Every Judas Priest Albums Ranked Worst To Best
9. Sad Wings Of Destiny
Dubious album title aside, Sad Wings Of Destiny was a generally incredible album overall and, as their sophomore effort, marked an improvement from their previous Rock Rolla record. After the aforementioned debut album stifled them creatively, much of the unused material from Rocka Rolla ended up on this album. What we ended up with was a heavy, hard-hitting, riff-diculous record for the ages.
Of the standouts on the album - of which there are many - Victim Of Changes, Tyrant and The Ripper chart very highly among Priest fans and the band themselves. The only real criticism of this record is the often poor production quality, rather than the tracks on the album.
Broadly agreed to be one of the most influential metal albums of all time, the record still suffered from a general lack of polish and quality (hence its relatively low placement here). This can be easily attested to the financial struggles their independent music label, Gull, was experiencing at the time. Despite this, Sad Wings Of Destiny marked the moment Judas Priest consolidated their sound and really became Judas Priest in the eyes of their audience.