10 Hard Rock Bands That Went Pop

Judas Priest deserve all the credit in the world for bringing heavy metal to the masses. While bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin may have planted the initial seeds of metal, Judas Priest were one of the first bands who claimed the genre as their own, with wailing vocals and chunky guitar riffs to match. Though almost any Priest record could be considered a classic, even the mighty can cower to the pop monster.

As the band came off of the success of 1984's Defenders of the Faith, fans were left underwhelmed by the shift in sound they made on Turbo. Instead of another helping of metal at hyperspeed, some of these songs felt more in the vein of bands like REO Speedwagon than the band who gave us tracks like "Breaking the Law." The heaviness was certainly there in bits, but the transition into more accessible territory was startling to say the least.

Remember, this was the same band that went from metal pioneers to blowing away the younger acts on albums like Screaming for Vengeance. It's alright for a band to experiment with their sound from time to time, but based on the Priests' track record, there's a lot of hard rock sins this record has to confess.