Well today as we continue through the decades we will be doing another great 70s band. Judas Priest and their first album Rocka Rolla. This album has some pretty nifty cover art. The sound is sorta Iron Maideny and nice and heavy. There are some pretty funky rhythms going on here that come off pretty well. There are some really nice bass lines and some good guitar verse parts and chorus bits. It has quite a few nice riffs. The lead track One For the Road lacks technical skill but it is still catchy and definitely heavy metal. The immediately following track shows a bit more technical skill but it sticks to a theme of simple song construction.
JUDAS PRIEST ROCKA ROLLA SONG CONSTRUCTION CHART
Intro------>Verse with some nice riffs------>Chorus with some more nice riffs---Rinse and repeat possibly adding solo--> Nice riff filled extro
That kind of sums up the song writing here.
That is not to say the music is bad. In fact it is really good it just kind of lacks chutspah if you know what I mean. The technical skill is pretty good and the riffs are creative but the overall album lacks force behind it. It is an above average album yes with good musical skill and showing definite potential but they're are some weird bits that don't quite come off. This is especially prevalent in the track deep freeze. Which frankly sucks. They could do with a bit more soloing. I think that if they had added more solos which were more vicious ad powerful they could have showed themselves to be a powerful and thrashing band.
Instead they show some weak attempts at solo that show potential but frankly fail to come off. Overall the technical skill is pretty good and I really like a lot of the riffs on this album. In fact the riffs kind of save the album from completely sucking they are just so amazing and can drive songs. So asides from lacking force this album shows a lot of nice riffs and a lot of of potential for the band that Priest was to become. On a personal note this is an album that my semi insane and dying third cousn danny devito produced. H's a cool cousin and my 2nd favorite relative. (1st is my aunt 3rd is my uncle he has lots of guitars.)
OVERALL 7/10
Rocka Rolla
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