Thursday, June 11, 2015

Throwback Thursday: Unleashed in the East, by Judas Priest

 

In 1979 metal band Judas Priest put out their very first "live" album titled Unleashed in the East while out on the Hellbent For Leather tour. I put live in quotations because all of Rob Halford's vocals were recorded in a concert-like setting in the studio due to the actual live recording of his vocals getting garbled up for some reason. However, Halford has said in interviews over the years that while his vocals were done in a studio the rest of the music was from the night of the concert at Kosei Nenkin Hall and Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo, Japan.

Unleashed in the East features songs from many of the band's albums that had been released up until 1979, though quite a few were from Hellbent For Leather due to that being the album they were touring for. The guitar sound is much cleaner and packs more of a punch than the studio versions, which in my opinion makes them far superior. Halford also despite being in the studio to record his vocals gave a very powerful performance. If you didn't know any better you really would think he was doing it live.

Unleashed in the East has an absolutely kick-ass version of Running Wild. The cleaner production and the live energy absolutely supercharges this riprunning rocker. You can tell that Judas Priest were at the absolute top of their game when they recorded this performance. The guitar solos by K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton are far superior to the ones on the studio version of the track. It kind of makes you want to just step on the gas and feel the wind blow across your face in the night air out on the highway. It's hard not to feel invincible when jamming this metal classic.

The Green Manalishi With the Two Pronged Crown in my opinion is one of the crowning jewels (no pun intended) of this album. In this Fleetwood Mac cover Halford puts some serious balls into his vocal performance on this. The way he gets his voice so high while doing the melody of the song in the interlude is absolutely haunting. It will make the hairs on your arms and neck stand up without a doubt. Plus, you can definitely tell that there was little to no studio doctoring on it whatsoever (especially since it was 1979 and autotune wasn't a thing yet).

Despite some of the studio recording that had to be done Unleashed in the East is by far one of the best live metal albums ever released. It is high octane pulse pounding hair raising music that will not leave your memory any time soon. It is everything you would want a metal show to be: punchy riffs, flashy solos, powerful vocals, and so much more. You really do almost feel like you are at the show when playing this record. I honestly don't think there is any higher praise a live album can get than that.

Unleashed in the East, by Judas Priest receives 5 out of 5 stars.

Track List:

1. Exciter
2. Running Wild
3. Sinner
4. The Ripper
5. The Green Manalish with the Two Pronged Crown
6. Diamonds and Rust
7. Victim of Changes
8. Genocide
9. Tyrant
10. Rock Forever (bonus track)
11. Delivering the Goods (bonus track)
12. Hellbent For Leather (bonus track)
13. Starbreaker (bonus track)

Buy the album on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Unleashed-East-Judas-Priest/dp/B00SDB20ZG/ref=tmm_msc_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1434083789

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