Judas Priest

Metalogy Judas Priest - Metalogy (Columbia) 2004

CD 1
1. "Never Satisfied" (4:48)
2. "Deceiver" (2:44)
3. "Tyrant" (4:28)
4. "Victim Of Changes" [live] (7:16)
5. "Diamonds & Rust" [live] (3:29)
6. "Starbreaker" [live] (7:20)
7. "Sinner" (6:43)
8. "Let Us Prey / Call For The Priest" (6:14)
9. "Dissident Aggressor" (3:08)
10. "Exciter" (5:33)
11. "Beyond The Realms Of Death" (6:51)
12. "Better By You, Better Than Me" (3:24)
13. "Invader" (4:10)
14. "Stained Class" (5:19)
15. "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)" [live] (4:46)
CD 2
1. "Killing Machine" (3:03)
2. "Evening Star" (4:08)
3. "Take On The World" (3:03)
4. "Delivering The Goods" (4:18)
5. "Evil Fantasies" (4:14)
6. "Hell Bent For Leather" (2:42)
7. "Breaking The Law" [live] (2:46)
8. "Living After Midnight" (3:32)
9. "Rapid Fire" (4:07)
10. "Metal Gods" (4:00)
11. "Grinder" [live] (4:43)
12. "The Rage" (4:46)
13. "Heading Out To The Highway" (3:46)
14. "Hot Rockin'" [live] (3:30)
15. "Troubleshooter" (4:01)
16. "Solar Angels" (4:04)
17. "Desert Plains" (4:36)
18. "The Hellion / Electric Eye" [live] (4:17)
19. "Screaming For Vengeance" (4:43)
CD 3
1. "Riding On The Wind" (3:10)
2. "Bloodstone" (3:52)
3. "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" (5:12)
4. "Devil's Child" (4:47)
5. "Freewheel Burning" (4:25)
6. "Jawbreaker" (3:28)
7. "The Sentinel" (5:03)
8. "Love Bites" [live] (5:21)
9. "Eat Me Alive" (3:37)
10. "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll" (4:09)
11. "Rock Hard Ride Free" (5:36)
12. "Night Comes Down" (4:01)
13. "Turbo Lover" (5:33)
14. "Private Property" (4:31)
15. "Parental Guidance" (3:26)
16. "Out In The Cold" (6:28)
17. "Heart Of A Lion" [demo] (3:54)
CD 4
1. "Ram It Down" (4:50)
2. "Heavy Metal" (6:00)
3. "Come & Get It" (4:07)
4. "Blood Red Skies" (7:53)
5. "Painkiller" (6:06)
6. "Between The Hammer & The Anvil" (4:49)
7. "A Touch Of Evil" (5:45)
8. "Metal Meltdown" (4:49)
9. "Night Crawler" (5:46)
10. "All Guns Blazing" (3:58)
11. "Jugulator" (5:51)
12. "Blood Stained" (5:27)
13. "Machine Man" (5:36)
14. "Feed On Me" (5:28)
DVD
1. "The Hellion / Electric Eye"
2. "Riding On The Wind"
3. "Heading Out To The Highway"
4. "Metal Gods"
5. "Bloodstone"
6. "Breaking The Law"
7. "Sinner"
8. "Desert Plains"
9. "The Ripper"
10. "Diamonds And Rust"
11. "Devil's Child"
12. "Screaming For Vengeance"
13. "You've Got Another Thing Comin'"
14. "Victim Of Changes"
15. "Living After Midnight"
16. "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)"
17. "Hell Bent For Leather"

"Metalogy" is the the first Judas Priest box set and was supposedly assembled with the participation of the band. As a career retrospective, this is a very good collection. Priest's influence on hard rock and heavy metal is enormous. Priest melded Sabbath's heaviness to Deep Purple's finesse adding in a touch of Zeppelin, along with something that was all their own and became the forefathers of heavy metal. Prog-metal, thrash metal, power metal, speed metal, etc. all owe a debt of gratitude to Priest. As such, a box set is certainly justified, despite the double CD compilation "Metal Works ''73 - '93" that was released less than a decade ago.

First of all, the outside packaging is wrapped in a black box, made to look like leather with metal studs and a silver foil stamped Judas Priest logo on the top, the box is certainly impressive. Inside the box, however, we are given five cardboard covers, not unlike those crappy promo CDs you see everywhere. This is disappointing as the CDs don't stay in nearly as good condition in these as if they were in a CD jewel case. The box does contain a nice 7"x7" full color book featuring a full discography, biography, timeline and a ton of photos of the band from just about every era. What really matters is the music.

The four CDs included in this compilation box set contains most of the essentials, although any Priest die-hard will probably feel a song or two should have been left off or included that was not. For instance, I personally think that "Bullet Train" and "Cathedral Spires" should have been included from the Ripper years. Overall, however, there is plenty of classic Priest here to satisfy the average metalhead. What is disappointing is the lack of exlusive material. Besides "Heart of a Lion" and some excellent live tracks, there really isn't much in the way of unreleased material. Anyone owning the band's studio albums already owns 95% of the material included here. I would have liked to have seen songs like "What's My Name" included. This particular track was only released on the Japanese and Australian tour editions of "Demolition" and would have been a perfect inclusion here to entice collectors. How about some of those rarities that were included on the recently released remasters or that Hi-Octane remix version of "Turbo Lover" that was released on the "Parental Guidance" 12" vinyl single? A whole CD of just demos or oddities like I just mentioned could have been compiled. However, to make up for the lack of exclusive material the band has included a live DVD of a complete concert filmed on December 12, 1982, at Mid South in Memphis, TN, on the "Screaming for Vengeance" tour. The DVD is mastered in 5.1 Surround Sound. Now this is worth the price of admission, although some may feel the overall price of the box set is a bit of a steep price to pay for a DVD and a bunch of songs they already own. However, for Priest fanatics such as myself, this collection is a nice composite of the band's carreer and a nice collector's set. From what I have read, the DVD is only a limited edition inclusion and later pressing will not include it.

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