Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest

Sad Wings of Destiny, Judas Priest's second album, hit the racks on Gull in March 1976, and it's the record where the Birmingham band locked down the sound and image that would carry them. They produced it themselves, and on a starvation budget: they were living on one meal a day and working side jobs to keep going.

You'd never know it from the racket. Rob Halford's voice climbs from a croon to a shriek that could strip paint, while K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton trade riffs and leads over Ian Hill's bass and Alan Moore's drums. "Victim of Changes" is the monster, nearly eight minutes of grinding riffs, wailing and a slow, brooding comedown; "The Ripper" and "Tyrant" are short, dense assaults; "Epitaph" is a piano-backed curveball. Sales were weak, the band jumped to CBS for Sin After Sin, and Gull kept the rights. Metal history has been far kinder.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.