Judas Priest - Stained Class

An indisputable metal masterpiece, Stained Class is the apex of '70s Judas Priest, a sinister, muscular collection that ties the disparate strands of their style together while jacking the adrenaline rush up to previously undreamed-of levels. Even the lone slow-tempo track, "Beyond the Realms of Death," has an exciting, visceral intensity, and the whole band is at the absolute peak of its powers in terms of technical execution. Lyrically, Stained Class is probably the darkest moment in a career filled with them; the whole second half of the record is positively obsessed with death (although the ridiculous 1989-1990 court case alleging that the album provoked two Nevada teenagers' suicides was instead centered around the Gary Wright/Spooky Tooth cover "Better by You, Better Than Me," in which Rob Halford allegedly embedded the subliminal, backward-recorded message, "Do it"). Read More