When it comes to metal, there are fewer albums more massive than Judas Priest‘s iconic 1982 album Screaming for Vengeance. The album kicks off with the binary-paired assault of “The Hellion” and “Electric Eye.” The two songs are so powerful that they served as the opening for almost every Priest concert for nearly 30 years.

Watch Judas Priest perform “The Hellion” and “Electric Eye” here below.

In honor of the 40th anniversary this past week of Judas Priest‘s debut album Rocka Rolla, this Massive Metal Monday is a song from that landmark release. Here are the metal gods themselves with “Never Satisfied.”

Watch the band performing “Never Satisfied” live here below.

Judas Priest
Redeemer of Souls
Epic/Columbia Records
CD | Deluxe CD | MP3
Release date: July 8, 2014

Judas Priest Lose A Founding Member, Deliver Their Best Record in Nearly 25 Years With Redeemer Of Souls

You know, I am a very big fan of Judas Priest, so much so that I have both the band’s iconic trident symbol and the album title Defenders of the Faith permanently inked on my arms. So, when founding guitarist K.K. Downing announced in 2011 that he would be retiring from Judas Priest, I really felt gutted. Surely this would be the end of the “Metal Gods!” But alas, our heroes decided to soldier on by replacing Downing with new guitarist Richie Faulkner (previously of the Lauren Harris band, daughter of Steve Harris of Iron Maiden), who is nearly 3 decades their junior. This sounded like an idea as ill advised as when the band tried to replace irreplaceable singer Rob Halford for a couple of albums around the turn of the millennium with Tim “˜Ripper’ Owens, a very skilled Halford imitator whom the band discovered singing in an Ohio-based Priest tribute band (this event even served as the inspiration for the Mark Walberg/Jennifer Anniston movie Rock Star). Owens is a perfectly capable singer, but is also nearly two decades younger than the rest of the band and the albums that he appeared on with Priest are mostly forgettable and serve merely as a footnote in the band’s career. Halford returned to the fold in the mid 2000s and Priest has since released two somewhat uneven offerings (2005’s Angel of Retribution and the double concept album Nostradamus in 2008) featuring a handful of great songs.

Metal god Rob Halford, singer of heavy metal legends Judas Priest, will making a guest voice appearance on The Simpsons!

Tune into the long-running series on FOX at 8/7c tonight, Sunday, January 5, to watch the episode, titled “Steal This Episode,” which deals with movie piracy.

For a limited time, the filmmakers of short movie Black Metal have made it available for viewing online for free – until January 27. So, while you have the chance, grease up your face with death paint, throw up the horns, and check it out for yourself here at the bottom of this post.

While the metal community will undoubtedly be drawn to the short film, the emotional content of the snapshot into the life of a Black Metal vocalist (Jonny Mars) following an event causing turmoil is sure to resonate with viewers who are not really fans of metal. The content that the filmmakers zone in on revolves around controversies that critics of metal obsess over, and that is the influence of the genre on young people.