JUDAS PRIEST – Sad Wings Of Destiny [Japanese Platinum SHM-CD remastered] Out Of Print

As requested, here’s the remastered Japanese Platinum SHM-CD limited release of JUDAS PRIEST‘s “Sad Wings Of Destiny“. The sound quality is simply awesome, one of the best we ever heard in this format. The platinum coat make wonders, and takes the album to other sonic level.
With this album, Priest began to create the heavier rhythms and strong twin melodies which helped to pave the way for the still malleable metal genre.
Independent label Gull Records provided a mere £2,000 for Judas Priest to lay down what would become one of metal’s most revered and influential albums and, arguably, the first true bona fide traditional heavy metal album.

For comparison, the band would go on to receive a £60,000 advance when signing with CBS for their next record. With the members of the band unable to live off their income as musicians, they took up day jobs and got by on just one meal a day.
Glenn Tipton took up being a gardener while other axeman K.K. Downing headed out to a factory and bassist Ian Hill worked as a delivery man.

Pulling together two old songs, Priest’s “Whiskey Woman” (written with original singer Al Atkins) and “Red Light Lady” from singer Rob Halford’s previous band Hiroshima, the group molded the indomitable “Victim of Changes.” Employing a churning rhythm that was just as effective when turned down to allow Halford’s croon, the seesawing tempo, dynamic vocal performance and complex arrangement immediately put them into the same echelon reserved for bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.

Following the now Priest classic that has stood tall for more than four decades came “The Ripper.” A concise, yet devastatingly effective track that further played with clever arrangements and sudden and arresting tempo changes.
Returning to the more ballad-like side hinted at on “Victim of Changes,” the album enters a haze on “Dreamer Deceiver,” complete with some of Halford’s most ear-piercing falsettos. Meanwhile, the fog is quickly lifted on the following track, the rhythm-heavy, Sabbathian “Deceiver.”

”Sad Wings of Destiny” boasts one of the most recognizable album covers in Patrick Woodroffe’s Fallen Angels. Depicting an outstretched angel surrounded by flames on the ground, the band’s trident emblem made its first appearance hanging from the angel’s neck.
The original Gull pressing inverts the two sides of the record on the sleeve with Side A beginning with “Prelude” and Side B kicking off with “Victim of Changes.”

Following the release of ”Sad Wings of Destiny”, the band consciously decided to break their contract with Gull to sign with CBS. Knowing this meant forsaking their rights to the songs as well as revenues, (they would later reclaim copyright ownership of these songs) it was a move made out of necessity.
Little did Judas Priest know that they had just created a heavy metal masterpiece.

“I have to say Sad Wings of Destiny is my personal favorite; I really love that album,” Halford said some time ago. “It has a lot of good things going for it, and it’s an important album for us as a band and for heavy metal music in general. It’s just a very solid and representation of a lot of the best of Priest: the riffs, the tempo the songwriting and vocals. It still stands the test of time and is one of my personal favorites to this day.”
For us, ”Sad Wings of Destiny” is a classic, and never sounded better than on this Platinum SHM-CD.

Japan Victor Entertainment ～ VICP-78020
【Platinum ＳＨＭ－ＣＤ】

01 – Victim Of Changes
02 – The Ripper
03 – Dreamer Deceiver
04 – Deceiver
05 – Prelude
06 – Tyrant
07 – Genocide
08 – Epitaph
09 – Island Of Domination

Rob Halford – vocals
K. K. Downing – guitars
Glenn Tipton – guitars, piano, organ
Ian Hill – bass
Alan Moore – drums

Out of Print
www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/VICP-78020