The Best of Judas Priest: Living After Midnight

Judas Priest

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 3, 1998)
• Original Release Date: February 3, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002AHN
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,933 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

An excellent collection of the best moments from one of the most influential heavy metal bands, this is a welcome alternative to the more complete Metal Works, for the fan who doesn't require quite so exhaustive a collection. This one has everything you'd expect, including the classics "Living After Midnight," "Breaking the Law," "You've Got Another Thing Comin'," "Ram It Down," and more. There are also some choice live tracks, including "Victims of Changes" and "Heading Out to the Highway." Not necessarily the best choice for the hardcore fan--who probably already has Metal Works and most (if not all) of the original albums anyway--but a fine greatest-hits collection. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good place to start if you're interested in Priest, August 22, 2001

By	M. B. Link "wildfirelink" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the first cd I ever bought bearing the legendary metal name "Judas Priest". It gave me a real insight on just how great and different-sounding the band could be. First, listen to all of the tracks, then determine which era suits you best, and finally collect those albums. However, since then I've been purchasing every album (because the band is THAT good!!)

The collection takes about 1 to 2 tracks from each album, starting with 'Hell Bent For Leather' and proceeding all the way to the last Halford album 'Painkiller'. I took off one star because now I realize that this collection isn't as complete as 'Metal Works '77-'93'. But for the beginner, this offers some (hence the word "some") of the greatest classics such as 'Green Manalishi', 'Hot Rockin', 'Electric Eye', 'You've Got Another Thing Comin', 'Freewheel Burning', etc.

Oh, and one thing I need to point out: Don't listen to the "Iron Maiden-crazy-reviewer" who says that this sounds like soft, light 70's rock. I'm also a big fan of those metal legends, too, but let's be honest here. The track 'Metal Meltdown' is HEAVIER than anything I've ever heard from Iron Maiden. Just Listen to 'Turbo Lover' and tell me that it doesn't sound 80's. You can't. Some of the songs do have that 70's rock sound to them, but listen to the two tracks from the '84 era. It was an example of some of the greatest metal in existence.

The albums I recommend the most are: 'Sad Wings Of Destiny'(1976), Stained Class'(1978), 'Hell Bent For Leather'(1979), 'Unleashed In The East'(1979), 'British Steel'(1980), 'Screaming For Vengeance'(1982), 'Defenders Of The Faith'(1984), 'Ram It Down'(1988), and 'Painkiller'(1990). You can't go wrong with any of these!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent greatest hits album and entry point for new fans, April 6, 2003

By	N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"The Best of Judas Priest: Living After Midnight", is a decent greatest hits album and entry points for new fans to one of the greatest and most influential bands of all time. Most of Priest's well known songs like "Living After Midnight", "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", "Breaking the Law" (a live version which I find more adrenaline charged than the original studio track), and "The Hellion/Electric Eye" are here, along with some other great songs like "Green Manalishi", "Turbo Lover", and a live version of "Heading Out to the Highway". However, there are a number of songs like "The Ripper", "Metal Gods", "Better By Better Than Me", and "Exciter" that should rightfully have their place here in place of songs like "Freewheel Burning" and "Metal Meltdown". All that aside, this is a good greatest hits album, but I find the "Metal Works" collection a much better package, however if your looking to get into the band and don't want to spend too much than this is as good a buy as any.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy it., April 9, 2004

By A Customer

Judas Priest is, indeed, one of the greatest Heavy Metal bands of all time. But you wouldn't know it by this terrible compilation CD. It's not terrible because the songs are bad, but rather, because they're only the POPULAR Judas Priest songs, not the GOOD Judas Priest songs. "Hot Rockin'" was one of the worst songs off of "Point of Entry", and "Breaking the Law" certainly isn't the best. Better Priest songs are "Painkiller", "Blood Red Skies", "The Sentinel", so on and so forth. Not only that, but I'm not sure if this is even an Official Judas Priest license (if it were, it would appear in their discography, which it does not). Consdering the cost of Judas Priest (remasters) these days, which is about $12, you're better off buying "Screaming for Vengeance", "Defenders of the Faith" or "Painkiller" as opposed to this. I think that Judas Priest has a lot more good work than what's here - especially from the "Sad Wings of Destiny" album.