•
Rating: "What is Metal?" A frequently recurring question, which not only is often posed to us metalheads, but we headbangers sometimes find ourselves asking, for example, when the world disappears and gives way to an alternative reality made of sublime sound, when everything else is erased from the mind, when the music takes possession of your body and you are just a piece of flesh feeling like steel, when the blood in your veins boils like lava and turns into electric discharges that explode to the rhythm of the drums and run down your back at the eruption of guitar solos, and you then would have so much energy in your body that you could tear down a mountain with your bare hands.
Metal is a transcendent immaterial force that completely permeates you if you know how to welcome it within yourself and that is able to touch your innermost strings, precisely because it is direct and instinctive, visceral and fierce like the animal sleeping inside you, suffocated by millennia of civilization. Metal can awaken that animal, make it roar and fight, and even die. Sometimes Metal concentrates its essence in particular records, rendering them its emanations and masterpieces of the genre, but other, rare times, it even seems to incarnate in a particular album, manifesting to the listener in an epiphany that is fire, steel, blood, and hurricane. Its most complete incarnation is undoubtedly the colossal, devastating, exalted "Painkiller" by Judas Priest: them who already in the distant '70s had forged a still fluid and shapeless Metal in their hands, which poured into their forges from the furnaces of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, now, in 1990, they reshaped it into its definitive, absolute, unrepeatable, eternal, universal form.
Talking about this masterpiece leads me, for once, to forgo a track by track discussion: in fact, words would not be able to fully describe these ten songs for which five stars are still too few, however, I will try to describe them briefly for the rare people who still do not know this masterpiece. We are talking about pure Heavy Metal, one might even say distilled (some have even spoken of Power Metal, but this is just an unnecessary point of note, even more negligible if one observes that the style is the classic one of Judas, just hardened to the maximum), where the twin guitars of Glenn Tipton and Kenneth K. Downing churn out heart-stopping riffs and solos, fast and furious, sharp and rough, supported by a lightning-fast rhythm section featuring, in addition to the legendary bassist Ian Hill, the new entry Scott Travis on drums, who adds a touch of more power and technique compared to the already great Dave Holland; and on top of all this, like a proud demon hovering over the ashes of the world, the voice of Rob Halford, who despite being 39 years old, is able to reach heights with a facility and anger unimaginable even for someone younger: divine and inimitable, the only true 'Metal God'.
The lyrics may seem banal to some, but the truth is that they are 100% metal lyrics, telling stories of steel monsters, fire hurricanes, bloody and diabolical rebellions. They range from the classic nature of tracks like "Hell Patrol", "Metal Meltdown", and "Between The Hammer And The Anvil" to the speed of "All Guns Blazing" and "Leather Rebel", to the sick, dark, and demonic atmospheres of "A Touch Of Evil" and the immense "Nightcrawler", to the epic of "Battle Hymn" and "One Shot At Glory". Lastly, I have left the legendary title track, "Painkiller", which is actually the first track of the album, for which I find it necessary to spend a few words. The piece brings us back to the good habit of Judas of starting their albums with the most violent track of the lot (see the various "Sinner", "Exciter", "Rapid Fire", "Freewheel Burning", etc.) in order to stun the listener and prepare them to receive what will come with the aftertaste of the first song. The Painkiller is a monster and at the same time a metal demigod loaded with apocalyptic and pseudo-messianic threats: He will indeed one day come to save humanity from its sufferings, but the only way he will have to do so will be by annihilating it completely; the song is of terrible speed and power (the cover made by Death is not at all harder than the original) and the execution of the five is impeccable but at the same time passionate to the maximum: supreme technique and overwhelming feeling for a song that alone could suffice to found a new religion.
The album reissue includes two additional bonus tracks, namely the live version of "Leather Rebel" and the unreleased "Living Bad Dreams", a ballad that nevertheless manages to be particularly aggressive and charged with tension, decidedly distant in attitude from other past tracks like the sugary "Prisoner Of Your Eyes", while remaining within the same stylistic coordinates.
"Painkiller", like the eponymous Angel of Death of the title track, is a theophany of the God of Metal that takes no prisoners: fifty minutes of pure, deadly, and gleaming steel without weaknesses. It is the ideal endpoint of all Eighties Metal and an essential benchmark for all Metal to come. Some might object to all this that the album itself is not particularly innovative, nor is it the hardest that a band has produced, and not without reason: regarding this, the album offers nothing new or special, except for the simple fact that it is perfect in every detail, in every second of listening, that it can fully express the concept of Metal itself like no other and give extremely violent emotions and monstrous energy, able to stun anyone.
...What is Metal? METAL IS PAINKILLER!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Painkiller (06:08)
Faster than a bullet
Terrifying scream
Enraged and full of anger
He's half man and half machine
Rides the Metal Monster
Breathing smoke and fire
Closing in with vengeance soaring high
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Planets devastated
Mankind's on its knees
A saviour comes from out the skies
In answer to their pleas
Through boiling clouds of thunder
Blasting bolts of steel
Evils going under deadly wheels
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Faster than a laser bullet
Louder than an atom bomb
Chromium plated boiling metal
Brighter than a thousand suns
Flying high on rapture
Stronger free and brave
Nevermore encaptured
They've been brought back from the grave
With mankind ressurrected
Forever to survive
Returns from Armageddon to the skies
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Wings of steel Painkiller
Deadly wheels Painkiller
03 All Guns Blazing (03:59)
Twisting the strangle grip
Won't give no mercy
Feeling those tendons rip
Torn up and mean
Blastmaster racks the ground
Bent on survival
Full throttle hammers down
A deadly scream
All Guns, All Guns Blazing
Forced into overdrive
Drawn out of anger
All talons poison dipped
Impaling spike
Heart pounding fever pitch
Blood pumping fury
Two fisted dynamo
Eager to strike
All Guns, All Guns Blazing
Cross cutting thundercharge
Blade of destruction
Flame throwing hurricane
Destroys the cage
Bone crushing alien
God of salvation
Sad wings that heaven sent
Wipes out in rage
All Guns, All Guns Blazing
06 Night Crawler (05:47)
Howling winds keep screaming round
And the rain comes pouring down
Doors are locked and bolted now
As the thing crawls into town
Straight out of hell
One of a kind
Stalking his victim
Don't look behind you
Nightcrawler
Beware the beast in black
Nightcrawler
You know he's coming back
Night Crawler
Sanctuary is being sought
Whispered prayers a last resort
Homing in its' cry distorts
Terror struck they know they're caught
Straight out of hell
One of a kind
Stalking his victim
Don't look behind you
Nightcrawler
Beware the beast in black
Nightcrawler
You know he's coming back
Night Crawler
As night is falling
The end is drawing near
They'll hear
Their last rites echo on the wind
Huddled in the cellar
Fear caught in their eyes
Daring not to move or breathe
As the creature cries
Fingernails start scratching
On the outside wall
Clawing at the windows
"Come to me" it calls
Atmosphere's electric
As it now descend the stairs
Hiding in the darkness
Is so futile from its glare
Death comes in an instant
As they hoped it would
Souls ascend to heaven
While it feasts on flesh and blood
Straight out of hell
One of a kind
Stalking his victim
Don't look behind you
Nightcrawler
Beware the beast in black
Nightcrawler
You know he's coming back
Night Crawler........
Beware the beast
Beware the beast
Night Crawler
Beware the beast
Beware the beast
He's gonna get to you
07 Between the Hammer & the Anvil (04:51)
Storm warning
But there's no fear
Lies forming
The sacrament lays bare
The sinner
Will testify
They'll suffer
When sacrificed on high
The burning sermons purge their evil words
Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Force rises
False rituals
Baptises
The body and the soul
Our union
Their fall from grace
Confession (confess your sins)
Will seal them to their fate
The burning sermons will survive their curse
Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Transgression
They prey on grief
Our mission
To purify belief
This altar
Gives power and light
They'll falter
While we are shining bright
The burning sermons consecrate their sin
Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Storm warning
But there's no fear
08 A Touch of Evil (05:46)
You mesmerise slowly
Till I can't believe my eyes
Ecstasy controls me
What you give just serves me right
Without warning you're here
Like magic you appear
I taste the fear
I'm so afraid
But I still feed the flame
In the night
Come to me
You know I want your Touch of Evil
In the night
Please set me free
I can't resist a Touch of Evil
Aroused with desire
You put me in a trance
A vision of fire
I never had a chance
A dark angel of sin
Preying deep from within
Come take me in
I'm so afraid
But I still feed the flame
In the night
Come to me
You know I want your Touch of Evil
In the night
Please set me free
I can't resist a Touch of Evil
Arousing me now with a sense of desire
Possessing my soul till my body's on fire
A dark angel of sin
Preying deep from within
Come take me in
I'm so afraid
But I still feed the flame
You're possessing me
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By jigoro
We are faced with one of the best songs ever written, fittingly covered by the great Chuck (R.I.P.) of Death in his last work.
Daily bread for anyone who calls themselves a metalhead!
By AR (Anonima Recensori)
"Rob Halford’s extraordinary voice immediately stands out."
"'Hell’s Patrol' is my favorite and, in my opinion, is a masterpiece."
By sofficino
Painkiller represents the pinnacle reached by heavy metal as a pure genre.
The absolute masterpiece is the splendid title track, 'Painkiller': insane speed, riffs as sharp as chainsaws and extremely fast and super technical solo sections.
By sofficino
PAINKILLER REPRESENTS THE PEAK REACHED BY HEAVY METAL AS A PURE GENRE.
THE BEST "PURE" HEAVY ALBUM EVER CONCEIVED.
By Greyskull
It’s my first time :) I’m about to review a masterpiece, a milestone of heavy metal, in my opinion, the best work by Judas Priest.
Just this piece would be worth the purchase of the album, but Judas did not hold back and gave us one masterpiece after another.
