𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…
Judas Priest — Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
Original Vinyl Track List:
Side A:
01. Victim of Changes (7:47)
02. The Ripper (2:50)
03. Dreamer Deceiver (5:51)
04. Deceiver (2:40)
Side B:
01. Prelude (2:02)
02. Tyrant (4:28)
03. Genocide (5:51)
04. Epitaph (3:08)
05. Island of Domination (4:32)
Judas Priest:
Rob Halford – Vocals
K. K. Downing – Guitars
Glenn Tipton – Guitars, Piano, Organ
Ian Hill – Bass
Alan Moore – Drums
Production & Layout:
Produced by Jeffrey Calvert, Max West, and Judas Priest
Engineered by Jeffrey Calvert, Max West, and Chris Tsangarides
Cover concept by Neil French; painting by Patrick Woodroffe
Art direction by John Pasche
Band photographs by Lorentz Gullachsen and Alan Johnson
Overview:
Judas Priest released their second full-length studio album, Sad Wings of Destiny on March 23, 1976 via Gull Records. It is considered the album on which Judas Priest consolidated their sound and image, and songs from it such as Victim of Changes and The Ripper have since become live standards. It was the band's only album to feature drummer Alan Moore.
Noted for its riff-driven sound and the wide range of Rob Halford's vocals, the album displays a wide variety of styles, moods and textures, inspired by an array of groups such as Queen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. The centrepiece Victim of Changes is a nearly eight-minute track featuring heavy riffing trading off with high-pitched vocals, extended guitar leads, and a slow, moody breakdown toward the end. Tyrant and The Ripper are short, dense, high-powered rockers with many parts and changes. Riffs and solos dominate Genocide, Island of Domination, and Deceiver, and the band finds more laid-back moments in the crooning piano-backed Epitaph and the moody Dreamer Deceiver.
Sad Wings of Destiny had a positive reception but weak sales. The band recorded their first two albums with the independent Gull label under tight budgets; after living off a single meal per day while working side jobs to support themselves, the group grew frustrated with the financial situation and signed with CBS Records for their next album, Sin After Sin (1977). Breaking their contract resulted in the rights to Sad Wings of Destiny and its demo recordings falling into Gull's hands. In retrospect, the album has received acclaim as one of the most important albums in Heavy Metal history, with the album's image and style going on to influence many later Metal bands, as well as later Judas Priest albums.
Background:
Judas Priest formed in September 1969 in industrial West Bromwich, Birmingham by lead vocalist/founding Al Atkins and bass guitarist/co-founding Brian "Bruno" Steppenhill, who chose the band's name, wanting one similar to Black Sabbath's. The bands were contemporaries and were both from Birmingham, though Judas Priest failed to find a significant audience until Black Sabbath began to fade from the spotlight. The band's guitarists Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing have said the heavy riffing and complexity of the song arrangements were inspired by the factories of Birmingham.
By the time Judas Priest's first album, Rocka Rolla, was released in 1974, there had been so many lineup changes that K.K Downing and Ian Hill were the only remaining original members. The first album displayed a mix of styles from a wide variety of influences, but the band found the performance and production disappointing. The band gigged occasionally through 1975, at times sharing the stage with bands such as Pink Fairies and UFO. Drummer John Hinch left the band for reasons that are disputed and was replaced with Alan Moore in October 1975, who had drummed in an early incarnation of the band.
The band performed the Dreamer Deceiver – Deceiver pair on BBC Two's The Old Grey Whistle Test the year before the songs appeared on Sad Wings of Destiny. They were frustrated with the BBC's volume restrictions, as high volume is a key component in producing a heavy-metal sound. The band had yet to develop the studs-and-leather image that was to become their trademark; instead, they wore contemporary mid-1970s fashions, including high-heeled boots and frilled shirts, and a long-haired Halford donned a pink satin top which he later said he borrowed from his sister. By 1976, the band's singer Rob Halford joked that fans should burn their copies of Rocka Rolla.
Finances were tight: the record label Gull provided a recording budget of £2,000 for each of the band's first two albums. During the recording of Sad Wings of Destiny, band members restricted themselves to one meal a day, and several took on part-time work: Tipton as a gardener, Downing in a factory, and Hill driving a delivery van. The group went into the studio with the intention of making an album that mixed straight-ahead Rock with a Progressive edge.
Album Production:
Recording took place over two weeks in November and December 1975 at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producers Jeffrey Calvert and Gereint "Max West" Hughes, and Chris Tsangarides as co-engineer. Calvert and Hughes were the main members of the pop group Typically Tropicalwho topped the UK charts in 1975 with Barbados, Gull's first hit. The band stayed sober during the recording sessions, which lasted from 3:00 pm until 3:00 am. Mixing took a week at Morgan Studios in London.
David Howells of Gull Records commissioned Patrick Woodroffe to provide the cover art, a piece called Fallen Angel depicting a struggling, grounded angel surrounded by flames and wearing a devil's three-pronged cross, which was the band's symbol. Halford posed Christ-like on the reverse, and Gothic fonts adorned the front and back.
The Songs:
The nearly eight-minute Victim of Changes displays a wide dynamic range in rhythm, texture, and mood, with heavy riffing, a melodic ballad section, and extended guitar leads. An almost classical-sounding twin-guitar introduction leads to the violent main riff. The lyrics tell of a woman whose hard-drinking results in losing her man to another woman. Inspired by Led Zeppelin's Black Dog, the heavy riff alternates with a cappella passages, Halford breaking into screaming falsettos during the slow break and dramatic conclusion of the song.
The track began as two songs: Whiskey Woman and Red Light Lady. Whiskey Woman was an early Priest song by Downing and Atkins that the band chose not to include on their first album, though it had long been a crowd-pleasing opener at live shows and features on early demo recordings. To this the band wove in the slow Red Light Lady, a song Halford brought with him from his previous band, Hiroshima.
The Ripper:
A busy, chugging, riff-heavy rocker, The Ripper features arrangements inspired by Queen–particularly in the high-pitched layered opening vocals and classical-tinged twin guitars. The lyrics of the Tipton-penned track are from the point of view of Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper.
A slow ballad with crooning vocals and screaming lead soloing, the song serves as introduction to the heavy Deceiver which follows it. Atkins originally received partial credit for both tracks, but disclaimed involvement in them; later releases removed it.
Deceiver:
A heavy song with a chugging riff presaging the technical style of Speed Metal, Deceiver features energetic soloing and a heavy, Black Sabbath-like break with soaring, high-pitched vocals, climaxing in a repetitive acoustic closing.
Prelude:
Prelude is a short baroque instrumental, alternating between the tonic and dominant, and is arranged for piano, synthesizer, guitars, and tom-tom drums. Despite the title, Prelude is musically unrelated to the following track, Tyrant.
Tyrant:
A heavy track full of many parts and tempo changes, Halford has said Tyrant expresses his "aversion towards any form of control".
Genocide:
A forward-looking, riff-heavy rocker, bearing the influence of heavy rockers such as the Deep Purpletracks Woman from Tokyo and Burn. Halford expressed hope that the song's "strong and graphic" lyrics would "be provocative and somewhat controversial and to stimulate people". The phrase "sin after sin" from the lyrics to Genocide provided the title to the band's next album.
Epitaph:
A quiet track with piano backing and Queen-like layered vocals, Halford said the lyrics to Epitaph express frustration at a lack of place for the young or old in modern cities.
Island of Domination:
The side-closing Island of Domination is a heavy rocker with a complex riff in a style reminiscent of Black Sabbath. Downing described the lyrics as personal to Halford, joking of their having "probably a few innuendoes".
The Albums Release:
Four days prior to Sad Wings of Destiny’s release (March 23, 1976), The Ripper appeared as a single backed with Island of Domination.
(The Ripper UK single, released by Gull on March 19, 1976)
The album was initially published and distributed by Janus Records in the United States.
Upon it’s release, Sad Wings of Destiny had the A-side and B-side reversed, so that Prelude opens the second side and Victim of Changes the first, while the sleeve has Prelude opening the first side.
The album had little commercial success at first and had difficulty getting noticed due to critical competition from the rise of Punk Rock. The band supported the album with a headlining tour of the UK from April 6th to June 20th, 1976.
The album peaked at No. 48 in the UK, and was awarded a gold record in 1989. Sad Wings of Destinyarrived at the same time as other influential Metal albums from the late 70's – the same year saw the release of Rising from Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and Virgin Killer from Scorpions.
The band had grown dissatisfied with Gull; the tight finances led Moore to leave the band a second time—this time permanently.
(Deceiver Japan single, released by Gull in March 1977)
The album caught the attention of CBS Records, and with the help of new manager David Hemmings, the band signed with CBS and received a £60000 budget for their next record, Sin After Sin (1977). Downing described how the disappointed feelings the group had over Gull's management influenced the dark themes that appeared on Sad Wings of Destiny.
The signing required breaking their contract with Gull, resulting in the rights to the first two albums and all related recordings—including demos—becoming property of Gull.
Gull periodically repackaged and re-released the material from these albums, such as on the 1981 double album Hero, Hero.
For the most part, the band was to abandon the Progressive Rock elements of their first two albums for a more straight-ahead Heavy Rock sound; the band revisited these Progressive elements in 2008 on the album Nostradamus.
Noteworthy:
The band also headlined a single show in July 1976 at the Roundhouse.
Reissues:
It was reissued via Koch Records in 2000 under license from Gull Entertainments Ltd. There were no bonus tracks for this release.
(My copy of the 2000 Koch Records Reissue)
The album was also reissued in 2012 as part of the seventeen-disc Complete Albums Collection The Sad Wings of Destiny disc puts the “Side B” tracks before those from "Side A". Prelude did not appear on some pressings.
Critical Reception & Album Legacy:
Fans, critics, and the band have come to see Sad Wings of Destiny as the album on which Judas Priest consolidated their sound and image. In Rolling Stone, Kris Nicholson gave the album a positive review, comparing it favourably to Deep Purple's Machine Head of 1972. Martin Popoff cites the album's "reinvention" of the Heavy Metal genre. The technical dexterity and operatic vocals pointed toward trends in Heavy Metal that New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands such as Iron Maiden were to follow, and the album's dark themes reappeared in the 1980s American Thrash Metal, such as in the music of Slayer and Metallica. An early sign of the band's influence was that Van Halen included Victim of Changes in their sets before achieving fame. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth relates that his brother-in-law punched him in the face for listening to Sad Wings of Destiny; Mustaine called this a turning point, where he chose Heavy Metal as a career as "revenge". Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opethnamed Sad Wings of Destiny his second favorite Metal album. PopMatters described the album as "not-at-all shabby" and listed Epitaph as one of its 25 Best Progressive Rock Songs of All Time in 2011. Halford has called the album his favorite of the band's.
Victim of Changes, The Ripper, Tyrant, and Genocide—with an extended introduction—appear on the band's first live album, Unleashed in the East (1979). The first three of those songs have survived until 2019 in the band's setlists, with Victim of Changes being one of the band's most played songs ever, while Genocide got retired in the early 1980s. With Dreamer Deceiver, Deceiver and Island of Domination present on 1975–76 set lists, 7 of the album's 9 songs have been performed in concert.
During the Sad Wings sessions, Howells encouraged the band to work on a Heavy Metal cover of Diamonds & Rust by folk singer Joan Baez, but it did not appear on the album. The band had a hit in the UK with a re-recording of the cover version the following year, after they had moved to CBS Records. Gull released the version from the Sad Wings sessions in 1978 on the compilation album The Best of Judas Priest.
Judas Priest's 1990 album Painkiller features a winged figure Halford has described as a futuristic version of the Fallen Angel from the Sad Wings of Destiny cover. The band's 2005 album Angel of Retribution—with Halford again in the band—revives the Fallen Angel again: the cover concept has the angel rise and seek retribution, and the song Judas Rising has him cast off his gloom and rise in optimism.
After Halford left the group in the 1990s, Tim Owens was hired to replace him after auditioning Victim of Changes and The Ripper. Downing and Tipton thereafter nicknamed Owens "The Ripper”. Judas Priest's original singer Al Atkins recorded a version of Victim of Changes for his album Victim of Changes of 1998. Judas Priest frequently performed the song Mother Sun during the Sad Wingsera, but never recorded it. The ballad, with its Queen-like vocals, has survived only in bootleg recordings. In 2014 Swedish Metal band Portrait released a cover version as a B-side on a 2014 CD single.
Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells
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