With Screaming For Vengeance, their breakthrough 1982 album, Priest did a quick turnaround to satiate their fans. Easily their heaviest album to date - and sporting the sinister eagle-like Hellion on its cover - Screaming was chock full of powerful metal statements like the speed-laced "Riding On The Wind" and the bleak, aggressive title track. The Orwellian sci-fi piece "Electric Eye" is possibly their greatest single song achievement, with Halford altering his vocals four different ways and Tipton wailing on a powerful solo. The song displayed how Priest could brilliantly marry their lyrics and music, and it also highlighted how producer Allom was masterfully sculpting their larger-than-life sound.
Most important of all, the record featured "You've Got Another Thing Comin'," the metal anthem of the 80s, a tune which appealed to the biker set but was accessible to a mass audience. "I think that was the one song in our whole catalog that is probably responsible for turning a lot of kids onto heavy metal," says Downing. Accompanied by a darkly humorous video in which a sound engineer gets his head blown off by the band's excessive volume, the song peaked at #66 on the US singles chart and helped propel the album to a Top 20 showing, pushing it well beyond platinum over the course of the next year.
In support of this runaway success, Priest hit the road for nearly a year with a three-tiered stage set which featured plenty of lasers and smoke. The band were donning more leather and studs, particularly Halford, who would continue to attach more armor throughout the 80s. (People later told Halford they would hear him before they saw him.) His stage persona began to take on S&M connotations with his intense biker persona, which he played very coyly, walking a clever line between camp and earnestness. And his short blonde hair was in striking contrast to the standard metal mane. The band overall generated strong performances on stage which kept the fans begging for more.
Priest had arrived. The Memphis date on this latest U.S. trek - filled with screaming, ecstatic fans - was captured on video for MTV, which aired the show numerous times. (It was also released on home video.) The group even attracted the attention of big-time manager Bill Curbishley, whose artists include The Who and Robert Plant. With The Who opting to leave the rock world at that time, Curbishley had energy to devote another act, and he set his sights firmly on Judas Priest. "We had other managers [before]," states Downing, "but Bill was our first real manager." And he had big plans.
The Screaming tour also left its mark on a young Scott Travis, a recent convert. Even though Dave Holland manned the drums, Travis had a strong notion that he would be better for Priest. So after one show, he decided to meet the band. "I had some pictures of my drum set," he explains. "I wasn't there to just shake their hand, I wanted to be in the fuckin' band. I walked into the bar [at their hotel], and sure enough Glenn was sitting in the bar area. I went over and said 'hey, man, can I have your autograph?' to break the ice, and I pulled out some pictures and he said 'nice kit'. The whole thing was ludicrous anyways - I realize that now - but it shows my perseverance and my dedication at the time that nothing was going to deter me. I had to say 'how do you like playing with Dave Holland?' He said 'I like playing with him very much.' So at that point, I didn't pursue it, I ended up leaving. But I wanted to make an impression on the band."
Following their lengthy US tour, Priest took a breather but managed to squeeze in an appearance at the US Festival in 1983 before 300,000 people. The band were amusingly sandwiched between Crosby, Stills, & Nash and Bryan Adams. "The US festival was amazing, because we just flew in and there was a big sea of people," recalls Tipton. "It was a bit weird for us. We hadn't played for awhile, and we just went in and played, and it was just like 'did we do that?'"
Charged up by their growing success, the band returned to the studio in Ibiza, Spain where they recorded their platinum breakthrough and emerged in January of 1984 with the brilliant Defenders Of The Faith. Sporting a ominous creature called The Metallion on its cover, Defenders covered a gamut of styles, from the speed metal fury of "Freewheel Burning" to the "West Side Story"-gone-sci-fi epic "The Sentinel" to the moody electric ballad "Night Comes Down". Tipton and Downing's feverish solos became stronger with each record, and at the time Defenders, particularly the impassioned six-string trade-offs in "The Sentinel," represented their creative pinnacle. The album also featured "Eat Me Alive," a lascivious sex song which would stir up controversy with the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), a music industry watchdog group founded by Tipper Gore. The band opted not to play that tune on tour.
The Defenders show was impressive, featuring a massive steel version of the Metallion, complete with a claw arm which could be raised and lowered. Every night, Halford was burped out of the creature's mouth with a belch of smoke. The light show was spectacular, the set awe-inspiring, and Priest's energy and enthusiasm contagious. The fans were literally going nuts, shouting out the words as loud as the band were playing. The shouts of "Priest! Priest! Priest!" became a monosyllabic metal mantra which would stick for years to come. Priest were now truly rock gods. Numerous European and American bands were emulating their leather and studs image and musical approach, including many groups who would appropriate their classic song titles for band names. This was also the beginning of the era of larger-than-life shows which many metal bands would take to heart throughout the 80s.
A young man named Tim Owens was smitten with the band when he saw them on the Defenders tour. "It was outstanding," he raves. "Just from the start of The Metallion on stage, and the guys coming out, and Rob walking out of the mouth, it was just an amazing show. I never experienced anything like that again. And it was my first concert ever. It just blew me away." Little did he know much that show and the band would play in his future.
Sales-wise Defenders did not fare as well as its predecessor. It did crack the Top 20 and quickly went gold, eventually hitting platinum, but it was not the major mainstream breakthrough which the band and their label thought it would be. The band were making their mark nonetheless, gracing the covers of Hit Parader, Circus, Kerrang!, Guitar, and numerous other publications. Their guitarists would eventually make the pages of Sports Illustrated when they were spotted on the golf greens. Halford was a guest VJ one night on MTV. Numerous books appeared on the market, including various photo albums and journalist Steve Gett's biography of the band entitled "Heavy Duty".
1985 was a quieter year for the band, who wanted to recuperate from the intense spotlight of success. They did make an appearance at Live Aid, a massive, star-studded benefit festival which was broadcast worldwide. And Halford participated in Ronnie James Dio's all-star heavy metal collective Hear 'N' Aid, whose single and album *Stars* were famine relief benefits.
During that year, Priest began assembling their next album Turbo, the first heavy metal album to be recorded in digital and one which would cause some controversy amongst their fans for its use of guitar synths. It was a first for a major metal band. Upbeat, commercial songs like "Private Property," "Wild Nights, Hot And Crazy Days," and the futuristic "Turbo Lover" were quite a new direction for the band, who joked in one interview that they were depressing themselves with their dark songs. At the time, Priest toyed with the idea of making Turbo a double album celebrating their tenth studio release and paying homage to metal itself - they eventually recorded 18 tracks - but supposedly their label didn't like the idea, although Tipton and Downing say they just changed their mind.
"I think during the writing process, we always thought that we had been so prolific with the ideas, and it's always great for a band to do a double album," says Downing. "We liked the idea, but just putting the strongest ideas [together] that had some sort of flow, like Turbo did, seemed to be a stronger idea at the end of the day." Sadly, many songs did not surface - "All Fired Up," "Under The Gun," "Fight For Your Love," "Red, White, & Blue," and "Prisoner Of Your Eyes" among them. (One possible other track from those sessions, "Heart Of A Lion," was recorded two years later by Racer X - drummer Travis' band at the time - for their sophomore album Second Heat. Racer X frontman Jeff Martin was friends with Halford, and through him the group were able to obtain the band's permission to record the song.)