{"id":341156,"date":"2025-12-10T14:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/341156\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T14:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:33:10","slug":"the-story-behind-painkiller-by-judas-priest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/341156\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind Painkiller by Judas Priest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judas Priest<\/a> were a band in search of direction as the 80s drew to a close. 1986\u2019s Turbo<\/a> was a big success in the US, but its reliance on synth-guitars and pop sheen alienated many fans. Follow-up Ram It Down, released two years later, was as charmless as it was forgettable, which is why no one ever talks about it today. And then they released Painkiller.<\/p>\n

Priest\u2019s 12th album, released on September 3, 1990, was the sound of a band rejuvanated. And its brilliance was embodied by its exhilarating title track.<\/p>\n

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This molten masterpiece was blown open by a showcase drum barrage from new boy Scott Travis. A subsequent volley of strafing Glenn Tipton<\/a>\/K.K. Downing riffs is soon followed by the shrieking intensity of Rob Halford<\/a>\u2019s opening salvo: \u2018Faster than a bullet, terrifying scream \/ Enraged and full of anger, he\u2019s half-man and half-machiiine!\u2019 In six-and-a-half hair-raising minutes, it instantly returned Priest to the cutting edge of heavy metal<\/a> as a new decade dawned.<\/p>\n

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The Brummies were themselves keen admirers of the aggressive new breed, taking Slayer<\/a> out on 1988\u2019s Mercenaries Of Metal Tour, and Painkiller sounds forged in the spirit of showing the new kids who\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Rob\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Jim Steinfeldt\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ambition is to fly the flag for metal and we feel that thrash and heavy metal is one and the same,\u201d Glenn Tipton told Hammer in December 1990, adding: \u201cWe\u2019re into thrash\u2026 We\u2019re very aware of all the young bands and guitar players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always try to do something different, not to rest on our laurels,\u201d affirms Ian Hill in 2019, when asked if Painkiller felt like a radical rebirth song.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d done the experimental Turbo album, which had mixed reviews\u2026 that was a one-way street really, we weren\u2019t going anywhere with heavy guitar synthesisers. [1988 LP] Ram It Down was where we got back the harder edge, so Painkiller was a follow-up to that, but more refined, very aggressive, very strong music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

It was a baptism of fire for 28-year-old ex-Racer X drummer Scott Travis, who joined the band just a few months prior to recording Painkiller and ended up centre-stage on the album\u2019s curtain-raiser, unprecedentedly unaccompanied for the first 15 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott brought a hell of a lot,\u201d enthuses Ian. \u201cDave Holland was a good drummer but he couldn\u2019t handle double bass drums like that. If we\u2019d still had Dave in the band, he wouldn\u2019t have been able to do anything like it, so Scott\u2019s input was tremendous. He enabled us to do that song at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another factor in Painkiller\u2019s impact is the sheer power of the production, gifted by knob-twiddler extraordinaire Chris Tsangarides. Chris had been tape op\/teaboy on 1976\u2019s Sad Wings Of Destiny, going on to helm records for Thin Lizzy<\/a>, Black Sabbath<\/a>, Bruce Dickinson<\/a>, Anvil<\/a>, King Diamond<\/a> and many more.<\/p>\n

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Tom Allom had handled Priest studio duties since 1980\u2019s British Steel, helping cement the band\u2019s success that decade, but now a new approach was needed: \u201cTimes change, and you\u2019ve got to change with them,\u201d Glenn pondered to Metal Hammer. \u201cIt\u2019s 1990 now and we\u2019ve updated our music.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change was instantly felt in Painkiller\u2019s brash and radical ambience. \u201cChris came with great accolades,\u201d recalls Ian of the much-missed maestro, who passed away in 2018.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Rob\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Bike photo: Patti Gower\/Toronto Star via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was then an upcoming producer who\u2019d been working with some of the newer bands of the time; his knowledge of metal was immense, so we gave him a go. He had good ideas about how to get various sounds, and worked out really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 30 years on, Painkiller remains an electrifying experience, crammed with white-knuckle twists and turns, vigorous shifting tempos and haywire energy; everyone will have their favourite bit, but there\u2019s something so scintillating about the way the action pauses to cue the sweep-picked arpeggio into Glenn\u2019s magnificent solo \u2013 reputedly the guitarist\u2019s personal favourite.<\/p>\n

With all its chopping and changing, building and racing, sparks flying off drumsticks and fretboards, you might wonder if Painkiller took longer to nail than other Priest songs, but as ever, Ian took it in his stride.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent about two weeks in Spain in this old finca we\u2019d rented, where we could play it live and polish it up,\u201d recalls the bassist, \u201cso the recording was comparatively easy, as we all had a good idea of what we were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song\u2019s video \u2013 their fourth cut directed by Wayne Isham, fresh from working with Pink Floyd<\/a>, the Stones<\/a>, Ozzy<\/a>, Bon Jovi<\/a> and Def Leppard<\/a> \u2013 was filmed in austere monochrome, in what looked like an iron foundry.<\/p>\n

The strobing, rapid cutting and washes of bright light emphasise the song\u2019s insistent harshness, perhaps wisely opting not to play out the lyrical narrative of the cybernetic superhero resurrecting mankind after Armageddon, which sounds very expensive.<\/p>\n

In Hammer\u2019s 2003 Xmas issue, Rob summed up Painkiller: \u201cAn archetypal metal moment,\u201d he declared, \u201cabout a fantastic creature that personifies metal. The evil, the energy and the destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judas Priest – Painkiller – YouTube
\n\"Judas<\/p>\n

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