Stone Magnet

I'm not accusing you of thinking this, but many seem to believe that if you do not crank the distortion on a Mesa Rectifier to 11, play nothing but power chords and fast pick your palm-muted low E string, you are not 'heavy'. Judas Priest, in the 70's, did not use any more distortion than bands like Led Zeppelin did, but they were one of the heaviest bands of the era. Heaviness is something that emanates from the music itself, and really has nothing to do with what equipment is being used to formulate the said music.

Judas Priest is heavier than a lot of metal bands nowadays.

__________________
Lock to field screen, row the ocean onto sentient ground.
New rites of a Vedic sun to attend the blue horizon.
Prevails flight resplendent, sails the shrine effulgent windship.
Stillness breathes apex supreme - I walk toward the mountain.

Crowns the sovereic rite to freedom.
Shored the origin forms to a ground accede.
Axiom core of the light shrine flight to shining.
Glows serene to attenuate the space and time.

judas_priest

Yeah, they were heavy for that era but they're not considered to be very heavy now. I agree with your point that they are heavy considering their lack of distortion though.
They probably are heavier than some metal bands today as well. More importantly, they're much more talented than lots of them.
They're a brilliant band anyway.

PostPsychosis

I think about the time frame when I call something metal. For instance by todays standards a lot of bands in the 70's aren't heavy, but for the time they were the heaviest music around.

__________________
Descending from Heaven
The Angel Sworn to bring them down
The Hunter, The Thunder
The Wrath of Heavens Coming Down

scout_75

Never heard anything from Iced Earth. Can you suggest a few songs that I could listen to and see what they are like?

Wild7Dustr

Yes, just 2, but there is also a live album that they did.I think it's called Live : Insurrection or something like that.Anyways, their 2 studio albums (Resurrection and Crucible) are fu(kin' amazing!!!To put it in other words, as hard as it may seem to say/believe, I'd rather have Halford's 2 solo albums if I had the choice between them and the new album/painkiller combo!!!Good thing I have them all though, so...............

Wild7Dustr

Hey bud, R.H.C.P. don't have the same sound (or even style) as James Brown.If you want to hear a little more soul and classic funk, then you'd listen to James Brown; if you wanted to hear something that was funky, fast and rocked hard, then you'd listen to R.H.C.P., ya know?I'm influenced by both bands and both of them are some of my favorite funk-based artists out there.James Brown will always be funky (atleast his past records) and Rob Halford will always be known as the Metal God.Judas Priest and Black Sabbath are pretty much the bands that originated/created heavy metal and I wouldn't take either out of my favorite metal (or even hard-rock) bands list, ya hear?Judas Priest has the intensity, emotion and incredible solo's to put them up as a metal band, but Black Sabbath had more of a darker, demonic/evil sound that is truly more of the defining sound of where metal came from.As for me and the others in this slight argument have already said, the Painkiller album is more of a darker, heavier style of hard-rock/metal for the band, so there's no denying that that sound produces a true metal sound!!!As I already said, I fu(kin' love Judas Priest and would put them on either a metal or hard-rock favorites list, so don't be offended if you are!!!Hard-rock pretty much is metal in a sense with the only possible differences being that metal usually has a darker, heavier sound with...in some cases...growling lyrics talking about satanic/evil things, ya see?Do ya understand why Judas Priest is more of a hard-rock band now?

Wild7Dustr

...And that's a fact!!!I'd rather hear the worst Judas Priest albums than some of the best of what the new self proclaimed "innovative" bands are doing now. At the same time, there are a few exceptions/impressive bands out today, so I always keep my ears open.

judas_priest

Yeah, agreed

judas_priest

cool. I'll have to look out for them then. I always thought that priest would be much much better so I never really bothered with halford's solo stuff.

AbyssRecords

Not JUDAS PRISET fan bt I think Ripper vocals are weak compared to ROB HALFORDS