CD Odyssey Disc 424: Judas Priest

It’s been a long day at the office, and I’m ready to have a little decompression time watching the Olympics with Sheila.  Before I get there though, the CD Odyssey has to exact its usual musical price, however, with the latest randomly selected album to review.

Disc 424 is…Point of Entry

Artist: Judas Priest

Year of Release: 1981

What’s up with the Cover?  It’s the second cover in a row featuring a road.  This one is a bit more high-tech (at least for the time) with that early computer art we’ve all since learned to loathe.  I know I loathe it.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me drilling through the Judas Priest collection in recent years.  I came to “Point of Entry” fairly late – definitely in the last five years or so.

How It Stacks Up:  I have twelve Judas Priest albums, and for the most part they are excellent.  With apologies to my buddy Ross, I’ll put “Point of Entry” at 11^th or 12^th, depending on how charitable I am feeling toward 2008’s rather bloated double album “Nostradamus” at the time.

Rating: 2 stars

There are very few bands that can pump out ten or more records and not deliver at least one weak link.  Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, - hell, even my idols Blue Oyster Cult have done it.  And so it happened to the great Judas Priest as well, with “Point of Entry.”

What is surprising is that “Point of Entry” is chronologically situated between two Priest classics, 1980’s masterpiece “British Steel” and “Screaming for Vengeance” which in addition to being excellent is the first album ever reviewed for the Odyssey (you'll note I was a lot less verbose in those days).

When I reviewed “British Steel” I said it was the perfect melding of melodic classic rock, and pounding metal.  “Point of Entry” is the same blend, but somehow the formula is all wrong.

The record is still inspired, deep down, by proto-blues fifties guitar riffs.  Double lead players Glen Tipton and K.K. Dowling still show their seemingly bottomless talent for writing these things and making it look easy.  Even Rob Halford is still a resplendent vocalist when in full throat.  Despite this, the songs seem patched together, particularly the pedestrian choruses on a lot of these tracks.  “Hot Rockin’” is a prime example, starting off promising with a Chuck Berry-inspired guitar riff (plus steroids) but then descending into a truly forgettable chorus of “I’m gonna go/I wanna go/I’m gonna go/Hot rockin’.”  And it isn’t the lyrics that wreck it (although they are self-evidently awful) the hook just isn’t much of a hook, and even a good guitar riff can’t save the song.

In places, this album’s production and composition had me wondering if Priest had been unduly influenced by the rise in popularity of the hard rock stadium bands of the late seventies and early eighties, particularly on the very forgettable “Don’t Go.”  Priest is better than that, and by descending to that level they lose their unique sound, and instead sound like they’re trying too hard to be like everybody else.

There are still some bright spots on this record.  For example, in the middle of an otherwise pedestrian song like “Turning Circles” there is a fine rock-blues guitar solo that would make Buck Dharma proud.

Also, when they do recapture the alchemy of their sound, it is electrifying as ever.  The opening track, “Heading Out On the Highway” is vintage early Priest, with unison singing, top line guitar riffs and a general sound that says ‘drive fast and live free’ – the message every metal album must deliver well if it wants to be serious.

“Solar Angels” mixes this early sound with the heavy anthemic qualities I’d first learn to love as a fourteen year old on “Defenders of the Faith” and is good to have probably made the cut on that killer record.

Rob Halford’s lyrics are at their dirty best on “All the Way” and “Troubleshooter” although only the latter really inspired me musically.

Unfortunately, the high spots on this album aren’t frequent enough to pull the whole record up.  Even the bonus tracks (a live version of “Desert Plains” and an early composition called “Thunder Road” – no relation to Springsteen) were weak entries on the extra material front.

This isn’t a bad album, and no doubt I’m holding it to a higher standard because of how much I absolutely love Priest’s other works to this point (for proof just read the reviews I've linked to in this review).  Still, I can’t deny that "Point of Entry" left me wanting more.  As Bad Santa teaches us, “they can’t all be winners, kid.

Best tracks:  Heading out on the Highway, Solar Angels, Troubleshooter.