Judas Priest- Sin after sin, 1977

Judas Priest's third album is somewhat overlooked at times. When people think of 1970's Judas Priest they probably tend to think of "Sad wings of destiny" or "Hell bent for leather" instead of this album and "Stained class". I think that's largely due to the fact that songs from those albums received more radio airplay and they were played more in concert by the band. This was the band's third effort and it really contains a variety of styles. Some songs are similar in style to what they had already done while a few others actually break some new ground. The album kicks off with "Sinner" which really allows Halford's vocals to flow. This song would also become a staple at live shows for the next several tours. Tracks like "Starbreaker", "Let us prey" and the very heavy "Dissident Aggressor" show the band heading towards a heavier direction. Other songs like "Last rose of summer" and "Here come the tears" show the band's ability to really put emotion into their songs and they allow Halford to really show off his range and just make it sound effortless. Quite a good album and I think it was just as important for the hard rock scene as it was for Priest. By 1977 some once great bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper were losing their edge. Deep Purple had broken up the year before and other musical trends like disco and punk rock were taking away some of the attention that had been to given to hard rock just a few years earlier. At this point Priest may have been a long ways from the commercial success they would enjoy in the 80's, but along with Motorhead, Rainbow and a few others they were helping keep metal and hard rock alive and they were huge influences on the New Wave of British heavy metal which was soon going to erupt.

Some interesting notes about this release was that it was produced by Deep Purple bass player Roger Glover who was trying to make a go at just producing at the time. The band was still struggling to maintain a solid drummer so they actually had to bring in (now legendary) session drummer Simon Phillips just to play on this album. This explains why the band photo on the album sleeve only shows four members. It was also Priest's first album for CBS, a relationship they would have until the early 1990's. It was also the last studio lp with the old logo as the next release Stained Class would see the debut of the logo that most of us are used to.