JUDAS PRIEST — Priest... Live! (review)

JUDAS PRIEST — Priest... Live! album cover Live album · 1987 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Warthur
With a track listing avoiding songs which already had an outing on Unleashed In the East, this double live album from the Turbo tour showcases how Priest were able to work their material into a cohesive setlist, despite the studio albums the songs come from having very divergent sounds - Turbo and Point of Entry don't sound much like British Steel, for instance, and Screaming For Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith sound different from those other three, but the renditions here manage to make everything sit together naturally, revealing that perhaps it was more the production approach on those albums than anything inherent to the songwriting which was responsible for the apparent divergenve.

The recent 50 Years of Heavy Metal boxed set from Priest includes a Houston show from the same tour, recorded more or less exactly halfway between the Atlanta and Dallas shows these songs were sourced from. By comparison to this show, the setlist here is fairly similar in terms of song selection and running order - bar for the trimming of the 1970s-era songs - but the Houston show sounds rawer and punchier than this rather slick presentation; comparing the two, I think Priest... Live! suffers somewhat from a slight excess of studio polishing of the live material, whilst the Houston tapes show just how heavy Priest still were in 1986.

Nonetheless, that boxed set will set you back a fair amount, and there's no guarantee the live shows on it will see an independent release, so for those for whom the box is too pricey (or just represents more Priest than they really want) Priest... Live! remains the most viable source for 1980s live Judas Priest material. And in that function, it's pretty solid. Unleashed In the East mops the floor with it - but Unleashed In the East is one of the greatest metal live albums of all time, and coming second place to it is still a good accomplishment.

Still - if they get around to putting out that Houston show independently, or if you decide to drop your money on the 50 Years box, you might find the Houston set ends up displacing this one, since it offers close to everything this does, plus more, with greater ferocity.
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