Judas Priest's Reviews
Rocka Rolla (Average Rating: 7.52 out of 10)
More or less a Demo recording but with some great tunes (Rated this album with 6 out of 10)
Reviewed by
Joe Jorgensen
from Massachuesetts
The first Judas Priest album somewhat unfortunely only hints at what was almost certainly a great early 70's live Hard Rock Band. Its not hard to imagine these songs at a high volumn in a small Engalnd Club just ripping the place apart. However, for those less imageinative and dedicated then myself the recording may come across as muddy and definetely not as "priest Like" as what people who are familiar with their other albums would expect. The ironic part is that "Classic Rock" floks who wrote Priest off as another mindless Metal Screaming Band in the 80's may be surprised at how Blues Based the first album really is. Here is a song by song:One For The Road - Awesome Opeing track..."Where would we be without music" Heavy without being too metallic. This song is trully cool. Rocka Rolla - The title track which to me sounds written for clubs. For those who love to cry "sell-outs" you must remember that bands only get signed by having an audience. If your playing to casual pub goers and want to get work, you need songs that have a danceable/listenable riff. Therefore, the song was probably decent live, but sounds a little cheesy in parts on disk. Winter - Awesome Black Sabbathish early metal track. This tune isdefinely heavy and hints at a later direction the band would explore. Another song that must have ripped the rook off live. Deep Freeze - What the hell is this? Its not really a song as much it is noise, which I guess was KK's early attempt at a "Psychedellic" solo. Suppossed to bridge the song before and after it, but really sounds like nothing and should have been left of or re-recorded. I almost certainly believe the band would love to have this one back. Winter Retreat - The mellow conclusion to the 3 part epic has decent vocals and feel, but sounds more like an idea then a fcully developed song. Cheater - A great hard-rock riff and lyircs about finding your woman screwin some dude and shooting them both. Kind of like Priest meets Leonard Skynard. Not a bad song, but the band is not as good at "Southern Rock" as it is at hard-rock/Metal Never Satisfied - This song rips and may be one of the strongest ever written by the band. I would love to hear an updated version of this song. Heavy but not metallic. Great vocals/cool lyrics/awesome riff. Run of the Mill - This song is cool an unexpected. A very mellow guitar opening with some cool clean guitar blues sounding mellow soloing. The main riff slowly builds and sets in and the vocals are cool and mellow. A song about being an old and not changing to improve your life. then a cool heavy riff after the verse. Good tune. Dying to Meet you - Another song that starts mellow and is epic in its scope. A anti-war song, which every early 70's band had to explore. Its a good song though and to me helps build a direction the band would take later, but with a heavier approach. However, why does Rob sing like he has a stuffed up nose on the slow parts. Trying to hit lows instead of highs again. I bet that They would have re-recorded the vocals on a higher budget Caviar and Meths - Hard to say what this was as apparently it was only a two minute instrumental version of a 10 minute song with lyrics. I guess it was put on to fill up space on the record. Another mistake the band probably got talked into by the producer. Diamonds and Rust - A weaker version of the cover the band put on the Sin After Sin release. Sounds ok, but its not recorded as well as the SAS version. Overall this album stands up surprinsly well considering it has a demo feel and is essentially a representaion of what was probably an awesome live show that got the Band attention and a record contract. It has some mistakes and the drums sound flat in parts, but as a 70's low budget - Blues/Metal Rock record it has enough good moments to sound enjoyable 27 year later. What else can you say! Pickledjoe
Buy this album on Amazon at $10.99
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