Rocka Rolla

It really isn't fair to compare Rocka Rolla to anything else in the Priest catalogue, because firstly it just doesn't sound like them, even Rob Halford's voice where he tries to hit too many low notes, which definitely isn't his strength, and it sounds weak and awkward. Anyway, this is definitely not heavy metal, but a mix of the blues and whatever early rock acts Judas Priest was inspired by such as Queen, Fleetwood Mac, maybe even Budgie. With that in mind, this record has aged horrible. There are very little memorable moments, and almost every track feels like it starts and ends like a mistake.

The title track is probably the heaviest track on the album, and even then it's just shit. There are some lazy chord progressions under a generic chorus that could've been written by 100 other bands. Still, the prominent part of this record is dominated by "progressive" instrumental sections ornamented with keyboards and some seriously sluggish delivery from Halford, feeling like some of the longer songs spend too much time doing nothing, while the shorter songs on the first half feel under-developed. This, at its core, leaves a very aimless and ultimately mediocre album.

Even sat here listening to Rocka Rolla for the 300th time, nothing feels cohesive or catchy, which is worsened by a 4-track amalgamation of ambience and directionless riffing. The worst of this is Winter Retreat, a bloated, vapid waste of 4 minutes, opening with some useless noise effects followed by an acoustic passage that brings nothing, because it contradicts the harsh noise, and also doesn't transition well into Cheater, which is admittedly one of the much better songs on here. Yes, it's important to note that this was 1974, and it was probably much more impactful back then, but that defence becomes redundant when you realise that Sad Wings of Fucking Destiny came out just 18 months later.

Tragically, Rocka Rolla is more boring than anything, leaving too many half- baked ideas just bleeding out, sometimes for more than 6 minutes. The closer Caviar and Meths is another useless track, it sounds halfway between elevator music and some jazz lounge act. I supposed the one song that could be considered actually progressive is Run of The Mill, ironically the only evocative, standout track on the album. There's some awesome soloing throughout the song, foreshadowing the absolute heavy metal ecstasy of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton just a few years from this point. Even then, at a point it just wraps back around to the omnipresent boring, middle-paced bluesy trudge that is outdated and just feels improvised on the spot at times. Overall, there are very few albums from legendary acts that I would ignore as part of the discography, but Rocka Rolla is such a stale, pointless stain on an otherwise perfect run for a decade that will probably only worsen the experience for newcomers to the Priest. Skip this.

Judas Priest's debut not only represents the beginning of the their career, but also a reinvention in metal music, a response to the heavy metal style created by Black Sabbath, though it maintains certain components from the latter. While Black Sabbath made the Earth shake with their doomish sound, Judas Priest bet for a more dynamic proposal, which is still however, staying on the Led Zeppelin's progressive lands at this point. Furthermore, influences from Zep are highly noticeable throughout the album, as much as it is possible to spot out certain ideas from Deep Purple and others from Wishbone Ash in a minor proportion.

Because of the album's bluesy sound and the fact that it is not heavy enough when compared to subsequent works, Priest's debut is not so appreciated, and much less, it is in the favorites of a relevant portion of the band's fan base. Nonetheless, what the Britons project throughout the album is rather interesting for the standards of the mid-70s: an era in which you were supposed to sound like an acid proggy band. The three-song combo "Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat" and "Run of the Mill" reflect an interesting Zep-meets-Sabbath attack and a Floyd-inspired proggy style at certain passages. A separate mention should be awarded, on the other hand, for "Never Satisfied", which is the album highlight and is a prototypical number with components that would be featured afterwards. Throughout its almost 5 minutes, this number provides pretty much an idea on how the riff base of Judas Priest would be in the at least the following 2 or 3 releases, and on the type of guitar solos that would be expected from the legendary trademark twin-guitar duo.

The rest of the album moves pretty much towards that proggy style with three exceptions: the opening number, the title track and "Cheater". All of them are faster paced numbers built in hippie-hard rock blueprint which guided the sound of the scene back in the late 60s. Nothing killer if compared with the songs mentioned above, though they are still acceptable. In general, the album presents good arguments, and it is at least better than some others released afterwards, but too limited when compared with other juggernauts from the band's catalog, starting with the next album which is highly improved in terms of songwriting.

You can also read this review in https://antichristmagazine.com/review-judas-priest-rocka-rolla-gull/

Judas Priest is another band that I need to give absolutely no introduction to. If you're currently looking at this review, or even looking at this website, you more than likely know Judas Priest (or should be here to rectify that immediately if you're one of the few that don't!) Halford, Tipton, Downing, and Hill's first effort ended up with "Rocka Rolla." Priest has always had a revolving door of drummers for most of their career, and John Hinch got the honors for the debut. Like most bands, Judas Priest didn't start out with a legendary release. They still had a lot of growing to do before they'd hit the status we all know and love them at as now. I am also one of the people that are of the opinion that "Rocka Rolla" was a fine debut, but really nothing remotely special.

Without having the foresight in knowing what Judas Priest would go on to become, if you listen to "Rocka Rolla" by itself, you could very easily think this was just another album by some random one and done band from the 70's. While it's a solidly enjoyable album, there's very little uniquely Priest or defining about it. I actually think the title track is quite a bit of fun. The riffing is pretty weak, and I wouldn't call the verse melodies some of Halford's best, but Hill's bass work has a lot of energy, and the chorus is electric. It's got that 'classic rock' style catchiness to it that just does not leave your head. One listen, and it's in your head for the rest of the day. The following solo is just as memorable. Best of all, it doesn't overstay its welcome. "One for the Road" is the other track that I find myself coming back to. Halford shows off some of his signature high notes that he'd only improve on later. It's a song that has the framework of what would be signature 70's Priest. Halford's notes, and the smooth, detailed, memorable guitar parts. The verse melodies are more memorable than the chorus is. Halford is grooving perfectly with the guitars, and it shows what a tight band Priest was. Even at this point, they were tight musicians, even if the track itself isn't much better than average.

However, for every decent track "Rocka Rolla" might have to it, it has a "Run of the Mill." "Run of the Mill" gets going with rather pretty guitar parts which Halford is a perfect fit over. It gives you the false impression that the song is going to be an epic that's really going to be building on itself. But the heavier parts are almost random. They're very disjointed and just sound juvenile. The tightness I just bragged about Priest having above is definitely not there for the heavier sections of "Run of the Mill." The track has no business being the length it is, either. While the song will go on to add some small bits of energy and progression, the very foundation of it remains the same throughout. There's no build where there should be. It's just a pretty bluesy rock track that shows no clear purpose. "Never Satisfied" is another extremely dull offering. The riffs across it have the sad combination of not being very good but also being quite repetitive. Halford's melodies match the repetition, so when your few note melodies are repetitive, it really shows. The solo section has a slightly odd time signature, but it's another example of 'just because you can, doesn't mean you should.' It comes off as pretty random and unimpressive yet again. John Hinch, who throughout this album is generally a competent drummer for what it's going for, is lost during this section. Instead of doing a cool fill or pattern like another drummer might, he just hits each tom twice in order. It's drumming as rudimentary as it gets in a section that is supposed to show some chops from the band.

While "Dying to Meet You" is also far from a stellar track as well, it has a memorable riff, and Halford is using his much lower register on the song which he'd do much less of later in his career. It's really cool to hear him showcasing the other side of his voice than he is known for. "Dying to Meet You" would have been a much better track if the band had wrote it after they had a bit more experience. I think if this song came even a few albums later when Priest would have had at least a bit more experience in polishing their songwriting, this would have been a really memorable track from their first decade. The fact that the end of the song changes tempos and gets a little heavier shows that Priest knew the concept of good songwriting, but just didn't have the experience to execute it. Instead, "Dying to Meet You" leaves us with another okay-at-best experience that has the seeds of something great but can't hit the mark.

One of my favorite things about Judas Priest is that they almost reinvent themselves every decade. 70's Priest, 80's Priest, and 90's-Present Priest all sound extremely different, and it's not uncommon to find fans of the band that might just like one of these eras. Or might like one or two but not the third. For me, each era has both one phenomenal album, and one that's pretty good while the rest are kind of just there. "Rocka Rolla" is in the later half for 70's Priest. There's not much to hate about it, there's not much to really sink your teeth into, it's just kind of there. If you're a big fan of 70's style rock, or are a big Priest fan, there's definitely enough going on with "Rocka Rolla" to give it a spin, but I can't see all that many people wanting to come back with much frequency. Priest was here; now they just needed to make a splash.

Described by my good friend as “Rush’s debut album with winter depression,” the legend-status band Judas Priest has a debut that’s also fun to look back on in comparison to everything they’ve done in the nearly 50-year timespan. As most know now, Rocka Rolla was the cold foundation built on bluesy/doomy hooks, working well beside their counterparts of the time. Somewhat an inconsistent release, it manages to find charm in the vague direction. But sidestepping the obvious, there’s plenty to dig up.

For a band never known for being huge on suspense, Rob Halford and co. certainly hid plenty of it here. The entire disc can be summarized by working as a plethora of gazy and dreary scapes of noodling that work up to a release, oftentimes being catchy. Most notably, we’re looking at the “Winter / Deep Freeze / Retreat” trilogy that invokes confusion and dysphoria through unsettling noise, and softer licks. This works wonderfully breaking into the famous proto-metal banger “Cheater.”

Unfortunately, the back half of this doesn’t swing this style in a way that leaves quite as strong an impression. Executed almost identically, it deals in bleak passages combined with hard riff surprises, and clean licks. A fun trip, especially when we hit that break on “Dying To Meet You,” or the Stranglehold-esque vibes in “Never Satisfied” before that song even existed; it just feels overshadowed by the front. There’s also the bias factor of the stacking against the opening one-two punch, arguably the strongest standalone tracks. They have to count for something.

Weird progression and inconsistency aside, there’s so much to get out of Rocka Rolla that I find myself returning often; especially in these colder times. The strong moments are incredible, the weak moments are forgivable, and the experience as a whole is desirable.

When it comes to debut albums, some are born with the gift of being legendary and others are no more than less transcendental, as they use to be overshadowed by their successor album. But what most obscure them is the critical perception as they unfairly vilified them. This has happened with Killing Is My Bussiness, Morbid Visions, Obsessed By Cruelty... and Rocka Rolla is no exception. You could say that each Judas Priest album is a different world, and there are "twin" albums which one really always stands out, therefore Rocka Rolla is the younger brother of "Sad Wings of Destiny" due to the rock music orientation it has. While this album offers everything you expect from a rock band from 1970s, their next stuff reinvents the wheel on a more masterful level. This album is really good and maybe my rating is too high for anyone who met these guys listening to British Steel or Screaming For Vengeance.

If you're a fan of the most innovative, hooker heavy metal, yeah, I recommend to listen this one when you're in a good mood. This album features many passages, preludes and interludes with bluesy touches, which would have less prominence on their next work. "Run of the Mill" justifies the whole album as it presents an astral halo with those organ effects which is succeeded by one of the best performances you can expect from Rob Halford. Rob's vocal lines here are more disciplined and flawless than on his 80s records. I actually divide this band (or rather Halford) into two stages: their first Rocka Rolla-Stained Class period, and their Killing Machine-Painkiller heyday period. Not even the second period can offer such an epic, astral journey as Run of the Mill, the one that One Shot At Glory can't even offer, without detracting this last one since it reached fields that the band had not explored until then.

This is more reminiscent of first Sabbath album, although the use of harmonicas are more discreet than in Sabbath's debut. Perhaps Rocka-Rolla has not yet defined the band's sound, but that doesn't make it a less worthy album. There are solos and riffs far more memorable than the ones of their new releases. So, you must have an open mind and face this album understanding the circumstances and admit to your collection such immortal gems as Never Satisfied or Run Of The Mill, because in the last one there's one of the best vocal performances in Halford's career. Some songs were recorded in 1974 but they were released off on Sad Wings for record label reasons, and I understand why many don't love this gray sheep so much, as the discarded compositions took a bit of time in order to be rewritten and perfected.

It was an album that firstly left me a strange impression, neither bad nor good, yet over the years I discover that they have experimental albums with good and bad results. Anyone would put this debut at the level of Point of Entry or some bad record of them, and yes, it doesn't have anthems with catchy choruses like British Steel, nor Painkiller's speediness or Stained Class guitar skills. I admit without shame that this little brother of Sad Wings of Destiny transmits the hippie, hard rock spirit in the purest Priest style. Even for a live recorded album (i.e. not mixed per track), this is too amazing. With my rating I'm not saying it's one of their best (on the Judas Priest scale if you ask) but surely a colossal record in its own right, leaving aside the irrational point of view that initiated fans have about this.

Judas Priest's debut is a odd ball in their classic catalog due to being completely overshadowed by their sophomore effort Sad Wings of Destiny in 1976 with that record being considered the "true" start of Judas Priest as a metal band. While I do agree to a certain extent Rocka Rolla is definitely a solid debut and shows a more hard rock/classic rock sounding Judas Priest. Most Judas Priest fans tend to skip over this one but there is some stellar tracks on here and to me it's a shame this album doesn't get lumped in with their other classics by some fans. This album is the only album to feature John Hinch on drums as the band would cycle through different drummers for the next few records.

The production/mix here is pretty damn good in my opinion it has that classic 70s vibe to it and everything is super clear and audible. No instruments aren't heard or drowned out everything is pretty level in volume. Halford sounds as good as ever even during this era the dude never fails to perform. Glenn and KK don't have the heaviest guitar tone here but they still crafted some classic and memorable riffs right off the bat with Rocka Rolla and would continue to do so for the next 16 years with the band. Ian Hill cuts through with ease and you can hear his bass lines with no issues. Hinch's drums are thin sounding and super articulate his playing really suited this more classic rock type of vibe the band started out with really well.

The tracks on Judas Priest's debut are pretty damn good not all of them but majority of the songs here deliver. The album starts with "One For The Road" which has this swing feel to it and is quite catchy. Next is the title track which is slightly up beat and kind of has a 50's rock vibe to it especially during the chorus part. I may be wrong but it just has the vibe to me it isn't one of the best songs on here but still pretty damn good. After this the record kind of nosedives a bit with the nest 3 tracks "Winter", "Deep Freeze", and "Winter Retreat" these seem like they should have just been one long song but instead they broke them up into 3 separate tracks and honestly they don't do much for me and cause the record to go stagnant after 2 solid songs.

The album starts back up again with "Cheater" which sort of drags along but its not a bad song that drags in a way it has a sassy type of vibe to it with harmonica laced through out its run time, overall a decent track. Next is my favorite song from this record "Never Satisfied" which has a killer opening riff and guitar solo. This song is hands down a classic and wish the band busted this one out live sometimes. "Run of the Mill" is a mellow track that clocks in at 8 and a half minutes, its a semi ballad that builds up and has a mix of heavy riffs and mellow parts and overall is a really good tune. "Dying to Meet You" is set up just like "Run of the Mill" but slightly shorter a semi ballad with a mix of heavier parts and more mellow soothing guitar parts. The last track "Caviar and Meths" is a short instrumental that closes the album but doesn't really do much.

In Conclusion I do think is the one of the more under appreciated Judas Priest records and I would go to say in my own personal opinion I would take this record over anything the band has done post Painkiller, It's that good to me. I know this isn't heavy metal Judas Priest yet but I would urge anyone who is a fan of the band to delve into Rocka Rolla as it contains some really good material. The material on this record set the course for what was to come in the future for Judas Priest and for me I think Rocka Rolla is a great debut. for 1974 this album is pretty stellar not every track is great but for what it is worth I feel most Judas Priest fans or fans of 70's hard rock would really get a kick out of this record.

Aww “Rocka Rolla”, what an....interesting way to start ones genre defining career. To be completely honest this album was probably either one of my last or the last Judas Priest albums I listened to in full. Now “Rocka Rolla” is nowhere a bad album, matter of fact I think it’s a good / decent album, but it is lacking a lot of the charm and interesting writing that Judas Priest would have later with their next release “Sad Wings Of Destiny” and beyond. What’s interesting is that some songs that would be highly influential in the metal genre such as “Tyrant” and “Ripper” that was written by recently joined Glenn Tipton was actually cut from “Rocka Rolla” and makes me wonder if this album would have been more well received and revered from critics and audiences if they weren’t cut. Just an interesting “what could have been”.

With the writing on the album, the original member / frontman, Al Atkins, had some of his material appear on “Rocka Rolla”. You can really tell that this release is a transitional period between the Al Atkins era and the classic Priest era as the songs that Atkins wrote feel more fitted to him vocally than it does Rob Halford. Compared to what would come next, the albums writing is pretty simple and feels calm and carefree to listen to. I don’t personally find a good portion of the soloing and riffs to be overtly complex but there’s some real nice soloing to be found here that is a little more intricate in “Never Satisfied”, “Run Of The Mill”, and “Dying To Meet You”. If there’s two songs that would give a hint to that “leather and chains” feel that later Judas Priest material would adorn, it would probably be found in “Cheater” and “Rocka Rolla” as Robs gruffer side seeps out. Overall the whole album is written as a simple affair with little treats for the hardcore Priest fans to pick apart and recognize where their distinct sound came from.

I found the performances to be the best aspect of the album as this is a Rob Halford, Ian Hill, Glen Tipton, and K.K. Downing in their prime after all. John Hinch, who provides his only appearance on a studio album with Judas Priest behind the drums, also offers a well rounded performance. Ian Hills bass is very audible and has every much of a presence as Tipton and Downings slick guitars. The bass isn’t written with much variation outside sticking with the rhythm of the song but I do like how tight it is and hits you with its loudness. John Hinch gives a very tight performance but I do wish he was able to dish out more of those jazz-rock influences throughout the album.

Tipton and Downing really complement each other as they always have and this album is no exception. From their more melodic somber moments in the last half of “Rocka Rolla” to their more classic metal / hard rock / bluesy sound in “One For The Road”, “Rocka Rolla”, and “Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat/Cheater”, Tipton and Downing know how to play to each other’s strengths. Finally Rob Halford makes a great impression here as he brings a tame yet sturdy performance. His operatic singing would come out more in later releases but you can find his higher yells and squeals in “Dying To Meet You” or “Run Of The Mill”.

Now moving over to what I found to be the worst aspect of the album is the production. From background information gathered by the band it seemed that there was technical issues during the studio sessions. There’s a noticeable hiss or static found in all the songs that detract a little from the listening experience. It’s not the worst in the world but it is something that adherently effects the quality. Add that along with the fact that they also preformed the whole album live in the studio and you get...well...this.

All in all “Rocka Rolla” isn’t really much of a memorable album, outside of possibly the song “Run Of The Mill”, but I don’t think it’s a bad album in the least. It’s mostly a simple written record wrapped in a gentle identity (fun fact; most of these songs were much heavier during live shows before the recording process but somehow that gentle nature bloomed on this record). I don’t think simplicity makes something of lower quality as the execution is what really matters and I feel “Rocka Rolla” achieves that for the most part. If you’re not really a big Judas Priest fan then this debut probably won’t sway your feelings to like more of their music but if you are a fan, I recommend at least checking it out once, it might just rock ya ah little.

The first five years of metal titans Judas Priest is an incredible tale I would suggest learning about. They first formed from the ashes of a group called Jug Blues Band in 1969, wrote two songs, toured their home country but disbanded within a year. Vocalist/songwriter Alan Atkins joined a local band who swiftly changed their name to Judas Priest as a way to elevate their traction in an overcrowded circuit. From January 1970 to April 1973 the band composed a dozen songs before one of the most ironic shifts in music history happened.

In April of 1973, strapped for cash, taken longer than their contemporaries to get a record deal, and on the brink of collapse, Atkins stepped down as singer. He was replaced within a month by Rob Halford and while no one could deny that this move was for the best, it overshadows just how superb Atkins was, and still is, as a vocalist and songwriter.

Because of this shift, the bands debut Rocka Rolla is a transitional one, a conscientious evolution from two diametrically opposed front voices. Rob had only been in the band for a year by the time Rocka Rolla was recorded so each composition with the name Atkins attached sounds disjointed. Halford is a vocal god, and in some ways already was by 22, but these songs were composed for a voice Rob had not perfected yet, a raspy mid range timbre with bellowing wails.

More than just disjointed though, a big mark against the debut is how gentle and virulent it is, which is unfortunate. Any soul who heard these songs before this was recorded (circa 1971 - 1974) knows this does not do the band justice in anyway. The music was heavier and harder than it comes across here, leaving Rocka Rolla so totally unmatched that it makes Point Of Entry sound like Firepower. Most of the songs sound thin and brittle, bereft of inspiration, due to vacuous production.

It is easy to point to Rodger Bain’s production as the weakest link but I think the blame falls on circumstance mostly and, to lesser extent, the band themselves. They were naive and the only member with studio experience had left to be a family man. Just like Rodger gets a lot of flack for his role here, he gets many defenders because of his work with Sabbath’s first three immortal classics. What those defenders forget was that Rodger had the services of the legendary Tom Allom who engineered those same three albums. Of course Tom Allom has now produced seven of Judas Priest’s eighteen studio albums and four of their six live albums, all of which are expertly handled, so perhaps he was the missing link in the production chair for the debut.

No matter the faults of production, the more significant culprit for this albums failure is the naive songwriting. This album was recorded only weeks after Glenn Tipton had joined and his lack of ideas is a glaring flaw. The band was not only still trying to find an identity with a new vocalist, but now another member who is an absolute tour-de-force creatively. Adding Tipton has proven to be one of the greatest additions to any established band in history, but he is very underused here. So what about the album itself? What makes it so bad? Are there some good ideas to be found?

The songs on this album written (at least partially) by the recording lineup are:
One For the Road
Rocka Rolla
Winter Retreat
Cheater
Run Of the Mill
Dying to Meet You

Of these six tracks, only one carries an actual progression, which is Run of the Mill, the only real highlight of the album, its one saving grace. Of the five other tracks, they boast a grand total of nine riffs. I am not being hyperbolic about that, nine riffs in five songs! Winter Retreat has zero and Rocka Rolla has the most with three. The lack of riffs in these five songs would be acceptable if there were good ideas but the only idea worth noting is in Dying to Meet You. The band made two completely different songs and put them together, an idea fully realized two albums later with Let Us Prey/Call For the Priest. The compositions of all six of these songs are lifeless, deliberately plodding in place, as if in molasses.

The songs on this album written by the previous lineup (including Atkins) are:
Winter
Deep Freeze
Never Satisfied
Caviar & Meths

To demonstrate the albums flaws I need only discuss the two biggest offenders here, which are Never Satisfied and, especially, Caviar & Meths. The few scattered bootlegs from the Atkins era as well as his rendition some twenty years later both reveal Never Satisfied had a blues-laden acoustic intro before coming to life in a vivid display of equal part aggression and speed. Whoever made the decision to drop the acoustic intro and slow down the progression took an anthem and made it a complete bore. The solo break, and its strange 19/16 time, is one of few clever ideas the album can boast but the song never goes anywhere, and is played too slow here for having just 2 total riffs. Between this being the most known song from the album and the one Priest chose to represent it at recent retrospective concerts, on top of being incredibly weak, quite frankly, this is the weakest composition Judas Priest has ever attached their names to. Not to put too fine a point on this but Never Satisfied remains the only song in the Priest catalog where someone else did a better job than Rob Halford.

Gull Records are notorious for both mismanaging and driving away the priceless gem of a band they had signed, as well as coasting a half century on Rocka Rolla, Sad Wings of Destiny, and a few scattered demos. I am positive then when I state that no one regrets the ditching of this lineups recordings of Caviar & Meths more than Gull Records. Oh, what could have been...

Speaking of Caviar And Meths, it was first penned by Al Atkins in 1971 and remains the crowning achievement of his long and storied career. The song is very dramatic, its narrative tastefully woven with the punishing riffage, an idea used later in Victim Of Changes, it was heavy and intense, the riffs biting with metallic might and inflections that mirrored the lyrics. The song begun life as a two and half minute number in the vein of Bo Diddley that evolved through live performances and rehearsals to become highly emotional, with Atkins in a woeful soliloquy about life in the most depressing of natures. Painting a vivid picture of brutal enslavement, where every soul has next to no future, only alive to harness enough energy to keep their masters in well financial standing. A tale that might have been personal for growing up in post-WW2 England but appears to, unfortunately, have a timeless quality to them.

"Never to own. Always to strive. Just want a little piece of something, in this life".

The song that began life as a two minute block of plodding blues and evolved alongside the band who made it to a fourteen minute epic is reduced back to a two minute block of guitar noodling, utterly destroying all traces of Al Atkins in the band in the process. To hell with you, Gull Records.

"Want to be like you, want to see your views. Want to taste your life of ease".

The biggest irony here is that the extreme poverty the song speaks of gave us the Judas Priest we know today, had the band come from better fortunes, Atkins would have never left, he was only forced out by circumstances. As much as one can sympathize with Atkins, even he agrees that he would have never done what Rob Halford had and losing him has been a fair trade considering what these metal pioneers have given the world of music ever since. That does not excuse the injustice done to this one song though, it is unforgivable.

It is not like this was just Atkins’ song and was dropped after he exited, the band continued playing it as their encore during Halford’s first two years with the band, including the tour to support this very album, which was its very last. While the song was shortened by a good four minutes, it still kept the core section and was recorded as a demo, which Gull Records has ‘misplaced’ in some way.

That might be a lot to say about what is, on just a musical level, a pretty bad album but I also feel that its failure overshadows just how creative early Priest was. I would suggest any person interested in this album, or any Priest fan who is otherwise unaware of them, to listen instead to the albums Atkins made after his departure. Every Judas Priest song he ever had a hand in writing he has rerecorded and is the only way to hear a take on how these songs were all those decades ago.

As for Rocka Rolla, download the song Run Of the Mill, the first half of Dying to Meet You and avoid all the rest.

"Rocka Rolla" is the debut studio album by legendary heavy metal band Judas Priest. "Rocka Rolla" shows quite the different Priest compared to their more well known 80's works and even their other 70's albums to some extent. As with many early heavy metal acts, Judas Priest began with a blues-based form of heavy metal. While they would still have hints of this sound on the following few albums, this debut remains a pretty unique album in their discography.

Many of the songs from this album were actually co-written by Al Atkins, who was Judas Priest's frontman and vocalist preceding Rob Halford. However, once he had a family to take care of, he left the band in May 1973. Al Atkins later made his versions of some early Judas Priest songs on his "Victim of Changes" solo album, which includes a longer version of 'Caviar and Meths' which was originally a 14-minute long song to be released on "Rocka Rolla" but sadly shortened down to only the 2-minute long intro as the final song featured on the album. It's a shame, because listening to the longer Al Atkins version, it sounds like it would have been a fantastic epic. The whole history of the album and the early years of Priest are actually quite fascinating, so if that sounds interesting I would highly recommend reading about it. Now that I've finished mentioning some of the history, on to the music.

Most of the songs are blues-y hard rock/heavy metal tunes, with the heavier tracks resembling the likes of Black Sabbath. The opening two tracks, 'One for the Road' and the title track, are examples of the blues-y hard rock sound, the latter in particular being a nice catchy tune. After the 'Winter' suite, one of my favorite songs 'Cheater' comes. There's a nice galloping drum beat, blues-y harmonica, and Halford's vocals are killer. There's also the epic 'Run of the Mill', which has some nice dark diminished chords reminiscent of Sabbath. However, it changes sound quite regularly, with beautiful slow guitar/bass work that reminds me of parts of Eloy epics. There is also some fantastic soloing shortly following, and in typical epic fashion it certainly has a climatic ending with some great screams from Halford.

My favorite on the album has to be 'Dying to Meet You', which opens up with a killer blues-y bassline before getting dark guitar work. Halford's vocals sound pretty different at the beginning, being much more lower-pitched then what he's known for. His low bluesy tone shown here sounds really nice, but he wouldn't really ever sing like this again. However, the song eventually picks up in speed with Halford's classic higher vocals and more great galloping guitar.

Overall, while not my ultimate favorite Judas Priest album, it's still among my favorites and an amazing album especially for a debut. It's interesting to listen to this more blues-y form of the Priest, and I think it's essential listening to hear what this legendary band sounded in the beginning.

Attribution: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/review/rocka-rolla/296712

Judas Priest with the biggest and possibly the only heavy metal producer at the time... Rodger Bain! The boys in Priest thought the producer of the first 3 Black Sabbath albums could make them into one of the next biggest metal bands but they would unfortunately wait another two years for that happen because Rodger Bain had other plans in mind. Leaving later classics from the album such as The Ripper, Genocide, Tyrant and the epic Victim of Changes (titled Whiskey Women at this time) resulted in a very bluesy album different to the Metal Gods we all know and love today.

The album turns out to be a bluesy mess without a direction although amongst the mess are standout tracks such as the title track and Run To The Mill with Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing showing off their new found powers with their twin lead guitar although not to the extent of intro of Victim Of Changes for example. A few songs off this album were written suited more to former singer Al Atkins' bluesy like voice which did not show Rob's full abilities with his high pitched screams and growls that we all know today.

The music has more of a bluesy feel compared to the albums that were gonna come after this. Ballads like Run To The Mill gives a glimpse of what was to come with songs like Dreamer Deceiver and Beyond The Realms Of Death on the next album. The title track and Never Satisfied show what Judas Priest could do with Glenn and K.K. doing twin leads on the former and the latter being known so well to be played on the band's Epitaph tour which was meant to be their farewell.

The main problem that Priest fans find with this album is that it simply doesn't sound like classic Priest. All of their albums were different in a way but all retained a heavy metal feel to it but this one really doesn't. Maybe if Bain decided to add all of the classic songs that were cut off from this album, it would have resulted in a much better album. The future holds quite a lot for Priest though....

For a band as revolutionary in the heavy metal genre as Judas Priest, it may come as a surprise that their debut album, far from being a groundbreaking explosion, is a rather conservative album. Not just by the standards of our modern era where anything softer than Gorgoroth or Suffocation could be deemed "not heavy enough", but conservative for it's own time as well. Released in 1974, when Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple had been pumping out release after release of heavy blues rock since 1969, Judas Priest were late comers as far as record releases are concerned, and had yet to develop both the distinct musical and visual style that so many metal fans associate with Priest (look for a video of Judas Priest performing "Rocka Rolla on British television at the time and you will see exactly what I mean). What we have on "Rocka Rolla", their debut LP is fairly simple hard rock/early heavy metal in the vein of Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin and Ted Nugent, with subtle hints of the beast that was not yet unleashed.

There are two elements on this album that distinguish Priest from the other bands around this time, the first being the vocals of Rob Halford. Even early on, his range is fantastic and its clear that his voice has been the most consistent part of Judas Priest's sound (minus the time he wasn't in the band). His voice is better suited to the rockers than to the ballads on this album; his voice still sounds great on the soft parts of "Run of the Mill", but its when the guitars grow loud that he lets his voice loose.

The guitar work of K.K Downing and Glen Tipton is the second distinguishing factor, though to a lesser degree. In the riffs for the title track, "One for the Road" and the heavy sections of the other songs, they show traces of the guitar work they would be most remembered for. For the most part, there isn't much of the "twin guitar solo attack", and their style remains firmly rooted in the hard and progressive rock tendencies of the age. The occasional use of a blues harmonica and Pink Floyd-esque sound on "Winter Retreat" and "Run of the Mill" are reminders of the time the album was released, with the closest indicators of the classic Judas Priest sound lurking in "Cheater, the later half of "Dying to Meet You", and the title track. Though I'm not much of a production freak, I couldn't help but feel that the sound of the electric guitars was a little too tame for what Judas Priest appeared to be going for on this album-especially when the producer is Roger Bain, who produced the first three Black Sabbath albums.

If you are a huge Judas Priest fan but have not yet heard this album, I recommend that you do so to see the roots of one of heavy metal's greatest bands; whether you will actually enjoy the album will depend on whether you like early 70s hard rock with a few progressive influences. There is nothing in "Rocka Rolla" that is abysmal, and I rather enjoy the title track, but compared to what they would soon be releasing, "Rocka Rolla" seems too mundane and doesn't seem that much different from any other band at the time. You will definitely find a track or two on here that you will be listening to again and again, but it's unlikely that you will give the album as a whole the same treatment.

This is Judas Priest's very first album. The first from a band we would later regard as being "The Metal Gods". It was released during the time that the band couldn't keep a drummer for too long, and had just began to embrace the idea of having a second guitarist (Glenn Tipton was brought in during the album's recording to do some additional guitar parts). The band already had a lot of original material that won over their audiences during shows, and all that was left to do before going on an upward spiral of success was to record these songs in a studio and release them as an album.

However, things didn't quite turn out as planned. Priest ended up with producer Rodger Bain, who, although had production work for some of the classic Black Sabbath albums on his resumé, did a poor job here. He had too much control over the album and left off most of the fan favourites. The album's sound also suffered in the process, and it flopped upon release. It would seem as though the structuring/ordering of tracks wasn't properly thought out, either. "Winter", "Deep Freeze" and "Winter Retreat" form a single piece of music that doesn't really need to be split into three. There is no one part that is any better than, or much different to the others, really. "Dying To Meet You" contains a hidden song known as "Hero, Hero", though it is only the penultimate track on the album, whereas usually hidden tracks are found at the very end of an album. It seems unnecessary to combine these two songs when the "Winter" piece is split into three.

The material itself isn't all that bad, but it's a rather far cry from the powerful brand of heavy metal they would create in later years. Even its album cover is very unlike the iconic covers that were made for their later albums (Paying homage to Coca Cola on an album cover is hardly the sort of thing you'd expect from Priest). The music is much more in the vein of Led Zeppelin influenced hard/blues rock with some progressive elements. The straight hard rock songs here, such as "One For The Road", the underrated title track, "Cheater" and "Never Satisfied", generally work better than the songs that attempt to be progressive, and it is through the hard rock tracks that the band shines the most on this album.

Singer Rob Halford's vocals are consistently solid through the album, but are short of anything groundbreaking at this early stage in Priest's career. It's also worth noting that this was long before the world knew of Halford's homosexuality, and some of the album's songs are explicitly about women, the title track and "Cheater" especially, the latter in which he sings "You cheating bitch! Here's what I think of you!", likely an attempt to display masculinity. This does also mean that the album is somewhat on the cliché side, and Halford was yet to make an attempt at expressing his homosexuality through S&M leather and the like, and none of the other members were indulging in that stuff, either. In fact, they were going through a hippie phase during this time period!

Rocka Rolla is an album that is rather lacking in focus, which is not helped by the poor production, and the decision to cut down what was supposed to be a 14-minute epic to a meaningless 2-minute instrumental ("Caviar and Meths"). Half of the album has progressive tendencies that generally fall flat, whilst the other half does contain some solid hard rock with stellar guitar work from both Tipton and K.K. Downing. The band's potential isn't fully demonstrated here, but what we do hear of it is no real disappointment. This album has been ignored by most, picked up mainly by aspiring Priest completists, and it will likely remain that way. But some of the songs here are definitely worth checking out by any hard rock and heavy metal fan.

It's not every day that I review an album as old as I am. Sure, I've got a month on Rocka Rolla (the album, not the single), having emerged from the womb of my unknown mother (I like to think it's Satan) in August of '74, but I don't think that there's any question the Judas Priest debut has aged far better than I have. Not that I'm fighting back shocks of white plumage, mind you, but despite being one of my lesser loved albums in the British gods' pantheon, Rocka Rolla has such great production and vibrant songwriting that even today, some 38 years in the future, it still seems 'fresh' when I compare it to some of the most modern music coming out of the rock/hard rock field. That's not to say I'm giving this the most glaring of recommendations, as I find the track list somewhat inconsistent, but there have been far worse debuts to take for granted from longstanding, outstanding bands such as this one.

I'm sure that arguments have been made to disqualify Rocka Rolla as a pure 'metal' record, just as they have for many thus labeled, but of course this is all coming from a retrofit perspective which is not necessarily valid. In a world with Cannibal Corpse, it would be difficult to claim an album like this was even remotely heavy, but for 1974, there were not a whole lot of options. You had Sabbath, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy a few lesser known groups who only today seem to get a nod and a welcome, and then the emergence of three more of the most influential 'hard rock' bands in all of history: Canadian progressive Rush, theatrical New Yorker man-whores KISS, and a bunch of Birmingham boys who had been kicking around since '69, bred on the hard blues of Cream and Hendrix and soon to shape the 'metal' sound in such a way that they would go on to influence so many in their wake that you might go less insane trying to count the stars on a clear night.

Rocka Rolla is iconic. The coke bottle cover image and admittedly lame old logo would be difficult to forget for any child of the 70s (or 80s), and this was the sole album to feature drummer John Hinch, who at that time was already the fourth to hold that position. The sound on a number of the cuts was much groovier in nature than what we've come to expect. Sabbath was the clear comparison, especially on songs like "One for the Road" where Halford's piercing pitch rubbed up against the bluesier based rhythm guitar not unlike. Or the conceptual trilogy of "Winter", "Deep Freeze" and "Winter Retreat", where huge mournful grooves explode out of a psychedelic din only to return to devolve into wailing experimentation and a smooth, clean closure. Zeppelin also plays heavily into the swaggering dirty blues metal of "Cheater", and there's a progressive and psychedelic Pink Floyd current flowing through the numbing "Run of the Mill" or solemn "Dying to Meet You" (before it explodes).

But, of course, none of those bands featured Rob Halford, who is all over this thing, showcasing the vast range and personality of his voice. He can brood sullenly against the bluesier undertow, he can scream off like a siren, and in general maintain an incredibly consistent higher pitch for just about as long as he needs. This is more than evident on my favorite tracks here: "Rocka Rolla" itself in which he measures off a lot of groovy swagger with a higher pitched counterpoint that cuts right across the throat like jagged glass, or the heavily atmospheric "Never Satisfied" where he's incredibly expressive across both the mid and upper registers, giving even a bark and bite once he arrives at the chorus before that giant Page-like bridge groove with the lead. "One for the Road" is another of the stronger pieces, with some nice percussion from Finch that really highlights the bluesy spit of the guitars and the more top heavy, resilient howls of Halford.

While I don't think Tipton and Downing had quite come into their own here, still adapting the signature dual style they are so known for, both are pretty solid at emulating the grooves of their individual influences. A lot of Clapton in there, even more Hendrix, but it works very well against the impressive rhythm section. 40 year veteran Ian Hill has long been one of the less outspoken members of the band, and I've often heard or read the guy being criticized for his low key stage presence, but he really got a chance to shine here, his subtle strutting perfectly accommodating the bright and rich tone of the guitars. If there's any real problem with this record, it's only that in hindsight the songs are nowhere near as striking and effective as the heavier style they would evolve towards on later records. Not all of them are equally memorable, and if you took Rob out of the equation, Rocka Rolla might well have been any of several other bands in this period.

Still, the production and performance ensures that, while it's never to be hailed as some great masterpiece of psychedelic heavy blues or proto-metal, Rocka Rolla has a timeless nature about it that should sate most people who find themselves in a mood for some of the harder 70s sound. Blues, progressive rock, hard rock, all can be found frothing in the spirit of these musicians, and there's a sense that this is one of the most 'honest' of their works. It's not the hi octane, fire breathing, S&M strapped Judas Priest we'd all come to recognize and worship, but a group of guys carving a sincere, dynamic and refreshing piece of the pie from their own forebears. It's not very consistent. There are few if any 'hits'. Nor is it as musically wealthy or important as other debuts like Iron Maiden, KISS, or Black Sabbath, yet it weathers the decades like a diamond, in whose facets one might glean the firestorms to follow.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

You would, after all, have expected Judas Priest's debut to have hit the scene with an earth-shattering kaboom as opposed to an unenthusiastic thud. The fact is that whilst the essential elements of the band's sound is in place, they're not quite firing on all cylinders yet. Tipton and Downing's twin lead guitar playing is all present and correct, and shows a certain influence from Wishbone Ash (who'd been doing the twin lead for years in a folk-rock/prog-rock sort of style), though of course with more of a metallic edge than usual, though except for on the title track or Run of the Mill they never quite manage the full roar of their usual sound. Likewise, whilst Rob Halford's high-pitched singing voice is already developed, he never lets rip with the sort of shrieks we are used to hearing from him.

Compositionally speaking, the set isn't particularly compelling either, being mostly rooted in the sort of blues-influenced hard rock that was hardly uncommon in 1974, with the occasional nod to fellow Birmingham residents Black Sabbath spicing things up. According to the band, they wanted to include some of the material which would eventually appear on Sad Wings of Destiny on this album, but were pressured into delivering a more commercial album to start off with; I don't know whether that's true, but I can certainly believe it, because there's a lack of enthusiasm evident on this record which is absent from the followup. A piece of metal history, but one that has not aged at all well.

I really like this album... No... I actually LOVE it. It's one of my favourite albums ever. The only problem is, that it's not Judas Priest. Well, of course it's them, but the feel, the sound and the music is just not Priest. The album is soft and inspired by the 70's progressive rockbands. I have heard from people that the songs in "real life" e.g. when played live, where a lot more powerful, and I easily can imagine that. But for me, there's nothing missing on this album with the production, sound and songs, except that I am a bit dissapointed since Caviar and Meths (which is actually a great short track) were supposed to be an epic 10 minutes+ song. It was later released by Priest's first singer Al Atkins on his album Victims of Changes in a long version (around 8 minutes).

It should be noted that some of the CD-issues of this albums has wrong track-splits in Winter, Deep Freeze and Winter Retreat, where Deep Freeze is actually the last bit of Winter, and Winter Retreat is both Deep Freeze and Winter Retreat.

The first track "One for the Road" is simply just one for the road. Nothing special here, just a hard rocking track.

Rocka Rolla, the title track, clocks in at 3:06 making it a short track compared to the others on the album, but it still is one of the strongest on the album. The sound is rocking, though there is a bit hiss on the production. The lead-guitar solo stuff that starts around 1 minute sounds a bit "happy" but still work very good with the song.

Winter - Starts out quietly where Halford sings some lyrics that's hard to hear. Then the song it self starts out and contains one of the best, most rocking riffs on the album. This is also the first time we really hear Halford's voice with the caracteristic sharp tone, though it's not the classic Priest scream. The guitar, bass and vocals stops and a quite boring and not very talented drum "solo" is added, until a bridge riff make the song return back to the inital riff and a final verse.

Deep Freeze - Just some guitar play-around in a couple of minutes. I cant really see the reason to include this track on the album, when Caviar and Meths could have been longer, and would have been more important to include.

Winter Retreat - Short song, with soft sound and lyrics. Nothing special, though you hear a side of Halford's voice you never heard before.

Cheater - Great song and in my opinion it has the most catchy line: "She was a cheater!" Well... You'll have to hear it to understand.

Never Statisfied - A track with a very weak sound on the guitars. I think it would be a great rock song with more power. The guitars just fall in with the drums and bass, and doesn't really creat any melody or such. Even with the powerless sound it's in my opinion a very very good track. After the first part of the song, it moves over to the most heavy riff on the whole album, the best in my opinion. A solo is played and the song returns to it's initial riffs and sound.

Run of the mill - The track is slow, quiet and somehow relaxing and has got a bluesy feel to it. It's too long though. At 8:32 it could easily have been cut a minute or two. The intro is in my opinion not necessary, as is the very very very long solo part in the middle. I think this mostly because I am a bit dissapointed that Caviar and Meths were not included on the album in it's intended length. If they had room for both tracks on the album, they should definitely not cut this one. It's still a good song. At the end you really hear halfords voice screaming with power, and that's something i really enjoy with this track.

Dying to meet you - A track with two parts, that I actually think could have been to different songs, since the first part is a bit in the same lane as run of the mill with slow riffs and soft sound/voice. Halfords voice in this part, is quite deep and I actually think this is one of his best vocal performances that I have ever experienced. The second part is faster and with Halford singing a lot higher than before.

Caviar and Meths - I think I have mentioned it a couple of times above. This track should have been included in it's originally inteded long run. Still this short instrumental part of the original track, is actually very awesome. I think it could have been extended and maybe even have been made to an instrumental Priest track. It's soft, relaxing, simple and yet very melodic. Because of it's short length (2 minutes) I often play it two or three times just to enjoy the soft and relaxing feel it has to it.

The first release from Judas Priest is quite different from the sound and image they would very soon become associated with, as the loud young Brummies ditched their hippie look, prog aspirations and disappointing drummer and producer to begin recording the definitive albums of early heavy metal. ‘Rocka Rolla’ is an infamously flawed record, but this is largely due to unexpected problems with the studio equipment and personnel more than the material, which is often of a surprisingly high standard. Even if the band members themselves look down on this release, they are the first to admit that there are some great early classics scattered throughout... it’s just that the whole thing doesn’t sound quite right.

Having established a large local fan-base with their loud, melodic, masculine rock, the burgeoning Judas Priest were quickly manhandled into a studio and assigned the famous local record producer Rodger Bain, whose results with the early albums of their contemporaries Black Sabbath are justifiably praised. Gull Records were confident that Bain would capture the heavy sound they were hoping to promote and gave him totalitarian control of the recording process, something the band looks back on as a big mistake as they were completely under his thumb. Nevertheless, it was a decision they were understandably content and confident to go along with at the time, if it meant paving the path to fame. Unfortunately, Bain’s eventual results were severely disappointing, failing to capture the energy of the studio and ending up with a very thin sound that affected all the instruments. He also unwisely, and for whatever reason, decided to eliminate the band’s most popular songs from the track-list, requiring them to come up with what often sounds like filler, rather than the timeless material that would eventually find its way onto ‘Sad Wings of Destiny,’ commonly seen as the first ‘real’ Priest album.

‘Rocka Rolla’ should not be easily written off, especially as part of the band’s problem with the album is their lack of ownership or royalties from its sales, something Gull Records have taken full advantage of over the years with far too many re-releases attempting in vain to remedy a thirty-year-old problem with new technology. The band’s dissatisfaction even extends to the original cover art, a bottlecap design with the album’s title written in copy-cat Coca Cola font, which for some reason they later decided to swap for Mel Grant’s ‘The Steel Tsar,’ an average-looking image that may have had the right apocalyptic message, but wasn’t quite as cool or distinctive as the original, especially as Grant’s painting had also been used for a book of the same name, and for a random early video game box. The band’s dislike of the album’s overall style may be due to its association more with traditional rock than metal, something that is partially appropriate in this mixed bag of radio-friendly pop rock and high-concept suites. It may lack the distinctive Priest sound, but it’s an interesting listen, and it’s clear the band is really onto something.

1. One for the Road
2. Rocka Rolla
3. Winter
4. Deep Freeze
5. Winter Retreat
6. Cheater
7. Never Satisfied
8. Run of the Mill
9. Dying to Meet You
10. Caviar and Meths

The album begins on a disappointing note with the repetitive and bland ‘One for the Road,’ based on a tedious blues riff that lacks the usual Judas Priest energy in all areas apart from Rob Halford’s voice, which is up to its usual high standards regardless of production. After taking far too long to fade out, the album begins to reveal its real charms with the great title track, a typical Priest song about love and rock with plenty of great harmonies, solos and riffs from Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing. It’s a little derivative, with contemporary influences all over the place – the verse sounds like Roxy Music, while the chorus sounds like David Bowie – but the guitars are distinctly Priest. Halford even offers a brief harmonica section similar to Black Sabbath’s ‘The Wizard,’ completing this eccentric and enjoyable, but sadly forgotten piece.

The most creative section of the album comes in the ‘Winter’ suite, spanning tracks three to five but almost always mislabelled or wrongly edited on CD releases. In its true form, the opener ‘Winter’ is a good slow song that unfortunately can’t really be described as heavy due to the production, though that was certainly the intention. The introduction is haunting in a primitive way, with whispered vocals before the drum kicks it into a ‘proper’ song, and once again Halford steals the show. ‘Deep Freeze’ is essentially nothing more than a spacey interlude between the two halves of the suite, similar to Sabbath’s ‘FX’ in that its target audience will be easily impressed stoned people who enjoy the effect of a guitar whine fading in and out of volume for a minute and a half (‘woah dude, he’s going closer to the microphone, and then moving far out. Do you have any bread?’) Overall, the effect is closer to depicting a UFO than anything winter-based. Unfortunately, the final piece of this trio doesn’t live up to the first, attempting the kind of proggy soft song that would be perfected later in the album but coming off as somehow unconvincing, Halford’s voice sounding less impressive in a more downbeat style. It was still an interesting experiment overall, but perhaps explains why the band hasn’t attempted anything similarly conceptual since (at least, not until next year’s highly anticipated Nostradamus album).

‘Cheater’ is the first song that really sounds like classic Judas Priest, with a fantastically simple and violent subject matter – a man finds his wife in bed with another man, and shoots them both in primal vengeance – and it’s hard to resist joining in with the chorus towards the end, and thereby clearly condoning the speaker’s actions. This is stupid and fun heavy metal the way it was supposed to be, leaving behind the conceptual nonsense, although it doesn’t offer a lot musically, the guitars sounding thin and similar to the first song. ‘Never Satisfied’ is similarly cool, the main riff and chorus sounding so stereotypical of early Priest that it could belong to any song on the first four albums. It lacks the power of the title song, but Halford holds the notes like he is famous for, including a final extended wail that sadly has to take second place to the more famous ‘Victim of Changes.’

The final phase of the album plays more along the lines of mellow progressive rock, and offers a great distinctive sound in the band’s discography that they carry off surprisingly well. ‘Run of the Mill’ is the better of the two, mostly acoustic but occasionally launching into a rockier riff, although the reliance on a very dull backing drum-beat is a little irritating. Halford has really cracked the croon after the disappointment of the fifth track, and sounds just as good as he would later in the earlier sections of ‘Victim of Changes.’ There’s even a rare spot in the limelight for Ian Hill’s bass, and Halford puts in his finest performance of the record with the final reprise of the chorus, which easily ranks alongside anything else he would accomplish up to the 1990s. ‘Dying to Meet You’ is much the same, only less impressive, beginning slow and changing later on to the extent that it’s essentially two different songs tagged together. It sounds good in isolation, and at least isn’t a wimpy ballad that would really spoil things, but grants Downing greater lenience in unleashing some quite cool and lengthy solos. The main problem comes with the lyrics Halford takes so much time to communicate, which are quite terrible even for a band not renowned for its poetry. The final song is a missed opportunity, the introduction to epic live favourite ‘Caviar and Meths’ that was apparently ‘too long’ to fit onto the record. The guitars work brilliantly to compliment each other despite playing different tunes, but this snippet primarily makes me sad and angry that we didn’t get more of it.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend ‘Rocka Rolla’ to anyone who enjoys the early Judas Priest albums up to the excellent ‘Stained Class,’ before a desire to be American took over and affected the quality of the band’s output for a decade of highs and lows. The production is a big problem, extending to the background hiss that still hasn’t been eliminated by re-masters, but many of the songs fit excellently into the band’s established style, and the ones that don’t offer something completely and excitingly different. Many of the songs are far too short, or far too repetitive (leading to the paradox of tracks such as ‘One for the Road’ that is too short to get anything out of, but that also takes far too long to finish), but the majority are real classics with that great and slightly amateurish first-album feel. It’s clear that this album should never really have existed in the form that it does, its successor ‘Sad Wings of Destiny’ being more true to the band’s live shows of the time, but all the same it’s an album with a lot to offer, even if some of its more elaborate aspirations (specifically the ‘Winter’ trilogy) don’t really go anywhere. It’s really quite good.

Not unlike many of their 70's contemporaries' first releases, Judas Priest's debut is a raw unpolished classic heavy metal album, a mere proto-incarnation of their true sound. Looking at it that way, as a traditional metal album, it actually comes off quite nicer than if you view it as a Judas Priest album, since it bears only a passing resemblence to the Priest that most are familiar with. Be sure to give this more than just a listen or two, it really has to grow on you.

The first impression I got of this early Judas Priest is that they really wanted to be like Black Sabbath. It's as if Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing had just heard Volume 4 and wished to emulate it as best they could. Naturally they add their own swagger to things, but the sound is mighty Sabbathian. Listen to the guitar tone when they're really crushing out chords in "Winter" or "Never Satisfied." Same goes for the way the solos interplay with one another, highly reminiscent of the way Tony Iommi would layer his solos. There's also a lot of mellow territory on here, with lots of atmospheric clean lines calling to mind Pink Floyd and early Rush epics. There's a hint of psychedelic rock mixed in as well, another reason for this album's unique sound. This is Judas Priest to sit around and mellow out to, rather than headbang and rock out to.

The band's main distinguishable factor is Halford (as would be the case later in their existence as well). He sounds a bit different than usual (the first half of "Dying to Meet You" especially), but youth is on his side here and allows for some fantastic melodies and a few well-placed wails. Check out "One for the Road" and the end of "Run of the Mill" for example.

As I said, this album took a bit to grow on me and is good, but it cannot be recommended to all, simply because of how primordial it is. The production is old-school, the band's talent is in its infancy, and it might just be too slow for the average Priest fan to cope with. Keep in mind that this is as 70's as they come and you may just find some value in it.

This is an odd start for the beast that is the Priest. It’s not metal, and for the most part, it’s not catchy either. Thin guitars and poor drumming plagues this album, but hey, it’s from 1974. Besides, this is the only album where Ian is always audible. It’s overall pretty weak, but does have some excellent tracks.

One For The Road is decent at most. It’s not memorable and pretty weak. The title track is a little bit better, but still not good. The riffs on these two are pathetic and except for Rocka Rolla’s outro, the solos blow as well. The Winter Suite spells acid in more ways than you can think of, but actually is pretty good. K.K. unleashes his whammy bar fury here, which still sounds wickedly insane to this day. Cheater is the catchiest song on the album. This will ensure that you won’t fall asleep on this album. Never Satisfied is the heaviest and most metal song. Although it won’t brutalize you, it does warm you up for what comes next.

The main highlight is Run Of The Mill. Featuring anti-old age lyrics and solemn, mesmerizing solos from Glenn and K.K., this song lifts you up and takes you away. K.K. even does a 3-minute solo, but Glenn’s opening solo and licks are much better. Lots of atmosphere is found on this one. The lead work is the best on the debut and Glenn’s are just pure brilliance. The screams at the end are intensively sick and are some of the best wails Rob has ever done (a true feat done here). I’m surprised his sac didn’t burst in the studio when he did those. The next song, Dying To Meet You, starts out slow and features Rob holding notes extremely long, foreshadowing his brilliance to come on later releases. It’s much heaver than the previous track. The second part is very catchy and features the best and most memorable riff, which is also my favorite riff of the album (the one before the solo and right before the song ends). This oddball ends with a short instrumental. Real smooth guys, real smooth.

The weakest Priest album ever, and only blues-rock Priest album, mostly due to the production. Rodger Bain, Sabbath’s producer for their first 3 albums, really fucked up here. The riffs and drumming don’t pack any punch at all. Amateur lyrics are found all over, but it is their first album. Rob even uses a harmonica on two songs, oh the horror! Although personally hated by the band, it’s somewhat of a gem. For die-hard Priest fans only. If you’re not, than get any other ‘70s album from the one, the only, Judas Fucking Priest!

So here we have it, the rather bizarre, heavily blues-influenced debut album of one of the original Heavy Metal bands, the originators of the spikes and leather wear of true Metal, and in mine and many others opinion the greatest band ever to walk the earth. Back here, they all looked like a bunch of hippies, Rob had long, curly hair, and the music was nowhere near the razor sharp all-out metal assault that Priest would turn into.

This album is very bluesy and is based on a number of groovy, catchy riffs and is supported by pretty damn solid and unpredictable drumming courtesy of John Hinch, and some of Ian Hill's most evident and well emphasized basswork throughout their career. On top of it, we have Rob Halford's vocals, who are still quite identifiable with the man who sang monster metal classics like "Breaking The Law" or "The Sentinel", but he sounds more laid-back and calm here, which suits the overall mood on the album, although he does perform some absolutely mindblowing falsetto even back here in 1974, most notably on the quite epic songs "Dying To Meet You" and "Run of The Mill".

The songwriting is rather consistent, and stays solid throughout most of the album, though tend to get really odd at times, and it makes you scratch your head in confusion every now and then. The "Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat" trilogy (actually, the song "Cheater" is 'part' of the trilogy, yet it has nothing to do with the other songs whatsoever and is a completely different track) is probably the most bizarre moment in Priest's entire history. "Winter" is a spacey, dark ballad-like song with a cool mood and some fucking excellent drum fills. It goes into "Deep Freeze", which consists entirely of K.K. Downing making some weird effects with his guitar, apparently trying to give the whole thing a certain mood. It sounds mostly psychotic and weird, but is actually kinda cool, though gets a little annoying after a while. Then we get to "Winter Retreat", which is an incredibly soft and very short ballad with a nice emotional touch in Rob's vocals and the guitarwork, and sounds strangely "pretty" for a Judas Priest song. It works, but it's mostly just weird, like the entire trilogy.

The rest... The album opens up with "One For The Road" and "Rocka Rolla", two classic rock n' roll numbers with a nice, bluesy feel. "Rocka Rolla" is actually pretty fucking excellent, with a perfect vicious mood and suiting lyrics, and is overall cool as hell. More of the same is "Cheater", which interestingly also features some great harmonica playing by Halford. This is probably the best of these three rockers, with the great main riff, wicked soloing, insanely catchy vocal lines and beautiful lyrics ("I reached the dressing table, kicked away the door. I gripped the cold black metal, a loaded 44. By this time they're awake and they don't know what to do. I scream 'you cheatin bitch, here's what I think of you'!". They may have looked like hippies, but looks can be deceiving, my friends. They were Metal as Steel already back in the 70s).

But the best stuff on here is the two epic masterpieces. We start with "Run of the Mill". It's long, slow, dark, and absolutely beautiful. I can't even try to explain the pure emotion displayed in this song, but if you don't feel like you're about to cry towards the end, you have no heart, you bitch. Rob Halford's vocal delivery in this song is nothing short of Godly, and it's quite understandable why he's recognized as The Metal God. He shows that in every moment of the song, but especially during the absolutely out of this world ending section, where he screams his heart out in an insane falsetto which is one of his best moments yet. "I CAN'T GO OOOOOOOON!" Man, that gets me every time.

And after that, we have another ballad in the same vein, which is not quite as mesmerizing but practically flawless nonetheless, and goes into total asskicking mode on a speeded-up ending section which goes straight back into the groovy rocking of songs like "Cheater", but is sung entirely in a "Stained Class"-like falsetto. These two songs are some of the most underrated masterpieces in the band's history, and two of Metal's all-time greatest ballads. All in all, this album is very, very strange most of the time, but also pretty fucking great, though it takes time before it grows on you.

But a pretty fucking good one, if you can get (or make, for that matter) a competent remaster. The worst parts of the album are the inconsistencies in volume, so it's not that hard to jack up some of the songs by 9dB. Sin After Sin is kinda similarly problematic (the original, anyway).

That said, some of the songs on here are excellent, and the whole thing is a real barrel of fun. It's not Sad Wings of Destiny, but at times it really does hint at it. It's a strange one - the bastard son of Black Sabbath, and your average hippie-rock band (Ten Years After comes to mind). There are a few rocker numbers that are just completely fun... Rocka Rolla (feline on the borderline!) and Cheater come to mind, along with the bouncing opener, One for the Road. Simple but effective riffage.

Then, there's the epic stuff. This is the 70s, where everyone had to be a bit prog and crazy, and this comes out pretty good. The second half of the album is where shit really picks up, with the monster riffage of Never Satisfied. Halford brought it back as part of his live set (FUCK YEAH!) and it did not sound out of place at all. That middle break hints at Tyrant, which of course hints at thrash fucking metal. Run of the Mill is an amazing song (even if the shriek at the end is pitch-shifted) with its long middle soloing section over the hypnotic bass riff (yes, you can actually hear Ian on this LP!), and if you give it 9dB, it turns out wonderful. Then, there's the absolute highlight of the album, Dying to Meet You, which is half Black Sabbath, half Genocide, and all fucking heavy metal. Killer! Killer! Keep your thoughts at bay!

The rest... Caviar and Meths, I have no idea why they cut it out. I've not heard the Al Atkins studio version, but it's 8 minutes and has lyrics. This version is a minute and a half of noodling. Then there's Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat (aka the Winter Suite), which is a bit on the boring side.

That said, this album is quite enjoyable, and never mind its historical importance. Hot on the heels of Black Sabbath, here comes the Next Big Thing!