I had pre-ordered this album at the local record store, and came home from work one day to find my mother had picked it up for me. Having done the usual post-work things I took it to my room and put it on and, as I am sure occurred to almost every person who has listened to this album, was completely blown away by the opening drum fill from new Priest drummer Scott Travis. Having heard Scott’s previous work with Racer X it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but that opening is still as brilliant today as it was back on this first listen, especially when guitar scream comes in over the top, before the song descends into the opening riff chords. Everything you need to know about the album Painkiller comes in the opening fifteen seconds of the title track “Painkiller”.
What brought about this ‘revival’ in the band and its music? Was it really a revival? There were plenty of fast and hard tracks on the previous album Ram It Down along with a toning down of the keyboard and synth side of the recordings, something that makes a return in bigger and more bold direction here. No doubt the addition of Travis on drums kindles something that Dave Holland did not. Holland’s drumming was always precision and timing and certainly never detracted from the music. Probably the difference here, as is evident from the opening of the album, is that Travis adds to the music and songs and isn’t just a part of the furniture. It doesn’t just hold the rhythm, it becomes a bigger part of the picture, and this alone does make a difference in the songs produced. The other factor changed here is the re-emergence of Chris Tsangaridis as producer, replacing Tom Allom who had produced every Judas Priest album since Killing Machine. Was his presence alone enough to create the changes that came with this album? Probably not, but the fact that he gave a fresh air of advice along with his success in recent times with many other bands and artists surely added to the changes that came with the writing and recording of Painkiller.
What we got here was a mashing and melding of all of the greatest parts of Judas Priest, and then amplified beyond the normal. There is aggression in the lyrics and the vocals, there is fire in the guitars and bass, and there is speed and double kick to an extreme in the drums. Rob Halford’s vocals, often dormant in regards to his higher range over some albums, are at their most damaging here, so much so that it makes it almost impossible to sing along with him throughout this album. When Rob is reaching for the ceiling you know every effort is going into the song and it brings the roof down. The added power of the drumming of Travis gives these songs a greater punch, and harder and faster feeling than they would without it. Ian Hill’s bass is at its best too, providing the big bottom end that highlights the riffs it is backing while exerting its own rumbling influence over them, especially in songs like “All Guns Blazing” and “A Touch of Evil”. Through it all, the magic of the twin guitars of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton rule all. The melodic interludes that then get ripped apart by their blazing and blistering solos are the culmination of years of brilliant songs and writing.
Everything here is a triumph. Those faster and heavier songs such as “Painkiller”, “All Guns Blazing”, “Leather Rebel” and “Between the Hammer and the Anvil” are complemented perfectly by the slightly less speed influenced but more heavy groove influenced “Hell Patrol”, “Metal Meltdown”, “Night Crawler” and “One Shot at Glory”, while the moody brilliance of “A Touch of Evil” is still perhaps the show stealer it always threatened to be, the one slight change in appearance that could well have been the benchmark of future writing sessions had the future panned out differently. There is not a weak song here. Everything clips together perfectly, segueing from one brilliant track to the next, exhorting you to sing, chant or scream along in unison while frantically playing those air guitars to a standstill.
This album defined for me where metal was heading back in 1990. Along with those other brilliant albums from the same year, it felt as though this was going to be the new direction that heavy metal was going to take, the morphing of heavy and thrash and speed metal into a monster that bands like Priest, Megadeth and Slayer could paint the decade of the 1990’s with. Of course it all became a final shot at glory, as Priest had almost predicted with their closing track. Grunge had taken seed, and Metallica would further commercialise the genre with the release of Metallica the following year, and bands began to change their sound away from this magnificence to something… less magnificent. Judas Priest of course went on a lengthy sabbatical after this tour, with Rob Halford leaving the band for other ventures, and what should have been the album that provided the springboard to further greatness for the band instead became a lasting monument to their memory and legacy instead, and for a long time looked as though it would be their final chapter. All in all, it would not have been a bad way to bow out.
Rating: “One shot at glory, in the crossfire overhead, fate stands before me, words have all been said.” 5/5
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