Customer Reviews

Priest Live

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One of my favorite live albums from one of my favorite tours by one of my favorite bands, now remastered for pristine sound.

I was disappointed that the bonus tracks on this remaster didn't mimic the track listing for the VHS version of this CD, which included four songs not on the original album - "Desert Plains", "Locked In", "Hell Bent For Leather", and "Green Manalish (With The Two-Pronged Crown)", all of which were of course performed at the same concert on the same tour. This new remaster does include "Hell Bent", but foregoes the other three songs in favor of "Screaming For Vengeance" and "Rock Hard, Ride Free", neither of which came from the 1986 Fuel For Life tour despite what the packaging reads. In fact, prior to "Screaming", Rob tells the crowd, "Here's the title track from the new album," indicating that it is from the tour supporting the "Screaming For Vengeance" album 3 or 4 years earlier. The version of "Hell Bent For Leather" here is also obviously not from the VHS version, since the video was filmed in Dallas, TX and this version ends with Rob saying "Thank you St. Louis!" It could still be from the Fuel For Life tour, not sure.

Live versions of "Desert Plains" and "Locked In" are bonus tracks on other remastered Priest albums, and an older live version of "Green Manalishi" has always been available on "Unleashed In The East", so it's not like those songs don't exist at all on CD, but it would've been nice to have all four on here so I could have the perfect audio companion to the "priest...live!" VHS tape. There is one way Judas Priest can make this up to me - re-release the video version on DVD!

Released in 1987, Priest...Live! is Judas Priest's second live album, following 1979's Unleashed in the East. While that album was recorded when the band was still hungry and had yet to achieve worldwide success, Priest...Live! shows a band on the downslide. During the time between, the band had achieved their greatest success while releasing albums of varying quality as the classic releases British Steel and Screaming for Vengeance were countered by the uneven albums Point of Entry and Turbo. The energy that made Unleashed in the East so exciting rarely surfaces here as the songs differ little from the originals except for an occasional guitar fill or Rob Halford scream. The release does contain their most popular songs from the `80s such as "Metal Gods", "Breaking the Law", "Electric Eye", "Heading Out to the Highway", "The Sentinel", "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll", and the hits "Living After Midnight" and "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." Other tracks such as the mid-tempo "Love Bites" and the relentless tracks "Screaming for Vengeance" and "Freewheel Burning" are also very good. However, it's the inclusion of 5 songs from the aforementioned Turbo album that hurts the track listing. While "Rock You All Around The World" is a good anthem and "Turbo Lover" and "Out in the Cold" are okay, none of the songs on that release touch the other songs on this album, even on the reissued version. Even more disturbing is the inclusion of their corniest song ever in "Parental Guidance" while the excellent "Locked In" is not included. No more than two songs should have been included from Turbo as they have so many better songs that should have made the cut like "Desert Plains", "Bloodstone", "United", and "(Take These) Chains." All told, Priest...Live! is similar to AC/DC's 1992 release, Live, in that while it contains their most popular songs, it would have been better if the songs were performed with more passion and had a better song list.

With the sheer energy of the first live record, I was a bit disappointed with this one. First of all, the sound is somewhat flat, which is unfortunately characteristic of early digital recordings. it was recorded during the Fuel for Life tour in 1986 in support of the relativley disappointing 'Turbo' record, and contains some of that record's worst tracks, including "Rock You All Around the World" and "Parental Guidance". The result is a mediocre live album.

The remaster of the first Priest live record, 'Unleashed in the East', is the best of the remasters (in my opinion) because they added four live tracks that were recorded at the same time but never fit on the original single LP. With this remaster, extending the compacted single CD back out to a double CD (as the original was a double LP), Sony could have done the same - adding such 1986 tour tracks as "Locked In", "Victim of Changes", "The Green Manalishi", and "Hell Bent for Leather" (three of which appear on the recently released 'Electric Eye' DVD). Unfortunately, we only get only the last cut from the 1986 tour, and two other live tracks from two other tours - "Screaming for Vengeance" from 1982 show and "Rock Hard, Ride Free" from a 1984 show. As with all but one of the other remasters, Sony has missed the opportunity to do it right.

3 Stars and I'm being very generous.
This album and the Scorpions "Worldwide Live" just bore me to death.
Both bands made great live albums in the 70s. Judas Priest's "Unleashed in the East" aka Live in Japan is a much better representation of The Priest's ability to really rock out live.
[And the Scorpions "Tokyo Tapes" is a 5 Star Live album in it's original configuration --that is...not the version that's missing "Polar Nights". Find the 2 Disc Set!]

So I must say that "Priest...Live" just kinda sits there and well... It Stinks!
Why? It's too 'by the numbers'. The song don't have the "crunch". If you're a Judas Priest fan you'll understand.
There's too much "Turbo" here. That album was awful.

I must add that the live "Metal Meltdown" with Ripper Owens is pretty damn good.

If you are not a long time fan please don't start with this CD.

Don't get me wrong...I am a HUGE Judas Priest fan. The 2 stars are really a rating for the record company, who have bastardized this fine library of work from the get-go. The 3 "bonus" tracks on this album were NOT "recorded during the Fuel For Life tour"; Screaming For Vengeance was recorded from Memphis in 1982 and the other two were recorded during the Defenders Of The Faith Tour in 1984 from Long Beach, CA. How do I know? I have (STILL) both of these concerts on cassette tape when they were originally broadcast on radio and I know these recordings by heart. Does the record label think we all are stupid fans who will part with their money just because it says "remastered"? I know I feel stupid because I did...and I am STILL waiting for Sony to fix the Defenders Of The Faith remaster screw-up of reversing the channels, like they promised me they would. I bet Michael Jackson's back catalog didn't have these problems.

Starting a show with a ballad is never a good idea, and pretty much ruins the rest of the gig, as the expectancy level of the audience is demolished. The fans are pumped up to a fever pitch, after waiting for this moment for weeks or months, wanting to just bang their heads. They want to hear "Electric Eye", "Freewheel Burning"--or even "Turbo Lover" would probably have sufficed--but instead they get "Out in the Cold". Disappointment!
This sets the stage perfectly for the entire show, as what we get is a mish mash with no real consistency and more filler than we'd like. I don't think any band puts as many new songs in a setlist as Priest did on this tour.
"Turbo" was loaded with pseudo-anthems which really lowered the collective I.Q. of the album, and this dumbing down really infects the concert. When some of the songs are as banal as only pop-rock can be, it lowers the intensity of the good songs as well. I say: get rid of "Rock you all around the world", "Private Property", and "Parental Guidance", and replace with some classics like "The Ripper", "The Sinner", or "Tyrant". Save "Out in the Cold" for the middle of the set to calm people down. People don't want to be mellow at the beginning of a concert!
On a good note, Rob's voice is in better form here than it had been in years. The previous couple of tours saw him really in bad shape, not singing as much as screeching or whining nasally, and his screams were almost as bad as Bruce Dickinson's are now. See the 'Live in Memphis' video for proof of that. But fortunately he cleared up his issues and his voice is good as new here, and would never leave him again.
Glenn and K.K. added guitar solos to "Heading out to the Highway" and "Breaking the Law" this time, which were more than welcome. Ian Hill is as sonically absent as ever, and Dave Holland still plays like an amateur (snare and kick all the way), which is probably the reason why a journalist or someone allegedly discovered a "second" drummer hidden beneath the stage at some point during that tour. The band claimed it was to "enhance" the sound. It's hard to fathom why Dave had a drumkit so big when he never used 95% of the drums. I never understood why Priest settled for Dave's useless ass after the talent of Les Binks. They must have owed him a very big favor.
Back to the disc: Only one of the 3 bonus tracks was recorded on this tour, even though the cd claims they all were, and the impostors show what I mean when I say Rob's voice was gone. "Screaming for Vengeance" was recorded during that tour, as Rob says "Here's the title track from our new album..." DUH! "Rock Hard Ride Free" was recorded during the Defenders tour, and in fact was taken from the concert in California which was broadcast on the radio that year (I know because I have a tape of it). That, and the fact that this album is so blatantly loaded with overdubs (studio guitar fills, background vocals), makes it really difficult to believe anything they say anymore, even for a fan as big as myself. Since they became superstars, Priest has had an element of fraud which this album makes impossible to ignore.
And can anyone decipher what Rob says before "Turbo Lover"? Sounds like: "It's time to get a hold of something something may be hard...." HUH?

While it is great they remastered it.Though not much of a difference, I bought it for that and the bonus tracks. I found on Disc 2 during the song "Turbo Lover" it's mixed or mastered wrong. It sounds terrible.The bonus tracks were recorded during a different tour. Does Columbia think Judas fans are stupid? Id reccomend saving some money and buying the orginial one issued on cd a while back. the guy who supervised and Re-mastered this whole project should not be in buisness. Most of the remasters have some flaws or another. None the less this is a good album of them live.

Priest Live is a good release and includes most of the bands best songs from the 80's. I know a lot of people are down on this album as they consider it the Turbo era release and point towards the flashy costumes and big hair the band sported for this tour. However, the playing is fantastic. The vocals incredible and there are many songs from British Steel, Screaming For Vengence, and Defenders of the Faith to rock out to. Also, I always liked Turbo more then most other Priest fans and the opening with Out In The Cold was to me unique and brilliant as Priest showed they didn't follow the mold for bands of its genre and era and had the balls to open a show with a Ballad.

I love this album for the pure power of the Metal God's voice. It was taken off the "Turbo Lover" tour, and the tracks "Rock you all around the World", and "Private Property" get the crowd riled up, and screaming the chorus back to Rob. But my absolute favorite Priest song is "Some Heads are Gonna Roll", and Halford screams the song out like no other. Only Bruce Dickenson can come close as far as screaming ability, and one only hopes that Halford and the boys patch things up, and give their fans a final world tour with the true Priest, and not "Steel Dragon". Rob Halford may be a bit strange, but as far as being a Metal singer, he is the very best out there, and to his hardcore fans he is was and will always be the true "Metal God".

All I'm going to say is it sounds clean, a little to clean. The song choices are ok and nothing more. Theirs not much interaction with the crowd and at times it does not sound like a live show. Halford's Halford, which mean he's God like when it comes to laying down some amazing vocals. The twin guitar attack is clean and heavy and the solo's are good. The bass is present but almost subsonic at times. Dave holland's drumming is well, Dave Holland's drumming, yawn!! Overall it's a pretty decent cd as it provides a good perspective of what Priest was about at that time, however if you really want to hear Priest live in their glory, get Unleashed In The East!!