(Rated this album with 8 out of 10) Reviewed by
boogaloojef
from Carterville, Illinois United States
This is a 2 cd Judas Priest anthology. The anthology actually spans the years 1977-1990 not 1973-93 as the title suggests. During this time period the band was signed to Columbia/CBS. Pre CBS material is not included in this set except for a live version of "Victim of Changes" from 1979. The lynch pins of the set are the dual guitars of Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing along with the impressive vocal range of Rob Halford. The band was one of the most successful hard rock/heavy metal bands from the late seventies until the late eighties. The set contains many but NOT ALL of the band's biggest hits. This is the reason I am only giving this a four star rating instead of five. Among the missing cuts, some of which turned up on a single disk best of are "Hot Rockin'", "The Green Manalishi", "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll" and "Diamonds and Rust". The set does include many forgotten gems like "Delivering The Goods", "Beyond The Realms of Death", "Exciter", "Desert Plains", "The Rage" and others. The set however suffers from and over dependence on material from the weaker post "Defenders Of The Faith" albums at the expense of some neglected earlier material. Some earlier material I wish was included is "Star Breaker", "White Heat, Red Hot", "Killing Machine", "Rock Forever" and "Rapid Fire" among others. This being said the set does include such anthems as "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", "Breaking The Law", "Living After Midnight", and "Heading Out To The Highway" (live not the studio version). The set does provide a fairly good representation of an exciting band. If you are only interested in the hits I suggest the single disk "Living After Midnight" set, but if you want to obtain some hidden gems without purchasing every disk by the band, this set is hard to beat. This was probably the most influential hard rock/heavy metal band from England during this time period.
