“Blood Red Skies” by Judas Priest

"Blood Red Skies" comes from Ram It Down, the 1988 Judas Priest album that grew out of a scrapped plan for a double record called Twin Turbos. Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and Kenneth Downing wrote and arranged it, Halford sings lead, Tipton and Downing play the electric guitars, Ian Hill plays bass and Dave Holland drums, on what turned out to be his last album with the band.

Tom Allom produced it, the last time Priest would make an album with him for 30 years, with Henrik Nilsson engineering and Bill Dooley handling extra recording. Twin Turbos would have paired a half of slick, melodic hard rock with a heavier, less synth-heavy half, until Columbia balked and the songs went out as two records instead: Turbo in 1986, then Ram It Down.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.