It is generally accepted that for their follow up album, the band’s label was hoping to build upon the commercial success the band had begun to achieve, and that they encouraged the band to write an album full of songs that would be similar to those that had brought chart success over the previous two albums. It is also true that following the minimalistic way that the band had approached the recording of the “British Steel” album, that they were hoping to explore their own creativity more on their follow up album, bringing a more melodic element to their music to combine with the more straight forward hard rock elements that had come with “British Steel”. The band recorded the album at Ibiza Studios in Spain, and was almost all completely written in the studio, which was a change for the band who would usually have written the majority of the songs for a new album prior to entering the studio.
One of the interesting things I found when it came to researching this episode is the general lack of interviews and quotes from the label, the producer Tom Allom and the band themselves ABOUT this album, how they went about writing it, and what they thought of the album then and what they think of it now. You can find dozens of articles and interviews about “British Steel” and the follow up to this album “Screaming for Vengeance”. In many ways, that perhaps speaks more about “Point of Entry” than anything else could.
The opening track of a Judas Priest album is often the one that defines it. Think about the truly great Judas Priest albums, and the opening song is one that sets the tone for what follows and is considered to be a classic in its own right. And “Point of Entry” does actually open up that way, with “Heading Out to the Highway” being that calibre of song. It doesn’t have the out and out speedy tempo of some of those other tracks, but it opens with that recognisable guitar riff and Halford’s determined forceful vocal that then draws the anthemic qualities once he reaches the chorus. It is a more subdued arrangement than one might imagine from the band, and that is an indication of what is to follow with the way the album was being directed. It still ranks as one of their best known songs. What is more curious is that it was the third single released from the album, especially when the first two single are the next two songs on the album. “Don’t Go” has the slow, staccato stop/start tempo to it, based on the drums and bass guitar, one that sounds as though it is aiming for a crowd chant or participation of some sort, a structure that doesn’t really work here. What are the qualities of this song that led the record company to believe it was a single? I’ve never worked that out. This is followed by the opening single release of “Hot Rockin’” Now HERE is a song that sounds as though it was composed solely for the purpose of being released as a radio friendly single. The more up-tempo vibe about the track, the energetic pace, and Rob’s vocals matching that enthusiasm chanting the ‘hot rockin’ lyrics, all encasing the guitar solos from Downing and Tipton that offer a fairly comprehensive showcasing of al of the best parts of Judas Priest. Except, it is a fairly bland and lame boxing of those elements. It’s okay but it isn’t exceptional. These two songs were no “Living After Midnight” or “Breaking the Law”.
“Turning Circles” fits the concept and structure that the band was utilising here for this album, but in doing so is really quite bland. Even the solo breakdown in the middle of the track seems misplaced, more of an early Judas Priest sound than the more modern the band had progressed through the albums since. This could easily have come off “Rocka Rolla”, but not in a positive way. I guess the chorus of the song is quite apt - “I’m turning circles, so stay away, We’ve all got something wrong to say”. We have indeed Rob. And yet, a similar mood exists in the following song, the one that closes out side A of the album, but it does so in a much more convincing and enjoyable fashion. “Desert Plains” is a moody song that opens in its quiet fashion, and yet it is a slow burn build throughout the track, the rhythm gradually building up, Rob’s vocals increase with power. We reach the middle solos which also add to the perpetually of the track, with Dave Holland’s drumming and Ian Hill’s bass guitar coming to the fore and being the driving engine. The constant build of the track is also imperceptable, and yet that is the beauty of the song. All of this results in arguably the star attraction of the album.
The second side opens with “Solar Angels”, and you will never be able to convince me otherwise that this was not an effort to cash in on one of the previous album’s biggest and best songs, “Metal Gods”. The opening to this track is more or less a small shift from that riff and progression, so much so that I begin to sing the lyrics to “Metal Gods” almost every time I hear the intro to this song. Here again though, the song barely gets out of second gear. It’s a very slow tempo throughout, it moves along at a snail's pace and has trouble offering much that brings this to the fore of the album.
As for the back half of this album, it too has several problems that do not seem to have been thought out by the band during the sessions to record this album. “You Say Yes” shifts ominously between a jaunty blues verse and chorus before another moody breakdown in the middle of the track that then builds back to some noisy energy and reverts back to the same formula as the front half of the song. It’s very clunky. Then comes what I consider to be Judas Priest’s Van Halen medley, three songs that sound as though they could either have Roth on vocals or Van Halen on guitar, such is the rhythm of the riff and the way the vocals come out. “All the Way” is the main perpetrator of this, the sound at the beginning of the song is very reminiscent of that band, and the lyrics don’t help much later on. The chorus vocals on “Troubleshooter” sounds as though they were designed for Roth and Michael Anthony to cry away to while both jump around the stage like overblown teenagers. And “On the Run” completes the album i the same way. All I can see in my mind when I hear this sing is Van Halen on stage, and tight spandex outfits and jumping around and the song being played in a fun atmosphere. And it comes across that way on the album too – it's just that I don’t often imagine Judas Priest as that kind of band. It doesn’t fit with my image, and overall, that’s what the album feels like too.
My introduction to Judas Priest came in my final years of high school, when my Heavy Metal Music Dealer recorded the first side of their live album “Unleashed in the East” for me at the end of another album he was putting on cassette for me. And yes, that was surely the most awesome way to be introduced to Judas Priest. Then followed the videos on “Rage”, such as “Freewheel Burning” and “Turbo Lover” and “Breaking the Law”, and I was immediately on board.
When it came to this album however, that was a longer journey. I think I had collected just about every other album that existed to that point in time before I got “Point of Entry”. I knew “Heading Out to the Highway” but that was it, as I bought all the other albums from the 1980’s along with “Stained Class” and “Killing Machine”, while this one hung on the vine. It was mostly just availability in the record stores I walked into. I don’t recall seeing “Point of Entry” anywhere during those years. Eventually, it came to pass that I bought it on CD, and so was the grand unveiling, the first listen to this Judas Priest album, that I assumed would be brilliant. And that was not what I got. I got an album that had some okay songs on it, but a lot that I wasn’t jumping out of my skin about. It didn’t have the hooks that pretty much every other Judas Priest album offered me. Disappointed would be an accurate description of my feelings about the album in those days. I still listened to it sporadically but usually in an effort to find what perhaps I had been missing on all of those other listens.
About fifteen years ago, for my blog that is also called “Music from a Lifetime”, I went through and reviewed every Judas Priest album, pretty much following the formula I now use for this podcast, putting on the album and listening to it multiple times to asset my true feelings for it and then offering them up in print. And it was during that period that I discovered a different appreciation for it. On heavy rotation during that time, I was able to... find a place for it in my listening heart. I wrote at that time that when I put the album on and turned it up LOUD, it actually worked far better for me than if I just had it on at a ‘normal’ volume. That probably works for most albums, but I did say at the time that that did improve it for me.
This week, I have brought out “Point of Entry” again for its turn in the rotation. It isn’t an album I play often still. There are a lot of better Judas Priest albums on offer. And my opinion largely hasn’t changed. This album has its niche, and moments of songs here do adhere to what the band has advertised they were hoping to achieve when composing this album. It isn’t as regimented as “British Steel” and it doesn’t have the speed or upward energy of “Screaming for Vengeance”, and in places it has an easy listening feel to some of the songs, certainly in relation to previous albums. In fact, “Point of Entry” is quite unique in the Judas Priest discography, because although their stated claim was to write for commercial success it didn’t really succeed in that. Once again Rob Halford has kept his vocal range on the album in check, for the most part eschewing any major extension of his famous vocal cords, and in the main sticking to a range more within normal human hearing. A lot of the songs have periods within them that are deliberately quiet and soft, mirroring a reflective air which in turn shows a different side of the band than what we have seen on previous albums. Most of this to me has created the metaphorical vacuum that “Point of Entry” has seemed to fall into. Following the success of the “British Steel” album and the singles that were released from it, I guess it was a no brainer that Judas Priest would stick to the same formula for their next album and try to replicate that commercial success. Whether or not that was a good idea – and whether or not they achieved that – is a question that is still without a definitive answer. Is it purely because it just doesn’t have many songs on it that are considered classics, or is it because it is believed to have been out of step with the other albums that were released around it? The opinions are wide and varied.
Take away “Heading Out to the Highway”, “Desert Plains” and “Solar Angels”, and this album is very run of the mill. And yet, for all of its misses and failings on some levels, for all of the misgivings I have with the album on most levels, and despite the fact that it doesn’t rate in the top two-thirds of the band’s catalogue, I still can’t help but enjoy it. For the MOST part. I won’t lie that on occasions at work over the past couple of weeks I have been silently hoping for this album to end so that I could get to the next album in my rotation. Mostly after “Solar Angels” it must be said. But when I have been at home, and I close the door to the Metal Cavern and the volume up, I have still enjoyed the album. Up to a point. Not to LOVING it levels. It doesn’t measure up to their great albums, and that’s okay, because I think this album at least taught the band a lesson. I think it probably ended up proving to the band that they needed to redefine the direction they were heading in if they wanted to make a bigger impression in the new decade. While the album did well enough at the time there’s no doubt in hindsight that it wasn’t exactly what their fan base was looking for. And while it will never rank as one of their best albums, it by no means is the worst offering. Different, yes. Out of character, yes. But for all of that it is still a good listen. I’m sure our very good friends Jay and Jeff from the Judas Priestcast podcast – and if you aren’t listening to their podcast, WHY aren’t you? - will tell you that this album is far better than “Turbo” and “Ram it Down”. Whether they are right or not is a determination that will have to wait for those episodes of THIS podcast a little bit further down the track.
When it came to this album however, that was a longer journey. I think I had collected just about every other album that existed to that point in time before I got “Point of Entry”. I knew “Heading Out to the Highway” but that was it, as I bought all the other albums from the 1980’s along with “Stained Class” and “Killing Machine”, while this one hung on the vine. It was mostly just availability in the record stores I walked into. I don’t recall seeing “Point of Entry” anywhere during those years. Eventually, it came to pass that I bought it on CD, and so was the grand unveiling, the first listen to this Judas Priest album, that I assumed would be brilliant. And that was not what I got. I got an album that had some okay songs on it, but a lot that I wasn’t jumping out of my skin about. It didn’t have the hooks that pretty much every other Judas Priest album offered me. Disappointed would be an accurate description of my feelings about the album in those days. I still listened to it sporadically but usually in an effort to find what perhaps I had been missing on all of those other listens.
About fifteen years ago, for my blog that is also called “Music from a Lifetime”, I went through and reviewed every Judas Priest album, pretty much following the formula I now use for this podcast, putting on the album and listening to it multiple times to asset my true feelings for it and then offering them up in print. And it was during that period that I discovered a different appreciation for it. On heavy rotation during that time, I was able to... find a place for it in my listening heart. I wrote at that time that when I put the album on and turned it up LOUD, it actually worked far better for me than if I just had it on at a ‘normal’ volume. That probably works for most albums, but I did say at the time that that did improve it for me.
This week, I have brought out “Point of Entry” again for its turn in the rotation. It isn’t an album I play often still. There are a lot of better Judas Priest albums on offer. And my opinion largely hasn’t changed. This album has its niche, and moments of songs here do adhere to what the band has advertised they were hoping to achieve when composing this album. It isn’t as regimented as “British Steel” and it doesn’t have the speed or upward energy of “Screaming for Vengeance”, and in places it has an easy listening feel to some of the songs, certainly in relation to previous albums. In fact, “Point of Entry” is quite unique in the Judas Priest discography, because although their stated claim was to write for commercial success it didn’t really succeed in that. Once again Rob Halford has kept his vocal range on the album in check, for the most part eschewing any major extension of his famous vocal cords, and in the main sticking to a range more within normal human hearing. A lot of the songs have periods within them that are deliberately quiet and soft, mirroring a reflective air which in turn shows a different side of the band than what we have seen on previous albums. Most of this to me has created the metaphorical vacuum that “Point of Entry” has seemed to fall into. Following the success of the “British Steel” album and the singles that were released from it, I guess it was a no brainer that Judas Priest would stick to the same formula for their next album and try to replicate that commercial success. Whether or not that was a good idea – and whether or not they achieved that – is a question that is still without a definitive answer. Is it purely because it just doesn’t have many songs on it that are considered classics, or is it because it is believed to have been out of step with the other albums that were released around it? The opinions are wide and varied.
Take away “Heading Out to the Highway”, “Desert Plains” and “Solar Angels”, and this album is very run of the mill. And yet, for all of its misses and failings on some levels, for all of the misgivings I have with the album on most levels, and despite the fact that it doesn’t rate in the top two-thirds of the band’s catalogue, I still can’t help but enjoy it. For the MOST part. I won’t lie that on occasions at work over the past couple of weeks I have been silently hoping for this album to end so that I could get to the next album in my rotation. Mostly after “Solar Angels” it must be said. But when I have been at home, and I close the door to the Metal Cavern and the volume up, I have still enjoyed the album. Up to a point. Not to LOVING it levels. It doesn’t measure up to their great albums, and that’s okay, because I think this album at least taught the band a lesson. I think it probably ended up proving to the band that they needed to redefine the direction they were heading in if they wanted to make a bigger impression in the new decade. While the album did well enough at the time there’s no doubt in hindsight that it wasn’t exactly what their fan base was looking for. And while it will never rank as one of their best albums, it by no means is the worst offering. Different, yes. Out of character, yes. But for all of that it is still a good listen. I’m sure our very good friends Jay and Jeff from the Judas Priestcast podcast – and if you aren’t listening to their podcast, WHY aren’t you? - will tell you that this album is far better than “Turbo” and “Ram it Down”. Whether they are right or not is a determination that will have to wait for those episodes of THIS podcast a little bit further down the track.
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