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What I loved about this release is the bonus tracks, they really give you a better idea of JP's live show. I cranked up the volume in my car and love it.
There's good cheese and bad cheese; at their best, Judas Priest was the former, and this live offering from 1978 in front of a crowd of adoring Japanese shows them at their very best. I just found out that Judas Priest is touring with Motorhead this August and will be in my state -- this is one King Kong v. Their version of Fleetwood Mac's "Green Manalishi" makes Peter Green's ode to a succubus into the purest Gothic horroshow imaginable, blood-curdling.
Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath may have created the framework for Anglo Saxon Heavy Music, but the Priest, by ditching the blues changes for baroque prog structures, adding a second guitar, and playing at blinding velocity, may lay claim to being the first true Metal band, progenitor of speed, thrash, power, and sadly, hair metal, the latter being weird because the lead singer was bald and proud of it. For pure onslaught, Motorhead was their only competition. For those not familiar with the Metal Gods, Unleashed in the East is the best introduction.
This disc contains only the fastest and most relentless songs from their early albums, when they seemed to inhabit some sort of Lovecraftian dystopia and before they began writing the mindless MTV party anthems that put them in the Top 40. (Halford's willingness to opt for close cropped hair in the mid-'70's when all metal folk had to be hirsuit always seemed to me more courageous than his coming out of the closet years later.).Evidence of why they are not merely kitsch: their inspired choice of covers. JP lay waste to, of all things, Joan Baez's kiss-off to Dylan, "Diamonds and Rust," and turn it into molten metal.
Secret weapon: Rob Halford's banshee shriek, he gives Robert Plant a run for his money in the titanium-throated operatic male soprano department. Godzilla show I am not going to pass up.
Judas Priest are great. This live disc is great. But if you don't buy the disc then you have to buy the "Green Manalishi" download. The live version of "Green Manalishi" is one of the greatest rock songs ever and I don't mean one of the greatest live songs ever but one of the greatest rock songs ever.Do not buy the studio version of "Green Manalishi", it pales in comparison to the live version.
as far as i know, this was the first album that was unrelenting metal from first song to last. no artsy stuff, no mood pieces, just pounding metal all the way through. want to hear early priest at their best, here it is.
If you could only own 2 albums by Judas Priest, get this one and "Sad Wings Of Destiny." Both are flawless and show off the considerable compositional and performing talents of this amazing band. "Unleashed In The East" was a blueprint for future rockers and heavy metalist and is considered one of the all time best live recordings of a metal band, get it and you'll see why.Priest rule: and this album is one of the reasons.
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