Even the best of bands puts out bad albums. The thing that makes an excellent band is it has to have a long history of good music. When Judas Priest are on, they're the best band in the world. When they're off, well, they have a big enough back catalog. Judas Priest is my all-time favorite band, and while Black Sabbath invented heavy metal, Priest steered it to modernity, and gave metal its "look."

Rocka Rolla 1974 - Sounds like something recorded in a garage. I know, that's supposed to be the real deal with some anti-intellectual elements of the metalhead scene, but it's a turn-off for me. The songwriting left something to be desired. Of course I own it, because you just gotta own Priest's first album. But over the years, this CD has gathered a lot of dust.

Sad Wings of Destiny 1976 - Although it doesn't sound much better than their first effort recordingwise, this album has some incredible songs, like "Victim of Changes," "Dreamer Deceiver," and "Deceiver." Some of it does drag though, like "Prelude" and "Epitath."

Sin After Sin 1977 - Here we go. The Priest finally started getting noticed by the music industry and heavy metal as we know it is born. Here we see the rough beginnings of both thrash ("Dissident Aggressor," of which Slayer performed a killer cover of) and speed metal ("Sinner"). "The Last Rose of Summer" we could have done without.

Stained Class 1978 - A step backwards. Priest finally started to get the ball rolling and then they go and put out a weak album. Has a few highlights though like "Exciter".

Hell Bent for Leather 1979 - Wow! The Priest finally land a good drummer (Simon from "Sin After Sin" doesn't count because he's a session drummer) and put out their strongest album yet. Packed with killer tunes, like the Fleetwood Mac cover "Green Manalishi," "Delivering The Goods," "Evil Fantasies," and others.

Unleashed in the East 1979 - Simply one of the best live albums ever. Even if you hate live albums, you need this one.

British Steel 1980 - Judas Priest goes pop. Their first album to go Platinum in the U.S. The only thing is I can't stand two of the singles from it - "Living After Midnight" (which for some odd reason they always play live) and "United." I mp3'ed this album, took out those two songs, then burned it to a disk and it's a pretty good album if you do it that way.

Point of Entry 1981 - Okay, let's just forget they did this one. The really sad thing is this was one of Metal's strongest years ever. Ozzy came out with both "Blizzard of Ozz" and "Diary of a Madman," Maiden had "Killers," Sabbath had their best album ever with "The Mob Rules," Def Leppard put out their best album with "High 'N Dry," but Priest came out with this crap. Don't worry fans, Priest will redeem themselves big time.

Screaming for Vengeance 1982 - Ironically, the very first Priest album I owned. I was in Junior High when this came out. At the time, Ozzy and Def Leppard were my favorite bands. That would change with this album. Unfortunately, the greatest guitarist ever died this year.

Defenders of the Faith 1984 - You just put out your best effort ever. So what do you do? Do it again.

Turbo 1986 - A bad year for metal. Iron "no synthesizers" Maiden started doing the synth thing and Priest followed suit. Or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, there's only one good song on this entire album - "Reckless." The rest of it was pop metal garbage.

Priest...Live 1987 - To tell you the truth, I never bothered to hear this album. No rating.

Ram It Down 1988 - Or this one either. I heard "Johnny B Goode" and that was enough. No rating, but assume it to be bad.

Painkiller 1990 - Redemption. The Priest tours with Megadeth, Anthrax, and Testament and puts out an album with their best drummer yet (Scott Travis). Priest's heaviest album to date but they still churned out good melodies.

Jugulator 1997 - Halford's long gone and replaced by Tim 'Ripper' Owens. Owens writes none of the music, so you can't really blame him for this one. In an attempt to go more brutal, Jugulator goes cheese, not good cheese, but smelly cheese. However, they do leave us "Bullet Train" which is a brilliant piece.

'98 Live Meltdown 1998 - And with a new singer comes a new live album, covering a bunch of classics as well as some new ones. Owens actually has a strong voice and one of these days, I'll get around to following his career post-Priest. I like the kid.

Demolition 2001 - Realizing that nobody liked Jugulator, Priest tries a different route. The quasi-Nu Metal songs suck big time, but the experimental pieces aren't that bad. If you pick and choose this album and skip the rest, it's tolerable.

Angel of Retribution 2005 - Judas Priest with Rob Halford is back! Owens parts on good terms, and once again, it's a happy family. This is where Priest left off after Painkiller. Every song on here is strong and I personally have no favorites. My investment partner though likes "Loch Ness" as his favorite. With just the right amount of melody, heaviness, and harmonic dissonance, this will be seen as one of their masterpieces.