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This is such a personal album for me that reviewing it objectively is almost impossible. The album of the year I turned 18. Memories of school ending, drinking warm beer in the cars of my friends, dark nights, access to bars, uncertain future, army waiting ahead. Painkiller is the soundtrack of those times. I remember how my friend Eki, who had just bought his first cd player, got Painkiller as soon as it was released, and we listened to it in shock and awe: The old guys showed once more how metal is made. The then contemporary speed/thrash sounds - that I really loved - were there on the album with full force. I got the album as a vinyl, destroyed it and bought another one. I didn't get enough of Hell Patrol, Between The Hammer & The Anvil and A Touch Of Evil. There is no single weak song on the whole album. It's one of the few totally solid metal albums I've ever come across. The music, the lyrics, the utterly pissed-off and aggressive atmosphere, everything is perfect. The new drummer Scott Travis with his double-bassdrum technique is an essential part of the breath-taking sound. This is a kick in the face and the arse at the same time, and yet the typical Judas Priest melodiousness is present there. At the eve of Rob Halford's departure from the band they released an album that sums up the band's career like with an iron fist. Over the years Leather Rebel has become my favourite track on the album. It is a metal cliche song, but the cliche style is taken beyond all boundaries so that it becomes a precious, unique piece of art in itself. The funny thing is that the title track is my least favourite. I dislike that Halford's screeching falsetto sound, the sound that has became more familiar to the fans as the 90's progressed. Another chapter is then the Painkiller 2002 remastered version, which introduced the fans a slow leftover track from the Painkiller sessions, namely Living Bad Dreams. A ghost song from the past. Truely an emotional experience listening to this for the first time. The fateful spirit of Painkiller can be sensed off this track extremely powerfully, and yet it is a very sensitive song. It's like a sister song of A Touch Of Evil, but more emotional and intimate. If there ever was a Judas Priest track full of sincere, sensitive sexual passion, it's this one. Eat Me Alive might not be a song for the people with a somewhat romantic mind, but this surely is.
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Neon Nights / May 2003 |
