my hometown, it was a small town, we only had one gym. My best friend got his hands on the cd player and put in his copy of Judas Priest’s greatest hits and some guys working out continued to shout out for “Freewheel Burning” until my friend put that song on. The fellow exercise enthusiast was in no way rude, he was very upbeat about the music choice and very enthusiastically request his, presumably, favorite track. My earliest memory of “Freewheel Burning” was hearing for the first time listening to that same friend’s copy of Priest’s greatest hits.

Enough about me and my memories, let’s focus on “Defenders of the Faith” and “Freewheel Burning.”

“Screaming For Vengeance” broke Judas Priest into the mainstream, sort of, more or less, so the follow up album needed to be very good to keep that momentum going, and “Defenders of the Faith” delivered. More than anything these two albums established Judas Priest as the rock gods there were, and Rob Halford as the metal god. The first single off of “Defenders of the Faith” is the first track on the album, “Freewheel Burning.” Ideal was both the first song and the first single. The fast and powerful intro that comes fighting out of the gate letting everyone know exactly what to expect from the album.

Right off from the start “Defenders of the Faith” starts like a raging rocket, the intro the is a rapid-fire guitar sending us off into the intro song and the album with all the power in the world. At the two-minute ten second mark, KK Downing hits us with the guitar solo to end all guitar solos. It runs for almost a full minute and despite everything being so amazing, this somehow proves to be the best part of the song. I do not consider myself an expert on Judas Priest, just a very big fan, but this has to be KK best work, what more could human do on lead guitar?

One of my greatest joys is singing along with songs and thinking about the lyrics, however, I never paid much attention to the lyrics of “Freewheel Burning;” I have always been too busy headbanging along and singing the only part I could, the hollowing yell of the song title.

Singing along with Halford on this song is impossible. I have no idea how Halford managed to sign “Freewheel Burning” the way he does, the pitch he reaches and the way he does it over and over is not something most can ever manage, even with infinite time to train, only a god like Halford can sing a song like “Freewheel Burning.” By the third verse Halford is singing so quickly, that I needed to look up the lyrics for any hope of discerning his words.

Looking over the lyrics now, I get the same driving force to live life to the maximum, not entirely dissimilar to “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” but I cannot help but project some cosmic machine science fiction metal onto “Freewheel Burning.” No longer is Judas Priest singing about just charging through life with confidence and vigour, but from the opening line we are led to believe the ambition has been increased to include the entire universe. It is not entirely clear but given Halford’s word choice, a sensation of battle is strongly presented. This brings me to another song I love from “Defenders of the Faith,” “The Sentinel.”

So yes. I really like “Freewheel Burning” possibly my favorite or at least one of my favorite Judas Priest songs. However, “The Sentinel” is also such a song.

The Sentinel:

Once again, I was too busy headbanging, to pay a great deal of attention to “The Sentinel’s” lyrics. I also had this weird indeed that he robot lion tank on the cover of the album was “The Sentinel,” not for any particular reason, I just always put those two things together.

Upon further inspection, “The Sentinel” is about a warrior in post apocalyptic world seeking revenge; which is awesome. Very Mad Max.

So yes. I really like “The Sentinel,” but I should also probably mention real quick how awesome “Some Heads are Gonna Roll.”

Some Heads are Gonna Role:

With these three songs, we have gone from inference of combat, to road warrior like character, to a full-on war song. What kind of war? A metal war I presume. It is a warzone in the wastelands. And what a call to arms, “some heads are gonna roll.” The opening rift is like a gunshot, and the whole song is just metal as hell. Great song.

So yeah, that is why me and everybody else are torn between “Screaming for Vengeance” and “Defenders of the Faith.” Two powerhouse albums that helped define metal music forever. I hold these two albums, and controversially, I also hold “Turbo,” as the three big Priest albums. Those three albums all came out back to back, and they changed everything.

- King of Braves

Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Coming

Conventional wisdom holds that Judas Priest’s eighth studio album “Screaming for Vengeance” is their greatest and the album that broke them out into the awareness of the general public. For most of my life I lived under the belief that Judas Priest made it big with their sixth album “British Steel,” as two of the three Priest songs the radio would play when I was young were on “British Steel,” “Living After Midnight” and the insanely popular “Breaking the Law.” The first Judas Priest song I ever heard was “Breaking the Law” and I must have heard that song thirty plus times before hearing another Priest song. With the passing of time and advantage of age, I now know fully and completely the truth of the matter. I know why everyone considers “Screaming for Vengeance” Judas Priest’s greatest album, and I know why “You Got Another Thing Coming” is considered Judas Priest’s biggest hit song.

The disadvantage of being born after the fact is missing out of some of the context of certain events as they happened. “Screaming for Vengeance” came out in 1982, one year before I was born, so I was unable to fully appreciate its initial impact and success for what it was. At the time I was taking in, what I believed to be all of Rob Halford era Judas Priest era, and those hits songs on the radio were what they must have been best known for. Right?

Judas Priest had a challenging start. Their first several albums were nothing to fantastic, I appreciate them, but they are weak albums compared to what would be to come. It was not until 1980 with the inclusion of drummer David Holland that Priest would have their first drummer to last more than a single album, and for the first time the band had some consistency, maybe that helped with the creative process, or maybe it just took some time for the band to hone their craft and improve their song writing. It is a rare thing for things to come together on the eighth attempt, but that is what happened.

“Screaming for Vengeance” was the first album of Judas Priests to connect the dots. From track to track, the entire album flows like no Priest album before it. The first track “The Hellion” is a short instrumental hard hitting opener that only last forty-one seconds, but it brings forth “Electric Eye,” this second track is the second biggest hit from the album and a great classic metal track about the destruction of personal privacy under oppressive rule, at least that is what I think it is about. It never gets dull, immediately following “Electric Eye” is “Riding on the Wind.” “Riding on the Wind” is an apex metal/rock song, one of the best on the album. The title track does not disappoint, “Screaming for Vengeance” has a perfect theme, not just in song, but to represent the album as a whole. Rebellion is always the heart of rock and roll, and vengeance often has a lot in common with that. Rob Halford’s vocals are killer on the title track, and this plays before the big hit, “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.”

It really is a great album from start to finish, and I hate to predictable, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would be the big hit “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.” The first three Priest songs I knew included “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” and among those three champion songs I always did enjoy this song uppermost.

The clearest pull-through message for “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” is embracing life and living it to its fullest. It is a celebration of being alive, seizing your opportunities, and living your dreams, and never let anyone stop you from doing it. Defiance is also a strong theme in “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” and this attitude to stand up to, and against if need be, from the forces that stand in your way. The dream of being a rock star is rift with probable failure. Most dreams that are worth pursuing have a high probability of failure, which is one of the reasons they are so worth attempting. Halford’s words in “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” suggesting an antagonist of negative that is less an active force but more so an acceptance of submission, the sting of letting go and giving up.

The end of the chorus says all this in two simple lines:

“You think I'll let it go you're mad,
You got another thing coming.”

There are a lot of dark themes in music, and metal music has fairly constant aggression to it that makes many songs develop an element of angst. What is rebellion without disdain for the status quo? What is revolution without a willingness to go to war? What is defiance with without potential violence? When an enemy can be pointed to, typically we expect some anger, but Judas Priest has something special in “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” all the aggression is positive, focused in on the motivation to live and prosper. All the angst is directed towards thoughts of giving up. It makes “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” a really aggressively upbeat song, and a great motivation to get out there and makes things happen.

I think this powerful defiance against apathy assisted in making “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.” Obviously the first and most relevant reason “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” is popular and so highly acclaimed is the simple truth that is a very well constructed and fantastically performed song, but often as we have seen too many times that is not enough to always connect with people. The general population often need something more, something special to latch onto, and “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” manages that by being possibly the best, get off your ass and never give up on your dreams, sort of rock song.

- King of Braves