Judas Priest - Essential (CD)

Two CD set. The Essential Judas Priest collection is the perfect middle ground for those who found 2004's four-disc Metalogy box a bit too daunting. Each and every one of the 34 tracks is indispensable, chronicling the group's rise from Queen-worshipping debutantes to revolutionary metal gods. It's often the case that when career retrospectives take a non-linear approach to their sequencing, the resulting play list becomes a mess of clashing recording techniques and jarring style changes, but Priest has always held true to it's vision, experimenting early on with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in ways that seamlessly bridged the gap between their Gull and Columbia years. From the opening avatar scream of 2005's comeback single "Judas Rising" to the introductory guitar swells of Screaming for Vengeance's "The Hellion/Electric Eye" - no live cuts or Tim "Ripper" Owens-era tracks were included.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Judas Rising (4:15)
2. Breaking the Law (2:35)
3. Hell Bent for Leather (2:43)
4. Diamonds and Rust (3:26)
5. Victim of Changes (7:45)
6. Love Bites (4:48)
7. Heading Out to the Highway (3:47)
8. Ram It Down (4:51)
9. Beyond the Realms of Death (6:52)
10. You've Got Another Thing Comin' (5:10)
11. Jawbreaker (3:27)
12. A Touch of Evil (5:45)
13. Delivering the Goods (4:16)
14. United (3:36)
15. Turbo Lover (5:33)
16. Painkiller (6:05)
17. Metal Gods (4:00)

Disc: 2

1. The Hellion (0:42)
2. Electric Eye (3:39)
3. Living After Midnight (3:32)
4. Freewheel Burning (4:25)
5. Exciter (5:33)
6. Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown) (3:23)
7. Blood Red Skies (7:52)
8. Night Crawler (5:45)
9. Sinner (6:45)
10. Hot Rockin' (3:18)
11. The Sentinel (5:05)
12. Before the Dawn (3:23)
13. Hell Patrol (3:36)
14. The Ripper (2:52)
15. Screaming for Vengeance (4:45)
16. Out in the Cold (6:27)
17. Revolution (4:41)