Screaming For Vengeance Special

I can never tell what I'm supposed to be hearing with these "remasters" ~ I'm never impressed and that hasn't changed here either.. I mean it was already "digital quality" on the last release and unless you're going back and forth between the two I seriously doubt the human ear could really tell a lot of difference.. other than the fact this new edition is LOUDER. One thing the original pressing has over this is the fact the Hellion intro into Electric Eye was a lot more accurate.. Once you start Electric Eye on this newer version, you will hear more of the Hellion.. doesn't really matter to me but it seemed worth noting. The "bonus track" Prisoner Of Your Eyes doesn't do a lot for me and the live recordings are competent but ---The US Festival is why you should buy this. I had waited a LONG time to hear this and was buying it sight unheard in the hopes it would at least sound "serviceable"... but...I have never before heard a mix this good of a live show! (I use a simple lil Sony 5.1 in-a-box sound system) WOW!! It almost seems too balanced as though there may be some slight of hand going on but I doubt it. I was at this show, a young lad more interested in Ozzy than Priest in those days but wisdom has caught up to me. We lived nearby and came up the night before and slept on the hood of my sisters car.. and were treated to the best damn concert in history the following day (NOT Van Halen)!! NOBODY sells a song or is more vested in his music than Rob Halford, simply watch Metal Gods from this show and you'll know what I mean..Make no mistake, Judas Priest absolutely owned the US Festival, here is your proof ~ start buying.

In short: This is how great music is done and performed. These five guys are the nuts and bolts that form the best well-oiled super metal machine that ever existed. Yes we have Zep, and we have Black Sabbath, but JUDAS is just AMAZING-out of this world. Mr. Halford and the band are at their peak here, both, recording one of the greatest metal albums SFV and during their live show at US Festival. For all metal bands of today this cd/dvd package should be looked up as their bible, as the blue prints on how to be a great metal band. Mr. Halford and the band show here that you don't need special effects, fancy equipment, computers, pyro, ego, jumping and screaming your lungs out with no sense of melody to be a great band. Judas Priest screams not onlhy for vengeance, they show you how screaming is done with art.There will never be another band like Judas Priest in the metal world. Long Live JP. Thanks Judas Priest for being part of US Festival, and to the promoters for releasing this live DVD of such a historic day. (sigh). 4 more US Festival bands to be released. The price of this package is worth every penny and more, and the icing on the cake, great bonus tracks were added as well. Need to say more?

I was at the US Festival 83 Heavy Metal Day and the line up was great, I had some favorite bands that I wanted to see and some of the bands I had only heard of -Judas Priest_ was a band I only heard of. I can still remember being towards the front of the stage and waiting to see what the band sounded like. Well as you can imagine, the sound of Judas Priest coming through a 50 foot stack of amps on the side of the stage was amazing, I remember thinking these guys Rock! and the sound of Halford's Harley blasting through those same amps actually made the ground in the park rumble, there was nothing like that. So after this CD/DVD reissue came out, the first thing I did was plug it into the DVD player to see how much of the concert I remembered and it was amazing to relive an event that I was at over 30 years ago. This DVD catches their performs "spot on".I just listened to the CD on the way home from work today and I have to admit that it has been many, many years, since I've listed to this album front to back, I have the greatest hits, but listening to the album today, I had forgotten how great all of the songs were. I'll be playing this cd for a while. My recommendation is; get it! They did crank up the volume but over all it's still pretty darn good. I would say that Defenders of the Faith is the one CD I was most disappointed in the remaster, they completely blew any sonic quality on that album. Screaming For Vengeance holds its own pretty well on the sonic end. I've heard better remasters, but this one is a 7 or 8 on the 1 to 10 scale.

The remaster of the album doesn't add much--I haven't spent much time analyzing that aspect.. The bonus tracks are decent. The live DVD/Bluray is excellent. If you are reading this and don't already have the album for some reason, get this. It is an excellent album.