Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Judas Priest "Electric Eye” Columbia Music Video 2003 reviewed by: Ken Pierce

Track Listing1. Out In The Cold 2. Locked In 3. Heading Out To The Highway 4. Breaking The Law 5. Love Bites 6. Some Heads Are Gonna Roll 7. The Sentinel 8. Private Property 9. Desert Plains 10. Rock You All Around The World 11. Hellion/Electric Eye 12. Turbo Lover 13. Freewheel Burning 14. The Green Manalishi 15. Parental Guidance 16. Living After Midnight 17. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ 18. Hell Bent For Leather 19. Metal Gods (over closing credits)

The literal shortage of DVD product from Judas Priest alone makes this something that is worth picking up from the local music store or your favorite online dealer. This DVD not only features every Judas Priest video ever made and a full concert from the “Fuel For Life” (“Turbo”) tour. It also features a score of BBC live appearances. Truly a value packed item for the dollar. Looking back on the videos section you have to admit that they were a bit cheesy. Yet “Breaking The Law” and “Living After Midnight” are timeless in the minds of the older Priest fans who remember when MTV not only played videos but also played a lot of metal music (yes, there was such a time). Of course, at the time the format of music and video together was new. Bands were still feeling the ground of combining their musical expressions along with the visual medium and the ways it could be made to work. To this day my very favorite videos remain “Freewheel Burning” and “Painkiller”. However I will leave discussion of “Hot Rockin” for another person. than the videos that they released for being honest, Judas Priest videos were pretty cheesy.

Videos: Living After Midnight, Breaking The Law, Don’t Go, Heading Out To The Highway, Hot Rockin’, You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’, Freewheel Burning, Love Bites, Locked In, Turbo Lover, Johnny B. Goode, Painkiller, A Touch Of Evil.

The BBC Footage is indeed a blast from the past. Seeing Rob Halford with a full mane of Robert Plant like hair was a very strange site for he had either the shaved head of many years or the short cropped style from “Hell Bent For Leather”. Most tracks seem to be lip-synched, but it is quite cool to see them just the same. You even get to see long absent drummer Les Binks who was an excellent part of the band in their history.

The BBC Pieces: Rocka Rolla, Dreamer Deceiver/Deceiver, Take On The World, Evening Star, Living After Midnight, United.

1986 “Fuel For Life” Tour:
The concert section of the DVD is filmed during the “Turbo” tour which was referred to as the “Fuel For Life” Tour. This tour was not a favorite of the hard core Priest fan as it took out heavier staple numbers and replaced them with some of the more “pop-metal” tunes The Priest had created. You are not going to win older fans over when you remove songs like “Beyond The Realms Of Death” and “Sinner” with “Private Property” and “Parental Guidance” (considered lame by the old school fans). While this was not a “Defenders Of The Faith” level performance, the sound was still quite good and it is nice to see this available again in a quality format. The VHS of this concert was long out of print in the 90’s. The only other DVD of Priest is the one included in the “Metalogy” boxed set (reviewed elsewhere on this site). That show is from the “Screaming For Vengeance” tour and gives those in need of heavier Priest their fill. I should mention that the “Live In London” DVD is also heavy, but features Tim “Ripper” Owens on vocals and not Rob Halford. Purists seemed to avoid that piece and it was misguided for them to do so, as Ripper did a helluva job in the band.

With Judas Priest being reunited with Rob Halford and hard at work on a new album and tour it will be logical that some new DVD will perhaps be forthcoming from them. Given the recent Ozzfest tour I am hoping for us fans that some of this footage will be released as they were clearly the best portion of the evenings excitement. However, until new material is ready we shall only have the “Electric Eye” DVD. The overall sound and tunes come out very good (and I saw this tour as well), it was great to see Priest as a band on top of their game. At that point in Metal history, there really was no bigger band than Judas Priest. It is a recommended purchase for any Metal DVD Library.

Rating: 8/10

Judas Priest Official Homepage: www.judaspriest.com

--Ken Pierce 11.24.04