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I've always had a problem with the sound of most albums released in the 70s so I was glad when I heard the Judas Priest albums were being remastered. "Sin After Sin" is an album that I never bothered to listen to very much because of the sound of the original release. This remastered edition solves my problem while still retaining the 70s feel of the album. Featuring such classics as "Sinner" and "Diamonds and Rust", this album sounds like a mix of hard rock and heavy metal songs. Thrown in a couple of good ballads, something that more recent Priest albums were not featuring much. It's difficult today in 2002 to review this as if it were a fresh release, after all it was first released 25 years ago! If anything, it is quite an interesting listen if only to hear by what some later bands were influenced by, as there is stuff on this album that I can still hear in today's releases by some "classic" heavy metal bands.

Metal in the 70s was usually not too aggressive (well - at least by today's or even by the 80's standards) so today this sounds a bit mellow, yet the quality cannot be denied. I'd say the heaviest, fastest song (excluding the bonus stuff) is the closer of the original release, "Dissident Aggressor", which really stands out on the album. While there are a couple of tracks that are a bit on the weak side (and I would probably have dropped one ballad), this is overall a very good hard rock/metal album. Fans of early 70s hard rock bands will hear that influence in here too. The double axe attack of the Tipton and Downing studio is not nearly as clear, powerful and heavy here as it was to be on albums released just a couple of years later, but the guitar work is very pleasing throughout the album and some guitar melodies are just downright catchy. I don't think I need to mention that Rob Halford does a great job at the vocals?

Two bonus tracks are included. The first one, "Race With The Devil" is from the band jamming at one of their early recording sessions - a pretty catchy rocking song. The second one is a little jump into the future, a live performance of "Jawbreaker".

This is worth getting for the quality of the album and also to own this restored piece of early metal history.

Additional Information

- Originally released in 1977 by CBS