Judas Priest / YMMV

Archive Panic: 18 studio albums! Quite a lot for most Heavy Metal fans.
Audience-Alienating Era:
- The period with Ripper Owens as frontman turned away fans who prefer Rob Halford as the frontman.
- Turbo is often viewed in a negative light due to album involving the band experimenting with Hair Metal.
- Nostradamus was such a disappointment it almost spoiled Rob's return to the band. Doesn't help that it was K.K. Downing's last album with the band before departing.
Award Snub: Finally defied at the beginning of 2010, they won a Grammy!
Awesome Music: They now have a page.
Awesome Art:
- Opinions on Ram It Down as an album may be mixed, but there's no denying that it has ridiculously cool cover art◊.
- The legendary album art for Painkiller◊. It doesn't get much more metal than a metal angel on a dragon motorcycle with saws for wheels flying above a ruined city.
- The full cover art for Jugulator◊. The cropped version does not do it justice; the sight of the titular murder robot leaping out of the lava with that chilling Slasher Smile is about as metal as it gets.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The two-part song "Heavy Duty / Defenders of the Faith" starts out as an Intercourse with You song, then the lyrics abruptly switch to Heavy Meta.
Broken Base: While no one would say Redeemer of Souls was a bad album, fans are torn over whether it was a lukewarm album that retreaded too much familiar ground, or an improvement over their past 4 efforts that fit in with their best 80’s albums.
Critical Dissonance: Critics generally loved Redeemer of Souls and lauded it as the best work since Painkiller and an album that could stand on its own with their classics, while fans are generally more divisive towards it, with some who agreed it was one of their best, and others who saw it as "meh" overall. Averted with Firepower, as both critics and fans were generally able to agree on it being an excellent album.
Epic Riff: Considering that they’re hailed as the band which “Perfected Heavy Metal”, there’s naturally countless picks: “Painkiller”, "The Ripper", "Breaking the Law", “Victim of Changes”, “Dissident Aggressor”, “Electric Eye”, “Firepower”, “Rapid Fire”, “Exciter”, “Jawbreaker”, and about a billion others more than prove it.
Fan Nickname: The band are often called "Metal Gods" by fans, in reference to their song. Even though said song was about giant robots, the title for many fans reflects the band's genre and how they are revered.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Not that they were never popular in the UK and other areas, but they were and still are pretty popular in the United States, being the most commercially popular New Wave of British Heavy Metal (even though they aren't a NWOBHM band, as they formed in 1969) band there.
Growing the Beard: They started recording in 1974, but it wasn't until their second album (Sad Wings of Destiny, 1976) that they developed the metal sound that became their Signature Style, and it wasn't until their fourth album (Stained Class, 1978) that they progressed to speed metal.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- One cannot help but listen to "Brain Dead" and think of the Terri Schiavo case.
- "Electric Eye", in lieu of government surveillance programs in the early 21st century and alleged privacy by big websites such as Facebook and Google.
Hilarious in Hindsight: "Grinder" was already being read differently by listeners in light of Rob Halford's sexuality... Then in 2009 there was a popular social app targeted towards gay and bisexual men that happened to be called Grindr: If you mentally drop the "e" from the title drop, the song starts sounding like an endorsement of using the app to find sexual partners (i.e. "Grindr / looking for meat").
Mis-blamed: Tim "Ripper" Owens seems to get all the flack for Jugulator and Demolition simply due to the fact that he's not Rob Halford. This is pretty unfair considering it was Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing who wrote the albums, but, the fans needed someone to blame and Tim drew the short straw.
Narm:
- The 1998 version of "Rapid Fire" reaches new levels of absurdity with Ripper's over-the-top vocals.
BREATHING FIRE!
- The song "Abductors" from Jugulator could’ve been one of Priest’s scarier songs, but Ripper’s over-the-top Metal Scream comes off as comical and often clashes with the otherwise genuinely creepy instrumental. The fact that it sound like he’s saying "Oh Doctor" adds to the unintentional silliness.
Narm Charm: The lyrics to Painkiller are incredibly cheesy...and that’s why it’s awesome.
Older Than They Think: Many people believe Judas Priest is a NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) band like Iron Maiden or Motörhead, but they formed in 1969 which makes them one of the first metal bands like Black Sabbath. This is largely because they made it big during the NWOBHM era.
Once Original, Now Common: Many aspects of their music and stage performance seem incredibly clichéd — until you realise they are the ones who started those clichés in the first place. Because of this, while you'd be hard-pressed to find a metalhead who doesn't enjoy at least some of their music, many are left wondering what was so special about them.
Overshadowed by Controversy: Even today, "Better By You, Better Than Me" continues to be overshadowed by the infamous subliminal message trial. However, the case was dismissed, with the finding that any subliminal messages within the recording, should they actually exist, were not responsible for the men's suicides.
- Dave Holland had his fair share of both fans and detractors during his tenure with the band. Then he was convicted of sexually assaulting a mentally disabled teenager in 2004, and his reputation went down the toilet to the point where the band eliminated him from the credits when they released the 30th anniversary edition of British Steel in 2010. Though, they would pay tribute to him after his death in 2018.
Paranoia Fuel: "Electric Eye". The song is about a spy satellite, after all. The "I'm elected" line is even worse-while it could simply be dismissed as Lyrical Shoehorn, it raises some disturbing questions about the future society described in the song.
Replacement Scrappy:
- Tim ”Ripper” Owens faced this, replacing one of heavy metal’s most iconic vocalists, though most of the scorn is directed at the material itself, given that his vocal range was very close to Rob Halford’s.
- Dave Holland is looked down upon by certain fans for being more simplistic in approach compared to the drummers before and after him, though these days nobody wants to defend the guy after what he was convicted of.
- Generally averted with Scott Travis, their current drummer. Just listen to the opening of Painkiller and you’ll see why many fans prefer him over Dave Holland.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: After years of being the "inferior replacement" to Rob Halford, Tim "Ripper" Owens finally won his detractors over in 2021 when he joined K.K's Priest (K.K Downing's new band).
Signature Song: "Breaking the Law", "You've Got Another Thing Coming", or "Living After Midnight".
So Bad, It's Good:
- Much of their glam material, from the point of view of a fan of their heavier work.
- Their earliest Blues Rock output before they evolved to Heavy Metal has also drawn derision.
Special Effect Failure: When the guy in the "Another Thing Coming" video's head explodes, he's been very obviously replaced with a dummy.
Tough Act to Follow:
- Point of Entry had the unenviable task of following the seminal British Steel. While not bad, it did not exceed it. And then came Screaming for Vengeance, basically securing its place as the ignored middle child of their albums.
- Painkiller as well, with many fans and critics agreeing that Jugulator was too heavy and intense compared to their earlier work.
Vindicated by History:
- While Turbo was a smash hit commercially went it came out back in 1986, most fans hated it for its more glam metal sound. Nowadays, it is often regarded by many as one of their best, but still not without its detractors.
- Jugulator has gotten more of a postive reception from fans in recent years, and while the band are still unlikely to reissue it any time soon, it's clear that they have warmed up to it over time as some elements from the album can clearly be heard in 2018's Firepower. The same can't be said for the other Ripper era album Demolition, though.
Win Back the Crowd: Firepower. The fact of the matter is that none of their post-Halford reunion releases were particularly liked; Angel of Retribution was generally viewed as overly inconsistent and scattered (though most fans will say that it definitely has its high points), Nostradamus was considered to be the worst album of their career from the get-go and is still viewed as such, and Redeemer of Souls was, at best, viewed as a tepid retread of early 1980s Priest tropes (aside from "Halls of Valhalla", which most fans like). Firepower, on the other hand, made end-year lists left and right and was almost unanimously held as the first truly great Priest album since Painkiller. Invincible Shield appears to continue in this vein, with many fans and critics quickly declaring it Firepower’s equal.

YMMV / Judas Priest

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