Judas Priest – Painkiller (1990)

October 28, 2023

At the time of writing I’ve yet to have the pleasure of hearing every single Priest album, but I’ve heard enough so far to comfortably say that Painkiller is my favourite by a long shot. That isn’t to say that I dislike the other material, but there’s something about Painkiller, like it is some sort of perfect culmunation of the band’s sound up and to that point distilled into one LP. I really wish Halford hadn’t quit and we had more albums in this style (yes I know about Turbo and Ram It Down I just will wonder forever what could have come afterward).

This thing is stacked with powerhouse metallic tunage, and whilst I’m not super fussed on the closing trio of songs I honestly don’t think there’s a bad song on this album. Scott Travis feels like an injection of new energy into the band with his double kicks and huge drum sound. I was going to write something about the opening tracks just being banger after banger after banger but let’s be honest, this thing doesn’t relent all the way to the end of track 7, “Between The Hammer & The Anvil”.

My three year old son seems to enjoy this too (plus he loves the album cover) so this gets bonus points for that haha.