Sad Wings of Destiny

The beginnings of a cataclysmic shift in heavy metal can be felt on *Sad Wings of Destiny*. To understand the album, one must view it in its context. The \'70s were in their latter half, Sabbath and Led Zeppelin had long since peaked, and hard rock was in desperate need of a new jolt of electricity. With “The Ripper,” “Deceiver,” and “Tyrant,” Judas Priest delivered the jolt, and nothing has been the same since. As the rest of music surrendered to the gauzy pop of Abba, The Carpenters, and Elton John, Priest’s response was to turn hard rock into something leaner, fiercer, and more piercing than anything before. As proud as a pack of marauding pirates, Priest delivered squealing masterpieces like “Genocide” and “Island of Domination” with a fervor that resounded across the metal landscape. Priest had not completely outgrown the ponderous jams of their early years (headbangers have been skipping “Prelude” and “Epitaph” for decades) but by 1976 the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was definitely beginning to crest.

Sad Wings of Destiny is the second studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 23 March 1976 by 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.

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Perhaps none was quite as important as Judas Priest's sophomore effort, Sad Wings of Destiny, which simultaneously took heavy metal to new depths of darkness and new heights of technical precision.

Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny review: The perfect Judas Priest album.