10 Metal Songs That Are Ridiculously Long

10. Victim of Changes - Judas Priest

During the salad days of Judas Priest, the term metal didn’t really have that much staying power yet. Even though people like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were coming to the forefront with riff based tunes that were much more aggressive than what had come before, none of them really self identified as being metal bands. After flirting with some psychedelic sounds on Rocka Rolla though, Priest claimed the title for themselves from the moment Victim of Changes started.

Kicking off Sad Wings of Destiny, this feels more like a statement than a song coming from Priest, as Rob Halford gets more comfortable with his falsetto shout and KK Downing and Glenn Tipton working in conjunction with each other. Even though most of the proto metal bands that had come before them had blues influences to draw on, this almost didn’t need any bluesy sounds to make it sound intimidating, just hitting you over the head with different power chords for 7 minutes.

Priest would go on to release even more bombastic tracks, but Victim always found its way into the setlist, having that sinister edge that millions of metal bands took as their new template. It may have been a lot to take in at the time, but that final scream from Halford at the end makes it all worth it.