Don't buy it--You are getting ripped off!!!!
Grog | Southern California | 12/03/2004
(1 out of 5 stars)
"This is an attemp by Gull records to cash in on the Judas Priest name. This album and Hero, Hero are unauthorized, substandard reissues of the first two Judas Priest albums Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings Of Destiny. The sound Quality sucks and there is no new material on these that you won't get on the actual albums, which are still available through Cdnow/Amazon.
Support Judas Priest, the best heavy metal band of all time, and don't waste your money on this crap. Buy the real thing
Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings Of Destiny."
A taste of things to come
Josh Liller | Palm City, FL | 02/13/2002
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I'm a huge Judas Priest fan. I have every original CD from this one through Painkiller (their last with Halford).The album is a double CD featuring Judas Priest's first two LPs - "Rocka Rolla" (tracks 1-10) and "Sad Wings of Destiny" (tracks 12-20). "Diamonds & Rust" (track 11) is a bonus track from their third album, "Sin After Sin" and is marginally different but not worth noting. It is a good song though.Together the album is worth buying, individually the two albums might not be. "Rocka Rolla" has some good stuff that hints at JP's later greatness ("Cheater", title track, "Never Satisfied", "One for the Road") but the rest is very forgettable junk. By itself, this album would be probably 2 stars.As for "Sad Wings of Destiny", it was better (some fans still regard it as Priest's best album though I disagree) and while the stand-alone version has very nice cover art its better bought here to make the first album worthwhile. "Ripper" is a great take on Jack The Ripper. "Genocide", "Tyrant", and "Island of Domination" are also very good. "Victim of Changes" is okay. The rest is just filler. By itself, this album would probably be 3 1/2 stars."
Good sounding, economical release that is poorly packaged.
Dlokazip | Austin, TX | 09/25/2005
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This is a combined reissue of Judas Priest's first two albums, Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings Of Destiny. If you already have those two albums, you don't need this one.
The music on here is very good. Do not believe other reviewers who claim that the sound quality on this release is bad. It is as good as it gets.
The real issue is the packaging. None of the artwork is included from the original albums, which is good in case of Rocka Rolla, but bad in the case of Sad Wings Of Destiny. Furthermore, the photographs included in the booklet and on the back cover are from the late 80s, even though the music is from 1974-1976. There is, also, a brief biography in the booklet, the accuracy of which has been called into question.
There are many repackages of this material on the market and none of the money actually goes to the band, so it really doesn't matter which version you get. If you want the all of the music from this era in an inexpensive package and really don't care about the artwork, then this is the one to get. Otherwise, buy the original albums separately."