Boxes of Metal part deux

More mayhem and violence.

PRIEST! x2

Single Cuts is okay, but offers very few really important and interesting tracks from my personal favourite period, the 70s (Sad Wings, Sin after Sin, Stained Class, Killing Machine and Unleashed in the East). There are some live versions like White Heat Red Hot, Beyond the Realms of Death and Starbreaker from Cleveland '78 (though Starbreaker (live '79) is already included in Unleashed). Also, this is to my knowledge the only official cd release of Evil Fantasies (live '79), so a handful of gems, but little else. Still, it didn't cost that much and some of the cover art looks cool (British Steal period and A Touch of Evil, especially). For a Priest fanboy like me, a must, but for normal, sane people this doesn't make much sense. 70/100


Complete Albums... Well, as the title suggests, it includes the complete official albums released by Priest... except for those (in my opinion) horrible "Ripper" Owens albums Jugulator and Metal Machine or whatever that abomination was called. Don't get me wrong, "Ripper" is a great singer and could replicate Halford's scream with amazing accuracy. I simply dislike the songs - mind you, I also hate Turbo! and Point of Entry. Rocka Rolla wasn't that special either, nor the "comeback albums", Angel of Retribution and NostraDULLmus.
But consider this... All my 70s favourite albums are there - well, Sad Wings has a different track order which I'm not used to and to be honest don't like us much. Yep, I know Prelude and Tyrant were supposed to start the album - that's fine, as Tyrant is my all-time favourite track by any band. But somehow the silly Island of Domination suits better at finishing the album (compare it to tracks like Evil Fantasies or Love You to Death) than the superb and mesmerising Dreamer Deceiver-doublepiece.

And consider this too... All my 80s favourite albums are there - well, British Steel is overrated I think, but tracks like Rapid Fire, Metal Gods, even Grinder are good stuff. Vengeance and Defenders are hair metal done right. And, to top it off, we have the 90's Painkiller, which comes surprisingly close to their 70's albums and is, in fact, the most coherent work of metal they ever made. So, once again, a bit too extensive for a casual listener, who should pick up their isolate albums first, especially as all the bonus tracks are the same as on the remastered editions(Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings don't include any, neither do the 00's albums). So, no rarities, but overall nice box and complete enough. 80/100