MetalClassic Rock
Judas Priest are releasing “Sad Wings Of Destiny” in two separate editions for the record’s fiftieth anniversary: “Original 1976 Masters” and “Remixed & Remastered”. Both come out on Exciter Records and both restore the running order the band had planned and which was not followed at the time: they open with “Prelude” and leave “Victim Of Changes” in sixth place.
The first comes from the 1976 analogue master tapes, kept in storage for decades and newly remastered. The vinyl is a hand-poured “Solar Flare” pressing, with a different colour pattern on every copy, and Europe also gets a “Galaxy” option; the CD is in a jewel case, with liner notes by Bryan Reesman and unseen archive photographs. It streams on 2 October and the physical release follows on the 9th.
The second is a mix built from scratch off the multitracks, produced by Tom Allom, mixed by Luie Stylianou and mastered by Matt Colton: the same team that redid “Rocka Rolla”. It comes as a 180g double LP at 45rpm, cut at half speed, and on digipak CD, on 27 November.
Both physical editions carry as a bonus track the recording of “Diamonds And Rust”, the Joan Baez song the band taped during the 1976 sessions and which was left off the album. On the archive edition it appears as it was then; on the remix, redone.
“It’s taken us by surprise what was lurking on those multitracks,” Stylianou says. The album came out on 23 March 1976 in the UK and on the 26th in the United States.
Text by Roger Estivill