ORIGINAL MASTER RECORDING

JUDAS PRIEST
SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE


MOFI 1-038
120 gram Silver Series Audiophile LP


MOFI 1-038 Cover Mastered on Mobile Fidelity's World-Renowned Mastering System and Pressed at RTI

Gain 2 Ultra Analog Logo This Double-Platinum 1982 Blockbuster Remains Judas Priest's Most Commercially Successful LP

You've got another thing comin'!   Distinguished by dual magnesium-burn guitars, leather-tough percussion, molten-hot melodies, and the unmistakable piercing falsetto of operatic vocalist, Screaming for Vengeance became the soundtrack to millions of music lovers' lives in the early 1980s as Judas Priest continued to lay waste to its contemporaries' softer, cheesier hard-rock styles.   An effort on which precision-based speed, mainstream accessibility, and resilient attitude meet in triangular equilibrium, the 1982 set remains the British metal legends' top-selling record.

Staked by the breakout “You've Got Another Thing Comin',” which burns white-hot with foot-pounding riffs, prize-fighting percussion, and singer Rob Halford's gun-for-hire blare, Screaming for Vengeance clutches hold of the jugular and doesn't let go.   A return to the band's gritty, purist roots, the record revisits the themes of darkness, menace, and the unknown firmly established on the pioneering Stained Class and Killing Machine.   Along with those albums, and British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance is the template for the catchy albeit uncompromisingly heavy crossover success Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax enjoyed years later.

With the one-two opening tandem of the instrumental “The Hellion“ and stomping “Electric Eye,” overseen by Halford as if he's embodying the persona of a wicked James Bond villain, Priest sounds utterly futuristic and terrifying, the instruments seemingly on a swivel and the sawed-off tones flooding the guitar solos with intimidation.   A classic head-out-to-the highway anthem (“Riding on the Wind”), a racing proto-thrash banger (“Screaming for Vengeance”), and a scorching exorcism (“Devil's Child”) function as the metal-hued bolts that hold the foundations of this Top 20-charting benchmark in place.

Perhaps more so here than on any other record, Priest spit-shines hooks and collusive six-string harmonic leads to perfection, giving listeners yin-yang doses of pain and pleasure, sweet and bitter.   Songs at once invite sing-a-longs and fist-pumping responses. Screaming for Vengeance marked the last time Priest would sound this heavy in the 80s.   No wonder it was voted the 12th best metal album of all time in Martin Popoff's definitive book of the same name.

Side 1.
1. The Hellion
2. Electric Eye
3. Riding on the Wind
4. Bloodstone
5. (Take These) Chains
6. Pain and Pleasure

Side 2.
1. Screaming for Vengeance
2. You've Got Another Thing Comin'
3. Fever
4. Devil's Child


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