Last Friday Judas Priest continued their 30th anniversary remastered collection with 1986’s ‘Turbo’. ‘Turbo’ is hands down the most controversial release in the entire Priest catalog. It’s also one of my favorite Judas Priest albums and it’s one of the most important to their long term legacy. The band is promoting the hell out of this 30th anniversary remaster of the album. Which includes a double disc, 20 song live album from the ‘Fuel for Life’ tour. Recorded in Kansas City, it’s the full show unedited. The band released a live album from the tour, ‘Priest…Live!!’, in 1987. But it’s edited down and the production is greatly lacking the power of Ian Hill’s bass. It’s great to finally have what ‘Priest…Live!!’ should have been 30 years ago.
I was on ye olde facebook news feed and started reading some of the comments under one of the many promotional adds. I knew that it was an album that some didn’t like. But the utter disdain that some of these Priest fans have for this record is astonishing. Someone even said they burned their cassette copy the first time they heard it. I couldn’t believe it. It’s not that radical of a Priest album. One of the elements that makes Judas Priest a great band is that every album is a little bit different. However, they always remain within the Priest style heavy metal dome. It’s all Judas Priest and it’s all great heavy fucking metal. The most common complaint, of course, is the use of guitar synthesizers. Honestly, they aren’t too dominant with the exception of the title track and ‘Out in the Cold’. Plus, ‘Out in the Cold’ is the only song which uses actual keyboards. People act like the band went all Night Ranger on everyone. That’s far from the case. The album is a beautiful mixture of crisp, metallic guitars and guitar synths. The key word to guitar synths is guitar. It’s just an experimentation with different guitar tones at the end of the day. Glenn and K.K. are still playing their guitars. It’s just that there are some different pedals and technology being used along with them. There’s nothing wrong with that. The lyrical subject material isn’t that far off from traditional Priest either. The band has always had songs about motorcycles, highways and politics. Yes the fantasy type lyrical material took the back seat this time around but that’s all due to timing and atmosphere. And, without ‘Turbo’ we wouldn’t have the crisp crisp guitar tones we know and love today. In terms of production, it paved the way for all their follow up albums. The guitar tones of ‘Painkiller’ couldn’t have existed without ‘Turbo’. It set a standard for the group in terms of how clean they would sound in years to come. In other words the band came into their own on this album. It’s a true testament to the Priest legacy.
Crisp, crisp guitar sound. The live production sound would pave the way for the future of the band.
Feeling the energy of the time with this terrific track. It their ‘Is This Love?’.
Keeping it classic Judas Priest Style heavy metal!!
