10 Metal Albums That Shouldn't Have Been Great (But Totally Were)

The late '80s were not kind to the British metal gods, Judas Priest.

While the first half of the decade saw the band riding high off of classics including British Steel (1980), Screaming for Vengeance (1982) and Defenders of the Faith (1984), 1986's sub-par Turbo record and its lead single "Turbo Lover" brought that hot streak to a grinding halt. Not to mention the enormous controversy surrounding the band in '86 after they found themselves in court on charges that their music encouraged listeners to commit suicide.

The slump hit its worst in 1988 with the rather mundane Ram It Down, so, come 1990, nobody expected anything new with Painkiller. After all, the past two albums had been duds: what would make this one any different?

But Painkiller was different. Very different.

After the Priest had failed to adapt to the times in the late '80s (which saw the peak of new, extreme genres like thrash and death metal), the record upped the extreme and upped the vitality, resulting in a speed metal extravaganza piloted by a monstrous title track.