Painkiller is a 1990 gold-certifed album by British heavy metal band
Judas Priest. The album was recorded at Miraval Studios, Brignoles, France in early 1990, and mixed at Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum, the Netherlands later that year. It was the first album with
current drummer Scott Travis. The original LP,
cassette and CD versions were released on
September 3, 1990. A re-mastered CD was released in May 2001. The album received a Grammy
nomination for Best Metal Performance at the February 20, 1991 33rd Annual Grammy
Awards.
Following the poor sales of the album Ram it Down, which was itself an attempt at
reconciling with the public over the perceived sellout, Turbo, Judas
Priest returned to their classic '70s style, while borrowing contemporary speed metal
techniques, resulting in their most critically acclaimed album in a decade. The album is viewed by some as the quintessential
speed metal album and the style proved highly influential to European power metal bands such
as Gamma Ray and Primal Fear.
Following the tour for this album, singer Rob Halford left the band and maintained little
contact with his former bandmates throughout the 1990s. The reason for this was due to growing tension in the band, although not,
as popularly attributed, because of Halford's homosexuality. During the Painkiller
tour in Toronto, Halford crashed his trademark Harley-Davidson motorcycle onstage, which became
the catalyst for their break-up. Halford wanted to create his new band, Fight, and had to
legally leave the band to allow his creation to be sold. Judas Priest declared that they did not exist anymore after Halford had
left. They reunited in a few years, with singer Tim 'Ripper' Owens, with
whom they soon recorded the album Jugulator.
In May 2006, In Metal Hammer's top 20 Albums of all time, Painkiller came in at Number 13.
The Painkiller
The Painkiller itself is one of a series of fictional messiahs created by Judas Priest. The Painkiller is described as
a metal messiah sent to the world to destroy evil and rescue mankind from destruction . The Painkiller is believed to be inspired
by the fallen angel from the Sad Wings of Destiny album cover that Judas
Priest recorded early in their musical years.
The most noticeable feature of the Painkiller, besides his metal body is that he rides the metal monster; a motorcycle with a
dragon for the chassis and two circular saws for wheels.
Track listing
All songs written by Rob Halford, K.K. Downing and
Glenn Tipton, except where noted.
- "Painkiller" – 6:06
- "Hell Patrol" – 3:37
- "All Guns Blazing" – 3:58
- "Leather Rebel" – 3:35
- "Metal Meltdown" – 4:48
- "Night Crawler" – 5:45
- "Between the Hammer & the Anvil" – 4:49
- "A Touch of Evil" (Halford, Downing, Tipton, Chris Tsangarides) – 5:45
- "Battle Hymn" – 0:58
- "One Shot at Glory" – 6:49
2001 Bonus Tracks
- "Living Bad Dreams" – 5:21
- "Leather Rebel" (Live) – 3:39
Miscellanea
- The song "Painkiller" was covered by the American death metal band Death on their album The Sound of Perseverance,
along with Brazilian power metal band Angra and
Spanish band Saratoga.
- The heavy metal band Krokus released an
album of the same name in 1978.
- Videos were made for both singles, Painkiller and A Touch Of Evil.
- There is a Greek Symphonic metal band called Hell Patrol, which is the second song on this album
Personnel
External link
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