Screaming For Vengeance Special

I'd probably give this a 4.5 if I could. Of course this is one of the greatest metal albums of all time and, for the music, easily 5 stars. But about anyone reading this knows that already. Now what this review should really look at is if the 30th Anniversary version is worth purchasing. The remaster here is mediocre at best. That's probably due to the source material. This ain't Pink Floyd here, it's metal, which means loud, distorted guitars and Rob Halford at his screaming best. It's meant to be cranked as loud as possible, to ear bleeding level, while the half drunk listener tries to scream along while playing air guitar. Comparing this to my CD I purchased in the '90's, there's a slight bit more stereo separation when listening to Electric Eye, but the main difference is they turned up the volume some, which makes it hard to compare the remaster quality. Definitely not a stark difference in the sound quality. If you aren't interested in the US Festival DVD I really don't see a compelling reason to buy this CD if you already have it. The packaging here is pretty sad unfortunately, especially compared to the Defenders of the Faith 30th Anniversary. CD and DVD are just in a typical single disc wide jewel case that has the swinging plastic insert with the 2 discs crammed into it. The discs are really hard to get out and the packaging is really fragile. The booklet has some writing by Eddie Trunk talking (of course) about how great the album. If you're reading the booklet, you already know that. Some different pictures than my previous CD. Oddly they changed the booklet to something that was completely different than the old CD, which had a design based on the original album. No lyrics like the original LP and CD, but you probably already know all the words. If not, you can easily look it up online. The booklet and packaging are not a good reason to buy this CD. The big difference here from the old CD is the DVD from the US Festival. Other bands, such as Triumph, have also released DVDs from this festival, and it's all the same type of video. Not a lot of camera angles and none of the fast moving camera switching of more modern concerts, which is actually a good thing. 4:3 video, not 16:9, but that's what it was recorded in. Audio is only LPCM stereo (no DD5.1) and sounds pretty good. The band is in prime form and appears to be having a great time, but I've never seen a Priest video where they're going thru the motions They are consummate performers, always giving their best. Concert is a bit short due to festival constraints. So, if you don't own this album, this CD gives you a lot of bang for the buck and should be the one you get. If you already have it, only buy it for the DVD. It's worth it for the price to see the DVD, but this edition could have been much more. Guess they're holding back something for the 2022 40th Anniversary, but they probably won't even sell CDs by then.

I can never tell what I'm supposed to be hearing with these "remasters" ~ I'm never impressed and that hasn't changed here either.. I mean it was already "digital quality" on the last release and unless you're going back and forth between the two I seriously doubt the human ear could really tell a lot of difference.. other than the fact this new edition is LOUDER. One thing the original pressing has over this is the fact the Hellion intro into Electric Eye was a lot more accurate.. Once you start Electric Eye on this newer version, you will hear more of the Hellion.. doesn't really matter to me but it seemed worth noting. The "bonus track" Prisoner Of Your Eyes doesn't do a lot for me and the live recordings are competent but --- The US Festival is why you should buy this. I had waited a LONG time to hear this and was buying it sight unheard in the hopes it would at least sound "serviceable"... but...I have never before heard a mix this good of a live show! (I use a simple lil Sony 5.1 in-a-box sound system) WOW!! It almost seems too balanced as though there may be some slight of hand going on but I doubt it. I was at this show, a young lad more interested in Ozzy than Priest in those days but wisdom has caught up to me. We lived nearby and came up the night before and slept on the hood of my sisters car.. and were treated to the best damn concert in history the following day (NOT Van Halen)!! NOBODY sells a song or is more vested in his music than Rob Halford, simply watch Metal Gods from this show and you'll know what I mean..Make no mistake, Judas Priest absolutely owned the US Festival, here is your proof ~ start buying.

In short: This is how great music is done and performed. These five guys are the nuts and bolts that form the best well-oiled super metal machine that ever existed. Yes we have Zep, and we have Black Sabbath, but JUDAS is just AMAZING-out of this world. Mr. Halford and the band are at their peak here, both, recording one of the greatest metal albums SFV and during their live show at US Festival. For all metal bands of today this cd/dvd package should be looked up as their bible, as the blue prints on how to be a great metal band. Mr. Halford and the band show here that you don't need special effects, fancy equipment, computers, pyro, ego, jumping and screaming your lungs out with no sense of melody to be a great band. Judas Priest screams not onlhy for vengeance, they show you how screaming is done with art. There will never be another band like Judas Priest in the metal world. Long Live JP. Thanks Judas Priest for being part of US Festival, and to the promoters for releasing this live DVD of such a historic day. (sigh). 4 more US Festival bands to be released. The price of this package is worth every penny and more, and the icing on the cake, great bonus tracks were added as well. Need to say more?

Iron Maiden’s Killers, Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, AC/DC’s Back in Black and Judas Priest Screaming For Vengeance were the albums that gave Heavy Metal the razor sharp sound to kick off the 80’s. Screaming For Vengeance is a must have if you love Heavy Metal. And this includes Priest’s Epic US Festival performance on DVD. Just buy it!!!!

I was at the US Festival 83 Heavy Metal Day and the line up was great, I had some favorite bands that I wanted to see and some of the bands I had only heard of -Judas Priest_ was a band I only heard of. I can still remember being towards the front of the stage and waiting to see what the band sounded like. Well as you can imagine, the sound of Judas Priest coming through a 50 foot stack of amps on the side of the stage was amazing, I remember thinking these guys Rock! and the sound of Halford's Harley blasting through those same amps actually made the ground in the park rumble, there was nothing like that. So after this CD/DVD reissue came out, the first thing I did was plug it into the DVD player to see how much of the concert I remembered and it was amazing to relive an event that I was at over 30 years ago. This DVD catches their performs "spot on". I just listened to the CD on the way home from work today and I have to admit that it has been many, many years, since I've listed to this album front to back, I have the greatest hits, but listening to the album today, I had forgotten how great all of the songs were. I'll be playing this cd for a while. My recommendation is; get it! They did crank up the volume but over all it's still pretty darn good. I would say that Defenders of the Faith is the one CD I was most disappointed in the remaster, they completely blew any sonic quality on that album. Screaming For Vengeance holds its own pretty well on the sonic end. I've heard better remasters, but this one is a 7 or 8 on the 1 to 10 scale.

For those of you interested in the remastered cd, there's ZERO doubt that the older CK version is much better. I think anyone who compares the two would agree. The new remaster, which I'm guessing is the same version as the recent remastering of the whole Priest catalog, has no warmth, screeches and misses all of the subtlety (I know strange word when talking about Priest) of the original. You can hear the difference right at the beginning of Riding on the Wind". The drums on the older version have that richness we all love. The newer remaster is scratchy and lacks punch... BUT... THE DVD IS AMAZING! To see Priest in 1983 rocking in the California foothills will take you back to that place you were a long time ago. I was 17 and saw them on that tour. Halford's voice is stunning and the mix is great. Back then I had a British Steel silk screen, all the previous albums and went out the day it was released to buy Screaming For Vengeance. The second my friend Phil and I put it on the turntable we knew Priest had outdone themselves. The live set on this release is worth it. Buy this.... Be disappointed by the cd and find an early version but LOVE THE DVD!

This is indeed a landmark Metal album, every song on here is a winner and I mean EVERY song! It's rare that a album doesn't contain the hit(s) you want and the rest filler but this album can never be accused of having just one or two great songs and the rest, filler to fill up the album. From top to bottom this is a class album in terms of songwriting and musicianship. What's ironic is in todays times, Judas Priest wouldn't even be considered "Heavy Metal" by todays Metal fans, most likely it would be labeled "Hard Rock", especially with the Metal music out today. That's alright different strokes for different folks, I guess todays kids who are into Metal have a whole different defintion of what it is than we did when we were young and listening to Priest,this is the way the world works I guess. Halford is at his best here, so are the band,and that's a strong thing to come out and say since he has made some classic Priest albums in his career with them,but I feel this will prove to be his strongest work when you look at Judas Priests career in retrospect. It's nice that this is remastered with a DVD and special linear notes and extra cuts on the album. What I don't understand is how come a album such as ""Sad Wings of Destiny" didn't get the "30th Anniversay Remastered Special Edition" treatment too. It's been more than 30 years since that was released but for some reason that album which is also a landmark Priest album isn't released in a "30th Anniversary" edition yet. Maybe they're working on it, I don't know but I'm disappointed as of now that there's no special re-release of that album. Well until that does come to pass one day (hopefully) we have this to tide us over and from start to finish this is Judas Priest most enjoyable albums ever. Listen responsibly and enjoy!

Screaming for Vengeance 30th Anniversary has a little more to offer than British Steel did, they didn't do an anniversary tour like they did for British Steel, but they added the 1983 US Festival Tour for the first time to DVD, that's a huge plus there, and the included the 2002 remastered album and added rare live tracks as well. British Steel is where they boost for the 80's mainstream metal, and Screaming For Vengeance boost even higher Its too bad that the 1981 album "Point of Entry" didn't get a 30th Anniversary, i mean i know it wasn't that much on par with the other two albums when it comes to metal, but i still think all three of those albums deserve the equal respect, when it comes to music videos, Point of Entry did three, British Steel did two, and Screaming for Vengeance did one. Well i think you priest fans get the point. I hope they make an anniversary of "Defenders of the Faith" and "Turbo". Well above like the Anniversary album of British Steel, if your a Priset fan, i totally recommend Screaming for Vengeance anniversary album. One of best albums of 1982 (the year i was born)!

Un commentaire sur le DVD uniquement, car pour l'album tout vieux fan sait de quoi il retourne. Cette édition nous offre le DVD du concert du 29 mai 1983 à San Bernardineau. 1 heure environ de l'époque bénie que l'on peut voir sur YouTube depuis longtemps, dont certains maxi 45tours avaient été tirés déjà en 1983 ( notamment un "You've got another thing comming" qui m'avait estomaqué à l'époque). Le bonheur de retrouver le Priest qui nous enchantait, résumé sur le visage de Rob Alford : il sourit!! Parce que c'était avant que le métal ne devienne black, durcit par les hordes de Metallica, Slayer, Megadeath. Notez que j'ai vécu pleinement et avec plaisir ce virage mais constatant aussi que pour Judas Priest plus rien ne serait comme en 82-83 : sur la tournée de 1986 Halford ne souriait plus, souvent dos au public. En contrepoint d'une musique puissante et violente, Judas Priest savait garder une distance, prendre et donner de la joie. Halford, aux gimmicks théâtraux, aidé de ambiguïté sexuelle, savait jouer avec les limites du ridicule. Le concert de 1982 dispo aussi en DVD était déjà du même acabit mais ici on a en plus une performance qui débute en arrière scène montrant le groupe se préparer alors que la sono crache l’irremplaçable ouverture de The Hellion, on a une acceptable qualité d'image qui passe assez bien sur un écran de 2 m de base, seuls les plans éloignés souffrant d'un manque de définition gênant, en 16/9 et un mix-son 5.1 de bonne qualité. En 83 nous n'avions pas vu Judas Priest en France, le groupe était je crois accaparé par un succès aux USA dont ce concert montre le point d'orgue. Ils nous étaient revenus le 11 février 1984 à Paris avec les mêmes sourires d'Halford pour un concert dont je garde le souvenir ému. Le 9 février ont avait eu Venom et Metallica pour leur arrivée en France au même endroit, sous le même chapiteau de l'espace Balard : la horde dépressive était aux trousses de nos joyeux héros.

Che dire di questo album datato 1982 ? Semplicemente che è l'heavy metal ! Partendo dall'epica "Electric Eye" (introdotta dallo strumentale "The Hellion") passando per la veloce "Riding On The Wind" fino ad altre perle come "Bloodstone", "Fever", "Devil's Child", "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" (il loro più grande successo in America) nonchè l'esplosiva "title-track" questo album, prodotto ancora una volta da Tom Allom è un concentrato di puro metallo pesante ed il giusto punto di partenza per avviarsi alla discografia dei Judas Priest (non a caso fu il loro primo album che acquistai, nel lontano 1997). Non ascoltate chi vi indirizza verso "Painkiller" se non possedete ancora questa registrazione : questo disco è la quintessenza del gruppo di Birmingham ! E c'è un motivo se, a tutt'oggi, è ancora il loro album più venduto. Questa edizione del trentesimo anniversario è impreziosita da cinque pezzi "live", dall'inedita e meravigliosa "Prisoner Of Your Eyes" e da un DVD comprendente la performance allo US Festival di San Bernardino del 1983. Una versione quindi da non perdere, magari accompagnata dal DVD "Live Vengeance '82" filmato a Memphis : a tutt'oggi il live definitivo dei Priest.

Having been a Priest fan since Sad Wings of Destiny way back in the Day and having brought most of their music in one form or another since then i had for whatever reason failed to pick up this new remaster with live DVD from 1983. So when it was advertised for the knock down price of £4.99 i just had to get it. What a great Show from 1983.The sounds terrific and camera shots brilliant considering its 30 years old. Whats good too,is that its filmed in brilliant sunlight as against an evening with a light show like every other band now days. You can see the sweat on Rob Halford dropping off in time with the riffs as they pound out classic after classic. All in all with the album and bonus tracks this is a 100% must have.Get your money out quick and order.

Wow

"Turbo" wurde ja stark kritisiert, also ich mag das Album, "Ram it down" und "Painkiller" sind gute Alben, aber meine favorisierte Zeit von Judas Priest ist eigentlich alles bis zu "Defenders of the faith". Auch die Frühwerke wie "Sad Wings of Destiny" und "Sin after Sin" verehre ich, für mich ist Judas Priest halt dieser klassische New Wave of British Heavy Metal und nicht ultraharte Double-Bass-Drum-Eskapaden. Mein Einstieg mit Judas Priest war damals ein 3 CD-Bundle mit "British Steel", "Screaming for Vengeance" und "Ram it down" die es zusammen zum günstigen Preis gab. Noch keine Remastered Editions, sondern die Erstauflagen. Als bestes Judas Priest Alben nennen die Meisten "British Steel" oder "Painkiller", für mich ist es "Screaming for Vengeance". "British Steel" ist wohl meine Nummer 2, ebenfalls grandios, aber diese Scheibe fand ich von Beginn an noch einen Tick besser. Was Viele auch nicht wissen, "Screaming for Vengeance" ist das erfolgreichste Album und verkaufte sich über 5 Millionen mal, eine Nummer für Heavy Metal Verhältnisse. Während "British Steel" der ganz große Durchbruch in Europa war, schafften sie erst mit "Screaming for Vengeance" den ganz großen Durchbruch in Nordamerika. Es gibt nur gute Songs und Hammer-Songs auf dem Album. Der Titeltrack ist ein Hammer-Song, unglaublich heavy für diese Zeit. Das Intro "The Hellion", der Hauptsong "Evil Eye" ist ein Metal Song mit toller Gesangmelodie, die man mitsingen muss. "Riding on the Wind" toppt das im Anschluss sogar nochmals. Kein Wunder werden diese 2 (mit Intro 3) Songs von Judas Priest gerne live gespielt. "(Take these) Chains" ist hart im Rhythmus, gesanglich schon eine eingänige Stadionrock-Hymne, Rob Halford, sowieso die beste Stimme des Heavy Metals. Bei "Pain and Pleasure" erinnert micht der Stil gar ein wenig an David Bowie. Und so ein ganz simpler, dennoch grandioser Song, im Schlag von "Hell bent for Leather" und "Breaking the Law" gibt es auch, "You've got another Thing coming" heißt dieses Highlight. Aber das ganze Album glänzt durch die hervorstechenden Gitarren von K. K. Downing und Glen Tipton, aber auch Bassist Ian Hill am Bass und Dave Holland am Schlagzeug spielen zwar eher dienlich als vordergründig, aber der Rhytmus fetzt. Und Rob Halford, hab es ja schon erwähnt. Göttlich, wie immer. Nun stellt sich natürlich die Frage, weshalb kauft er sich das Album nochmals. Berechtigt. Also auf der CD befinden sich neben 5 Live-Tracks noch den Song "Prisoner of pour Eyes" als Bonus. Aber das war nicht der Grund, auch wenn dieser über 7 Minuten Song wirklich Weltklasse ist. Nö, auf der 30th Anniversary Edition befindet sich eine ne Bonus DVD mit dem kompletten Auftritt beim San Bernadino Festival im Rahmen der "Screaming for Vengeance". Nicht das beste Bild, Ton Stereo, aber hey: Wen juckt das im Genuss eines Konzertes von 1983, da ist man froh, wenn sowas überhaupt veröffentlicht wird und zumindest der Sound einwanfrei ist. Ich bevorzuge da ja sowieso eher Stereo als Surround, 5.1., Atmos und all dem anderen Gepfusche, dass hier für mich auch nicht authentisch wäre. Es ist auch ein Best Of Programm bis zu diesem Album, es werden auch Songs wie "Breaking the Law", "Victim of Changes" und die unverzichtbare Cover-Version von "Diamonds and Rust" gespielt. Und die Live-Performance von Judas Priest ist ja noch heute Hammer!