This album was highly anticipated by me and my metal friends at the time. Not only was it the first Priest album to be 2 years in the making but there was also a radio show back then called "Metal Shop". Anyone Remember "Metal Shop"? ....."The Only Show With Teeth!!...*buzzsaw noise*. In the early 80's this show would have interviews from bands and would play a few tracks from the newest albums, and also give us sneek peeks into upcoming albums. Well, they would play like 10 seconds of a track from "Defenders" and man, I just could'nt wait to hear it. I loved it, although I didnt feel side 2 was as strong as side 1.
These days I can do without "Love Bites" and "Eat Me Alive", but side 1 (the first 4 tracks of the cd) is legendary. Matter of fact, last week I was grocery shoppin' with my wife and for about 2 hours I couldnt get "Rock Hard, Ride Free" outta my head. Even 25 years later I love it! That is an infectious riff, even K.K. shines in the first half of the solo (let's face it, he doesnt have the greatest solos in the world but occasionally he nails it and it is magic, am I right??).

Overall, it's another great Priest album no doubt about it, but over the years many other of their albums have leapfrogged over "Defenders" in my personal top 10 fave JP albums.

good album

Defenders to me is one of their most consistent albums. Maybe the high points aren't quite as high as Screaming (but it's a really marginal difference) but the songs all feel really strong. I might occasionally skip a song when listening to Screaming but I rarely if ever do that on Defenders.

Defenders is a good album, but for some reason it's never really connected with me in the same way that Screaming For Vengeance does. There are some great tunes (especially The Sentinel and Freewheel Burning), but at times it seems that Priest was trying to "dumb itself down" by resorting to lyrical cliches like Love Bites, Eat Me Alive, etc as they continued to strip down their sound to it's bare essence.

I remember the radio played Some Heads Are Gonna Roll quite a bit when this was released, but where British Steel & Screaming both attained some crossover success I think Defenders was firmly in the metal camp. There are still moments of inspiration, but when viewed as a whole...Defenders would be down near the bottom of the list of my favorite Priest albums.

On to the next album, Judas Priest's most controversial album of their career, 1986's "Turbo'. I always wondered why they choose to go in a more commercial direction since I doubt Columbia Records pressed the Priest to go this route. Personally I love the album but it took me years to overcome my dislike of this album.

A very 80's album that saw Priest utilize guitar synthesizers on the "Turbo Lover' and 'Locked In' two songs that I do like despite the emphasis on pop hooks. The band seemed to fascinated with what was then brand new technology of digital recording and guitar synthesizers some songs such as ' Out in the Cold' benefited from this approach. A few songs that I feel are clunkers such as 'Rock You All Around the World', I always felt it was Priest trying to hard to write anthem, also 'Parental Guidance' is just plain silly. 'Wild Nights and Hot Crazy Nights' sound like Priest are trying to write a song in Bon Jovi style.

The Original idea of this album was to release this as double LP and one album would be the 'Turbo' album and the next album an all out assault metal album. The cost of releasing a double studio album would prove to cost to much and instead it was released as "Turbo', which spawned avery successful album and I believe their most successful tour. A very flawed album that I think it is an interesting listen and still the cause of alot of debate 20 plus years.

The "Turbo" album is the hardest album in Priest's catalog to rate. I was 15 years old when it came out, and I was to naive to be able to criticize an album from one of my favorite bands. I guess I just accepted stylistic change back then, and like Manny stated, the album sounded like much of what was coming out back in the day. Don't get me wrong, I knew it wasn't "Defenders of the Faith" or "Screaming For Vengeance", but this was one of those albums that was a soundtrack for that period in my life.

If it wasn't for that term "Nostaligia", this album probably would've ended up only in front of that of "Rocka Rolla", for worst album with Rob Halford at the mic. I'll never forget sitting in the back seat of my parents car with my friend Joe Smart and listening to this album on his ghetto blaster as our families drove to Myrtyle Beach for vacation.

Ranking Priest albums up to this point:

1. Defenders of The Faith
2. Screaming For Vengeance
3. Stained Class
4. British Steel
5. Point of Entry
6. Turbo
7. Hell Bent For Leather
8. Sad Wings of Destiny
9. Sin After Sin
10. Rocka Rolla

Hated Turbo when it was first released, still hate it all these years later. Not for the production, but for the inept songwriting.

I've just not been able to ever get into this album. I had only really heard the radio singles over the years and the really big JP fans that I knew had always told me that this was about their worst album.
Despite all the negative things I'd heard about it I later on really tried to get into it but just couldn't as even though there's a catchy song or two they just don't outweigh the rest of the mediocre and even somewhat crappy songs for me.

As I have probably said many a time before round here, I don't hate TURBO, but I don't love it either. It's kind of a sentimental favorite since my first concert was the Priest TURBO tour (Gawd, was it really 23 years ago?) ... some of it has held up rather well ("Turbo Lover," despite the cheesy coating, is a great track, and "Out In The Cold" should still be in their set lists today IMO) but most of it has aged pretty badly ("Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days?" Ugh. "Hot For Love?" Double ugh.)

I used to rank this one at the bottom of the Priest pile ... till DEMOLITION came along.

When I first got a car with a cassette play Turbo was the only Priest album I had, so I got acquainted with it better than I had previously, and while it's not my least favorite of theirs, it is pretty flawed song writing wise and over the top. "Turbo Lover", "Locked In", "Out In The Cold" (my favorite ballad by them actually), "Reckless", and to a lesser extent "Hot For Love" are the good takeaway tracks from of it. The rest are pretty bland (Parental Guidance? Wild Nights, Hot And Crazy Days? No thanks), its not their worst album, but I suggest a good sampling of it before buying.

...Private Property belongs in the "incredibly stupid" category as well.

I saw Priest on this tour so it is a sentimental favorite but I agree with sentiments expressed regarding some of the song writing, granted Rob Halford as a lyricist was not trying to be the Bob Dylan world, but some of the lyrics of these album border on being insipid. I do enjoy the album now and what I look it like a time capsel, not just in Judas Priest's career but that time period in music history, were everything was bigger than life, more colorful (clothes wise), and this album captures all the good, the bad, and some of the silliness of the big 80's.

As Deathcult states if you are newbie to the Priest approach the album with caution, but I still spin the CD from time to time and it makes me smile. I am glad that despite the success of this album Priest opted not to explore this direction further but it is interesting look and listen to an era that has passed into history.

I don't own it, so I can't give an apropiate opinion. This album at least interest me more than the Ripper era, ram it down and point of no entry

Judas Priest is a VERY hard band for me to rank albums for because I consider so many of them to be on par with each other but Ill give it a shot anyway. If I had to rank them including live albums, UNLEASHED IN THE EAST would always be #1, for just studio albums, and my opinion today only:

1. Unleashed In The East
2. Sad Wings Of Destiny
3. Hellbent For Leather
4. Stained Class
5. Point Of Entry
6. Screaming For Vengeance
7. Sin After Sin
8. British Steel
9. Defenders Of The Faith
10. Rocka Rolla
11. Turbo

EDIT: Had to change it around a bit, wasn't too happy with how I had it before.

Woo! Just bought Stained Class, Sad Wings Of Destiny and Hell Bent For Leather on vinyl on ebay.

This thread has me pumped!

Never gave "Turbo" a serious listen. Just got done playing Priest "Rising In The East" dvd :metal: extremely loud :metal:

"turbo lover" wasn't all that bad in that set, even though Halford did some kind of dance fever moves during the tune.

I am in full agreement with Manny. He pretty much stated how I feel about Turbo.

An album with a lot of flaws, a sound that makes you cringe and songwriting-wise just a general letdown after Vengeance and Defenders. BUT, there's still a few good songs and it is an interesting piece of history and an album where Priest again goes in a totally new direction. So, instead of Priest repeating themselves, they reinvent themselves and you get an album that is totally new and fresh.

Something worth hearing, definitely. Not my favourite, not even close, but it holds its place in the Judas Priest back catalogue. It's Priest gone glam!

Favourite tracks: Reckless

Even though we're well past it, Ive been spinning the heck out of Point Of Entry for the past two days, and I really dont understand the "commercial" comments generated by this album. Sounds like just good old JP should to me, I didnt realize there were so many negative reviews of this floating around.

When Turbo came out there was no way I wasn't going to love it. They could do no wrong as far as I was concerned. But when Painkiller came along years later I really grew to dislike Turbo in comparison. Today I've come back around on it and like/accept it for what it is - a fun nostalgia record.

I'm in the same boat with Point Of Entry. One of my favorites. Any long trip I make that is the first disc I grab.

Turbo was my first Priest album, oddly enough, so I like it. A great pop-metal record.

Turbo is another Priest album I don't have so I can't give an opinion.