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Stunning album, with the band making a significant leap in quality compared to their debut, which was not bad but still quite immature. As far as I'm concerned, it's among the best Hard Rock albums I've ever listened to, and even more so, I consider it one of those albums capable of surpassing the barriers of categorization and the boundaries of genres, an album appreciated beyond one's own "musical current" of belonging. Here, the Judas draw inspiration from this and that (a bit from the usual rock giants of the early '70s - Led/Purple and their ilk, a touch of the best Queen, the finest melodic refined pop/songwriting/electro-acoustic croonerism/a sprinkling of melodic ideas or musical concepts close to a certain "prog" taste of the more "romantic") but they have the merit of blending it into a concoction that is entirely their own, doing so with great inspiration in songwriting, eclecticism, and sophistication, as well as a masterful balance of aggression, melancholy, and dramatic flair. In doing so, they themselves throw collected (and often exaggeratedly misinterpreted) insights from a multitude of other bands from the following decade onward ("Tyrant," for example, is clearly a pre-cursor to Maiden, citing perhaps the most capable disciples, even in beautiful melodic, vocal, and guitar taste). "Victims of Changes" and "Epitaph" (written solely by Tipton - like the theatrical rock gem that is "The Ripper") are my favorites, but there's not a second wasted here.

Great album, along with the '78 twin Killing Machine, it completes the podium of my favorite Priest records, though it’s consistently a notch behind Sad Wings. Here, the stylistic variety of the previous two albums (especially the usual big record from '76) is abandoned, and the band solidifies into a hard/heavy rock-metal that, damn it, is practically a primer for all their students of the following decade, Maiden and the lovely NWO gang, etc., as well as the Dio-era Sabbath, in many aspects (and, as always, done better by Judas). The best songs for me are "Fire Burns Below" and the beautiful cover from the stunning second album of Spooky Tooth, "Better By You, Better Than Me," which I may prefer because it stays closer to 70s rock/hard rock territory, even though the beautiful closing track fully embraces the grandiose tones, which can also be perfectly traced in '70s hard rock, and everything connects. The only one that convinces me less is "Saints in Hell"; everything else excites me greatly, nice nice, from the opening duo "Exciter"-"White Heat-Red Hot" to the title track, passing through the third best song of this album, "Beyond the Realms of Death," with some great guitar solos, especially Tipton's.

I had always skipped this album, going directly to the two that followed. Then I thought, "Why not give it a listen, you never know..." I should have continued to skip it. Terrible album. Pure and hatefully “radio-friendly heavy metal”—the kind that is truly not very heavy and truly not very metal (I call it pop-metal)—but above all, tremendously tacky, sycophantic, and unnecessarily, overwhelmingly over-the-top, gaudy, "epic" (in the worst sense of the term this time). Unfortunately, it’s a genre that quickly goes from enjoyably garish to monstrously bad for me. This one is bad. It has a couple of delightfully tacky moments, but it's bad. Comparing this album to the attitude of a "Killing Machine," as well as to the songs themselves, this album self-destructs. A major misstep for the band, and also the only one I’ve ever listened to, since the next two aren’t my cup of tea, but they’re amusingly tacky-fun, and "Painkiller" is instead a colossal leap in luxury. I don’t know the two from '86-'88 and I don’t want to know them; twice the same nonsense, no thanks.

My favorite Judas album after Sad Wings. Beautiful because it returns to the bloodier and rawer territories of Rock/Hard Rock, while still containing some of the more "refined" and melodic aspects here and there, leaving the more airy and epic style of "classic metal" — let’s call it that — which they were progenitors of (and which is still present, see the lovely opening "Deliver the Goods"). There’s a greater urgency and visceral quality in this "Killing Machine," which makes me prefer it slightly over its "brother" released a few months earlier, which is almost equally valid, of course. Here, the only one that doesn't say much to me is "Evening Star"; the rest is explosive. The sequence of three songs from "Burnin' Up" to "Killing Machine" (irresistible) is unbeatable, and they are all among my favorites from the band. In the middle, of course, shines the excellent cover (not easy) of one of the masterpieces that the Green Wizard of English Blues-Rock wrote with Fleetwood Mac (the last one, to be precise), that perfect spellbinding anthem of rock-blues, "The Green Manalishi," which reveals their appreciation for the Green Mac and which will become a classic in their live set. The ballad "Before the Dawn" is also beautiful, confirming their melodic taste, and while it’s just a bit too romantic and sentimental, it’s still very lovely. And then there's the lighter and poppy part with "Take on the World," featuring a stadium anthem (Queen-esque without being as annoying) that sounds almost like a cleaned-up pub song from England.