Breaking the Law

The mere mention of Judas Priest undoubtedly stirs a shiver in any rock fan who came of age in the previous decade. The cheesy double-guitar onslaught of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, the grade-school lyrics of devils/testosterone/domination, and the band’s snarling leather-daddy ringleader, Rob Halford: All have left an indelible and embarrassing mark on fans far and wide.

Few would argue that Priest virtually defined heavy metal, yet the band evolved far more than many would give them credit for. They’ve also done more to promote camel toes in rock than anyone before or since. Following their birth in 1971 as a blues bar band in Birmingham, England, Priest released two sub-Sabbath records before hitching a ride with CBS/Columbia in 1977. With the albums Sin After Sin and Stained Class, their dark, steel-toed crunch won them a niche as Monsters of Rock (and later on sparked publicity befitting such hellspawn: The band was taken to court by the parents of two Reno teens who had allegedly offed themselves after hearing a backward-masked message in the song "Better by You, Better Than Me").

Then came greatness. Priest spread the latex on thick with 1979’s Hell Bent for Leather, inventing speed metal in response to punk rock. Next came a leaning toward pop with British Steel (their first U.S. Top 40 entry) and Point of Entry. They grew some chest hair for 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance, which broke them stateside and contained the snide hit "You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’." This success carried on through the ’80s, their next three discs (Defenders of the Faith, Turbo, Ram It Down) going platinum, while every previous studio album went gold. Even in the band’s irony-free heyday, non-fans found their appeal inexplicable. Judas Priest was the three-dimensional voice of adolescent rebellion — defiant, yet lyrically inane unto brilliance.

Rock lyrics have always dabbled in psychobabble, but when Halford screamed, "I’m your turbo lover/Better run for cover!" he sounded like a very dominant primate. Leather piled on to the point of absurdity, astride a beast of a motorcycle, Rob Halford was Judas Priest. "Harleys are loud, smelly, and they piss people off," he says. "When I look at that machine, I see a characterization of what I do." Reznor’s stamp is all over Two’s multidimensional debut, Voyeurs. Halford describes it as a musical "hybrid of things that are going on around us." Like Tool or Prong, Two wallows in sludgy, codeined guitars, which mesh easily with Reznor’s industrial, subdisco elements.

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