Judas Priest Unleashed in the Studio

I'm not big into live albums. It's a lot of hit or miss. Bands have good nights and bad nights. Hell, bands have good performances and bad performances of particular songs within one night. This particularly affects the singers. Especially if they smoke and drink.
Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East is excellent. It's a wonderful summary of everything they accomplished throughout the 70's (except Rocka Rolla, but it's no big loss). But when I first heard it, something seemed off for some reason. Rob Halford seemed a bit restrained somehow. I couldn't put my finger on it. He hits all the right notes, but I felt like something was missing.
Later on, I would discover that the vocal tracks where dubbed. That's right, the Metal God himself admitted that the original tapes where damaged and Halford had to record vocals in the studio and then dub them into the live recording. Hence, why some people jokingly refer to this as "Unleashed in the Studio". It all made sense. The reason Halford sounded restrained is because he was trying to mimic what he actually sang on those nights instead of just unleashing the fury.
That being said, it's not uncommon for bands to tinker with live recordings in the studio. I also highly recommend listening to this album. It's great stuff, dubbed vocals or no. But there's actual live bootleg recordings during the time period that are untouched by studio wizardry. And oh, my, they are absolutely insane.
Not only does the entire band jack up the intensity for each and every single song, but Rob Halford sounds absolutely incredible. There is no questioning his status as the metal god. Apart from singing with commanding presence and power, he hits that crystal clear and even higher than those on the studio recordings. It's completely nuts. The whole band just plays with the awesome fury of a thousand tigers. Every single song on these bootlegs is easily superior to their studio counterparts.
I can't put into words just how amazing these recordings are. I can only advise you to listen to them. It has to be heard to be believed.

Recommended bootlegs:

- Rocka Rollers: United Kingdom 1975
- Cambridge Savages: Cambridge, UK 1978
- Unleashed in Tokyo, Japan 1979 (This is where Unleashed in the East was originally taken from.
- Live Machine: London, UK 1978

 Link: Judas Priest Bootlegs

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

World's End

World's End In a clash of melancholy, The world will end. All the flowers of the Earth shall burn into a crisp. The fish of the sea, the birds, and the trees all die as one with humanity. Tossed into oblivion eternity of nothing thrown into emptiness. Will we be born again? The world set ablaze a fire in the sky. Inferno consumes the land All perish; die. Weep not for the critters or your loved ones. Today is the day we all meet the same fate Tossed into oblivion, eternity of nothing, thrown into emptiness, Will we be born again? In a clash of melancholy, The world will end. All the flowers of the Earth shall burn into a crisp. The fish of the sea, the birds, and the trees All die as one with humanity.
Read more

Muh Aztec Ancestors

Image
Actually, as much as Mexicans love to believe that they where Aztecs, they where most likely the slaves to the Aztecs. Hell, they probably helped Cortez destroy Tenochtitlan. Come to think of it, the Aztecs weren't even native to Mexico. They came from somewhere up north. Utah, perhaps. They arrived, colonized, conquered,and enslaved dozens of other tribes. It was these subjugated tribes that joined ranks with the Conquistadors. So there you go. The Aztecs where evil colonizers and oppressors and the Conquistadors where liberators. Stop larping as an Aztec and start larping as a Conquistador.
Read more

Dreamhour - Now That We Are Here

Image
Dreamhour - Now That We Are Here I first heard of Dreamhour when I listened to the album VLLNS . I think it's a wonderful album full of killer grooves and catchy melodies. My favorite tracks included "Cerebral Chase" with it's smooth chorus and both "Blood Patrol" and "Shobdohin" with its sexy guitar and synth lines. I cannot say I enjoy the follow, PROPSTVR as much. For whatever reason, that album simply didn't vibe with me. Maybe it's because the theme of VLLLNS is just way cool, and in having a cool theme, it generated cool music. What's not to like about a story involving a megacity vampire cult? We're not here to talk about those two albums. We're here for Now That We Are Here . There a few songs on this album that give me PROPSTVR vibes, such as the first two songs. Naturally, I can't fully appreciate these songs. Other songs contain quite good synth melodies, but are less tha...
Read more