Judas Priest - LEAST favourite track from every album!

A few months ago I made one of these posts covering all my least favourite songs from every Black Sabbath album. Now it's Judas Priest's turn. As with the previous post I won't be counting low-hanging fruit choices here either, i.e. instrumentals/interludes/intro tracks - that'd be too easy (e.g. 'Caviar and Meths', 'Prelude', 'The Hellion', 'Battle Hymn' and whatever else).


ROCKA ROLLA (1974) - 'One for the Road'
Just to be clear, I like every track on Rocka Rolla. I think it's an underrated debut and a perfectly serviceable heavy album from the 1970s. Picking a least favourite song then, was difficult (especially since I'm not allowed to pick the instrumental 'Caviar and Meths'!). I didn't think it'd be fair to choose any part of the 'Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat' thing either, because despite the fact most versions of this album space them out as separate songs, I consider all 3 of them to form a single long song. So I went with the opening track, 'One for the Road'. In truth, it's a strong opener; kind of a bluesy mid-tempo hard rocker, with some catchy riffs and a terrific opening lyric from Rob Halford ("Where would you be without music? You would be nowhere at all."). But stacked up against the rest of this album, I feel it has less character than the other songs, and I don't really hear many traces of their signature heavy metal sound that was to come. Good song, just not a great one.

SAD WINGS OF DESTINY (1976) - 'Epitaph'
This is my favourite Priest record (although not by much at all), so calling out a "worst song" feels like blasphemy to me! Not only is it one of the best metal albums of the 1970s, I truly believe this is one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time. Sadly, my pick for weakest track has to go to 'Epitaph' - not because it's incompetent in any way of course, but because it's the least metallic song on here. Granted, not being heavy does not automatically make it the worst, but 'Epitaph' is an entirely piano-driven ballad with lots of layered, Queen-like vocal melodies. In truth, it's stupendous. It displays the creativity of the band's songwriting as well as the vocal talents of Rob Halford. But it's also the only song on Sad Wings of Destiny I don't ever listen to individually. It's an album-only kind of affair for me, whilst the rest of the album has songs I can also listen to on an individual basis as well as within the album tracklisting itself.

SIN AFTER SIN (1977) - 'Raw Deal'
Another impossibly difficult task - picking a least favourite song from an album I love from start to finish. I guess I'm gonna have to go with 'Raw Deal', and the reason for this is because I think it lacks the intensity when stacked up to Sin After Sin's other heavy tracks. It's heavy alright, but compared to scorchers like 'Sinner', 'Starbreaker' and the groundbreaking 'Dissident Aggressor', 'Raw Deal' doesn't quite cut the mustard. And yes, I really like the ballads on this one (more so as time goes on), 'Here Come the Tears' and 'Last Rose of Summer' as well as the Joan Baez cover, 'Diamonds and Rust' (Baez herself even loves Priest's version!). Still, 'Raw Deal' is no slouch. Like I said, I love every track on this album.

STAINED CLASS (1978) - 'Better by You, Better Than Me'
And again, choosing a weakest track from one of the most important, benchmark albums of a genre feels so wrong. 'Better by You, Better Than Me' is my least favourite. Does this count as cheating, seeing as it's a cover? Nah, I don't think so. This particular cover of Spooky Tooth in question is iconic to the album, and a huge part of Stained Class. I guess the reason it's also the weakest song on here to me is the fact it's slightly more obvious that it wasn't written by Judas Priest. But as far as covers go, it's actually terrific. Probably better than the original. Maybe. It also got Priest in a lot of trouble years later in 1990, when the band were accused of being responsible for the suicide attempts of 2 young US men. That's a whole other story for you to unpack, but Priest were of course found innocent.

KILLING MACHINE (1978) - 'Evil Fantasies'
Everyone always shits on 'Evening Star', but I love that tune! And I don't think 'Take On the World' is hugely popular either, but again, I love it. Well, I almost picked 'Before the Dawn', but I think that's a pretty stunning ballad these days. So I've gone with the album's final track, 'Evil Fantasies'. To be honest, I like every song on Killing Machine once again, but 'Evil Fantasies' has more of a throwaway feel compared to the rest of the tracks I suppose. It's still a solid, heavy and stomping closer - if a little too slow-paced. The chorus is particularly great though. It just isn't as memorable as the rest of the heavy cuts on here, to my ears anyway.

BRITISH STEEL (1980) - 'You Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise'
Now this was much easier. 'You Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise' is not awful by any means, but it's the one song on British Steel that I can happily skip and not feel any less satisfied. I occasionally see 'United' take a lot of flak from fans online - yeah okay, it's basically just 'Take On the World' with different lyrics. But the chorus is waaayyy too catchy for it to make this list! 'You Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise' however, is just a fairly mundane, radio-friendly pop metal number. It's harmless, but it lacks the hooks of the equally radio-friendly 'Living After Midnight', and is kind of forgettable next to the rest of this album.

POINT OF ENTRY (1981) - 'You Say Yes'
Point of Entry was the first real dip in quality for Judas Priest (in my opinion), so there were a handful of potential song choices here sadly. 'Troubleshooter', 'All the Way' and 'Turning Circles'... none of these are particularly exciting songs, but none of them are really "bad" either. 'You Say Yes' however - now this one is pretty lame. Judas Priest does boogie bar rock?! Sure, that jumpy riff is catchy - but it's annoyingly catchy, not catchy because the songwriting is actually clever. 'Spaceman' by Babylon Zoo was catchy as well, doesn't make it good. Indeed, 'You Say Yes' is throwaway fluff. Not the worst thing Priest ever laid down, but certainly not anything more than filler.

SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE (1982) - 'Pain and Pleasure'
Everyone loves Screaming for Vengeance, including me, but 'Pain and Pleasure' is the easy pick here for weakest song. I mean, nothing on here is legitimately "weak" - the album is a revered classic, and completely overshadows Point of Entry. But compared to every other track, 'Pain and Pleasure' just lacks any obvious standard high point for me. It's a solid enough slow groover, but the riffs are unremarkable, the hooks aren't notable and it's easily the most generic song Screaming for Vengeance has to offer. The good news is that this is still Screaming for Vengeance we're talkin' about - even the worst song is still enjoyable for what it is.

DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH (1984) - 'Night Comes Down'
In my opinion, the best album they made in the 80s. 'Freewheel Burning', 'Jawbreaker', 'Eat Me Alive', 'Rock Hard Ride Free', 'Love Bites', 'Some Heads Are Gonna Roll', the motherfucking 'SENTINEL'!! The majority of this record is absolutely stellar. But 'Night Comes Down' brings things down a tad. Still a decent ballad with plenty of emotion from Mr. Halford all things considered, but not one of their best either. Compared to intensity of nearly everything else on here, it was always gonna come out in last place. The real easy pick would have been the title track, but it's just an outro piece to 'Heavy Duty' that lasts no more than a minute and a half, so I didn't count it.

TURBO (1986) - 'Private Property'
Turbo has been a grower for me over the years, but even if I rate it higher today than I did my 2020 review, it's still probably my least favourite Judas Priest album, and always has been. So picking a worst song was actually more difficult than you'd think. My first thoughts were the stupid anthems 'Rock You All Around the World' and 'Parental Guidance' - but I enjoy their choruses more than I'd like to admit! So right now I'll go with 'Private Property'. Even though it follows the same pop metal, commercial formula as the rest of this album, it's just lacking in almost every aspect. I don't find it particularly memorable, save for the chanted chorus. The synthy intro is annoying, and it just encapsulates all that is wrong with Turbo and Judas Priest in 1986, which was abandoning their die-hard metal fanbase and effectively trying to appeal to the Sunset Strip hair rock scene of LA. You're a heavy metal band from Birmingham lads, don't forget that!

RAM IT DOWN (1988) - 'Johnny B. Goode'
Another flawed album in the catalogue, but one that can at least claim a handful of classic cuts. 'Ram It Down', 'Blood Red Skies', 'Hard as Iron'... you certainly won't find any of these tracks on this list! Okay, my pick is low-hanging fruit, but how can it not be the cover of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode'?! It's terrible, and serves no purpose on this album. The only thing I will say is that it was originally recorded for some crappy 80s teen film (Johnny Be Good) starring Robert Downey Jr. and Anthony Michael Hall, so it's highly likely the band just threw this in to fill some space on the resulting LP. 

PAINKILLER (1990) - 'One Shot at Glory'
Any metal fan with half a brain knows that Painkiller is one of the all-time greats of the genre. It's one of the albums that exemplifies heavy metal for me. So there is no correct answer here (I mean, there is no correct answer to any of these choices, it's all subjective. But you know what I mean...). My personal least favourite track on the album is the closing cut, 'One Shot at Glory'. Why? I dunno. It's pretty much perfect, like everything else on here. It's awesome. But I had to pick something!!

JUGULATOR (1997) - 'Brain Dead'
I'm very much a part of the "Jugulator is a real Judas Priest album" camp, if such thing exists. Yeah I know, it's the first of 2 albums without Rob Halford (Tim 'Ripper' Owens took the reigns for a few years whilst Rob went solo), and one I immediately connected with ever since I first got my hands on it more than half my lifetime ago. Sure, it isn't perfect. By and large though, I really like Jugulator. However, 'Brain Dead' is the track I tend to forget about. It's heavy as fuck - the entire album is. In fact, a lot of fans consider Jugulator to be too heavy to be classic Priest. But the bulk of this album sounds like a natural progression from Painkiller to me. 'Brain Dead' on the other hand, sounds more like Pantera and Machine Head blended together than it does 1990s Priest. The riffs are full of groove, and there's even guitar harmonics in this one. Tim Owens, ironically, is the most Priest thing about this tune in my opinion. Not really a bad song under it's own merit, but not really worthy of the Judas Priest brand either. 

DEMOLITION (2001) - 'Metal Messiah'
I'll admit that Tim Owens' last outing with Judas Priest is a patchy affair, but I've always felt it had it's fair share of genuinely good moments. That said, Demolition certainly isn't without it's faults. Most people will tell you 'Cyberface' is the worst song on the album, but for me it's always been 'Metal Messiah'. Owens' almost-rapped vocals (!!) on this track never fail to grate on me, and the composition of this song in general just rubs me the wrong way. There's a few mediocre songs to be found on this record ('Close to You', 'Cyberface', 'In Between') as well as some great ones ('Hell Is Home', 'Feed on Me', 'Bloodsuckers') but 'Metal Messiah' is the only one I flat-out dislike on all levels. 

ANGEL OF RETRIBUTION (2005) - 'Angel'
Rob Halford's powerful comeback to the Priest comes in the form of 2005's Angel of Retribution, an album I love these days, but one that took me a surprisingly long time to really appreciate. Many people will no doubt tell you the experimental 13 minute epic, 'Lochness', is this album's weakest link. Not me. For me, it's the insanely mellow, lightweight ballad 'Angel'. I know I'm in the minority with this pick. The general feeling I get is that most fans love this song, and I will totally give Rob nothing but praise for his vocal performance on it. But it's just a bit too soft for my liking. Except for maybe 'Epitaph', past Priest ballads like 'Last Rose of Summer' and 'A Touch of Evil' etc. were never really as floaty as this. I guess it's just not what I want to hear from the band, even if I respect the talents of the band for writing it.

NOSTRADAMUS (2008) - 'New Beginnings'
Due to the experimental, almost symphonic nature of the concept album that is Nostradamus, it is easily the most polarising effort in this entire catalogue. To make matters even more controversial, it's also a double album that lasts a whopping 1 hour and 42 minutes in total. Although there's a decent share of genuinely great songs within this project, there's also a lot of interlude tracks and dodgy one's to sit through as well. I don't particularly enjoy 'New Beginnings' all that much. It's one of the last songs on the entire album, which already means I'm pretty tired of Nostradamus at this point anyway. But sitting through another tedious ballad this late into the album is a chore to say the least. The inclusion of the piano with the rest of the instruments is nice, as is Rob's vocal performance (as always), but if you took away Halford, it barely even sounds like Judas Priest to me.    

REDEEMER OF SOULS (2014) - 'Hell & Back'
Judas Priest have pretty much always operated as a songwriting trio - Rob Halford plus guitarists Glenn Tipton and KK Downing. KK would retire in 2011 however, with Richie Faulkner taking his place. That also means the songwriting trio now consists of Halford/Tipton/Faulkner, and despite the fact Redeemer of Souls is absolutely home to some fantastic songs ('Dragonaut', 'Redeemer of Souls', 'Halls of Valhalla', 'Sword of Damocles', 'Battle Cry'), it's also guilty of the odd filler track or 2. As much as I really enjoy this record, I stated in my updated review of this album that 'Hell & Back' is just downright boring. It is. The riffs are slow, plodding and uninspired. The song feels like it was written in 5 minutes and put on the album to kill some time. The guitar soloing is nice, but in general this is Priest by the numbers. Thankfully 'Hell & Back' is not representative of Redeemer of Souls as a whole.

FIREPOWER (2018) - 'Spectre'
This album is a modern classic! Richie Faulkner really moulded himself into Judas Priest as an integral member of the band by this point. There aren't any poor tracks to speak of, but 'Spectre' is as close to generic as it gets. A bit like 'Hell & Back' from Redeemer of Souls, 'Spectre' too is kinda slow and lumbering in structure, but it does pack more punch by comparison, with a particularly strong vocal performance from Rob. I do wonder if Andy Sneap's excellent production is what makes this song better than it really is however? Because there's nothing in it's composition that is especially brilliant, and is certainly the most "autopilot Priest" track within Firepower. 

INVINCIBLE SHIELD (2024) - 'Escape from Reality'
Judas Priest returned in 2024 with Invincible Shield - an album even better than Firepower! As with the predecessor, there aren't any actual "poor" tracks here, but 'Escape from Reality' is just about lacking in creativity/energy compared to nearly everything else on offer here. It's mid-tempo pacing is not necessarily a problem, but the riffing is undoubtedly less exciting than most of the other songs here - especially when you've just sat through instant classics like 'Panic Attack', 'The Serpent and the King', 'Invincible Shield', 'Gates of Hell' and 'As God Is My Witness'. And it doesn't have the same passion as the terrific ballad 'Crown of Horns' either. But you know... as with 'Spectre' from Firepower, Andy Sneap's amazing production still brings this seemingly average song to life.