*🤘🤘🤘Watch the legendary ROB HALFORD joining me for an interview on the Defenders of the Faith Series - **kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j991hrFp1d3IYJ8.html** 🤘🤘🤘*

There is no question about it - Stained Class was a Metal masterpiece and a game changer for the genre. I was electrified when l first listened to it in 1978 - still has the same impact in 2022. One of Priest's very best and Halford's vocals was on another level. Classic tunes such as Exciter, Stained Class and Beyond the Realms of Death 🤘🤘

*SHORT UPDATE: For some reason I said "the only" when speaking about Les Binks' participance in album recording, please disregard that. It was meant in a wrong way and is indeed quite misleading. He did record Killing Machine/Hell Bent For Leather with the band as well*

Stained Class is my favorite Priest album. Has been since I was 13 and I'm 51 now.

IMHO the best heavy metal album for humanity yet to hear. Every song is a A+, but White Heat, Red Hot is my fav.

it's not the only studio album to feature Les Binks.....Les played on "Hell Bent For Leather" in 1979 as well, and on the live album "Unleashed In The East"

Les Binks was the drummer on Killing Machine. When you don't get your dues, then you leave.

70s Priest is the best era of the band and this is the pinnacle album in their discography IMO, and one of the best metal albums ever recorded!

All songs are top, perfect music and vocals. My favorites vary from time to time, now i would say White Heat... and Stained Class.

White heat red hot, Hero's end and Stained class are my favorites on this album. Killer album

Stained class i overlooked back when i first discovered priest but im glad i did because nowadays with classic metal band on there last tours and good music being hard to find stained class has become unstained and very class and my favorite song that should have made it on this album race with the devil such a rocking song. 🤘🏽👌

Les grabbed a guitar and started playing his version of the Styx song Suite Madam Blue, which they modified into Beyond The realms Of Death. He also played on Killing Machine/Hell Bent For Leather.

Beyond the Realms of Death has been my favorite Priest song since hearing it live on the radio in 1981. I played that tape over and over until I lost it in a move in 2009. Anyway, when I heard it in person for the first time in Seattle on the Ram It Down tour I felt time stop. Never before or since have I been so taken in by a song's interwoven lyrical, rhythmic and harmonic journeys. BTW, I love Les Binks -- my favorite Priest drummer with the way he innovatively balances driving and supporting each song.

I always play the whole album,this album is embedded in my brain!!!

Stained Class is top 3 for me, definitely #1 out of their 70s discography. The title track and Saints in Hell are purest Metal.

One of the best Judas Priest albums by far.

Now this might just be the very best Priest album. They stepped things up to another level. Remarkable album. Exciter is a precursor to speed and thrash metal. Along with Overkill by Motorhead this was the absolute fastest and heaviest metal at that time. A flawless album. Saints in Hell is my personal favorite.

A friend played Stained Class album for me when it came out. I didn't know who they were then. To this day that album is my favorite Priest album (and Judas Priest) are my favorite metal group. 🤘 The sound and production of the album are like nothing else. Except maybe Black Sabbath. 😉

Thanks so much for this KILLER METAL backstory and detail information on the classic Judas Priest L.P. "STAINED CLASS"!!!!! I recently picked up the remastered cd release of "STAINED CLASS" by ordering it after years of not being able to find it on any store shelves.I have ways been in love with the songs from the album that I previously knew and I have very much been enjoying the tracks on this album that I was unfamiliar with before recently acquiring my copy of the remastered cd.As far as Judas Priest releases are concerned this is the one that really started to cement the classic Judas Priest sound that all of us Judas Priest fans know very very well and still pledge undying allegiance to currently.I found all of the facts about "STAINED CLASS" that you presented in this video to be very interesting and well informed.Just the name "STAINED CLASS" in itself is pure genius,has a nice ring to it and acts as social commentary about the tarnishing/ruined image or reputation of any given "class" in general while also acting as a swift one-two punch directed at the war among classes amongst the human race.Thank you again for this video and all the other Metal Pilgrim videos I have seen that are jam packed with interesting and useful info about many of the best classic metal bands in the history of rock-n-roll music that we all know and love with vigorous enthusiasm...Have a grrrrrrreaat day and many,many,many more METAL PILGRIM moments!!!!!!!!!! 🎶🎸🤘😈

I love Ken's solo on "Beyond the Realms of Death". That's the best song on the album.

Fantastic album beginning to end. This one changed everything for me from the moment I heard the opening drumming from Exciter! Phenomenal.

I love this album, and my favorite track is either Exciter or Beyond The Realms Of Death

Beyond The Realms is my favorite Priest song on any album!

This one, "Ride the Lightning" and "Killing Machine" covers are the best ones in metal, and for me "Invader" is the best metal song in history beside "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

Great Priest series!!! Keep the Priest coming!!!!

Best Priest record! (My second favorite is probably Sin After Sin) Favorite tracks: Stained Class, Saints In Hell, Beyond The Realms Of Death, White Heat Red Hot

One if the best albums made period 😊

❗❗❗I was honoured to welcome *ROB HALFORD* on the *Defenders of the Faith Series* for an exclusive interview and speak about the *NEW album* and more! Here is the first bit from this episode which will be out on June 28th - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jL2UnMV2ls7dfWg.html

Lots of great songs here, hard to go past Beyond the Realms of Death. Some cool guitar work by Glen at the end of his solo. Exciter is such a cool fast paced one, insane drumming by Les. Heroes End is greatly underrated. Saints in Hell has some nice riffs, but I don't consider it a complete song, and I say this for the rest too. With the exception of the Better by You cover, they nailed that. Very difficult to hear the "do it" parts unless you're primed for them

My favorite two songs off of the album are "Better By You, Better Than Me and Beyond The Realms Of Death". I love the whole album and I have listened to it countless number of times through the years. Incidentally it was my first Judas Priest album I ever bought in 1995 at a Camelot Music store in Lima OH. One last word of note before I go out the streets and down the shore...... This year is the 45th Anniversary of Stained Class!! 🤩🤩

Very nice. Love when I learn something new, especially about my fav band - JP. Favorite song from Stained Class. Not sure I can pick one honestly - there certainly isn’t a song that I don’t like. Perhaps Hero’s End - love the ending when the guitars are just going crazy and more crazy. Looking forward to the same format for all JP albums. Keep up the unique approach!

I looked at a lot of these comments and can't believe more people didn't mention MY favorite track on this album... "Heroes End"

Thanks for info on timeless, favorite sci Fi metal album , the lyrics changed the way I looked at Rob.

I love the 2 albums with les binks. Killing machine is probably my favourite album.

One of my all time faves

My favourite is Heroes End

By far the greatest Judas Priest album...

For sure one of Priests best, if not the best

"stand back for exciter" and "invader" insures heavy metal will live 4 ever

This is their album with the greatest number of dark references. Exciter is about "doing things" in the gloryhole. White heat red hot, as I hard, is about lightsabers fight (star wars was released one year prior). Better by you better than me led the band to a US courthouse. Invaders is about american colonization. Beyond the realms of death is abou teenager suicide, and heroes end talks about Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix and James Dean, the heroes that died too early.

Savage, B the R of D, Exciter. Album cover is genius. Les crushed it. BTW, I never , ever, got a subliminal message from ANY priest song.

I,m a sucker for Exiter. Love singing that tune.

Back in the day, I got this one on 90 min cassette tape, the B side of the cassette being Deep Purple's Fireball. This was my first ever record. Ever since I haven't tired of listening to Beyond the Realms..., Savage, and Better by You... as well as Fools, Anyone's Daughter, and No One Came. That was AD 1982 , I was twelve, and so puberty-struck I was, at least once, considering killing myself. Beyond the Realms... might have worked in my mind to abort that. Who knows for sure, that's how I feel it

I liked the snd song best invader ,and when you cover the rise of leather and spikes look don’t forget that photoshoot on roller skates

There is not one lemon on Stained Class...I recall the first time that I heard it as a kid and it still sounds amazing even now.

Les Binks actually also played drums on the Killing Machine album also

Never knew that Better by you better than me is a cover…this song made me a Judas Priest maniac. Ok! I will now search for all covers made by Priest. Thanks man! Also I hate you for that lucky Point of entry 99cents record! We don’t get good garage sells back in Romania…

Stainedclass is my favorite priest album

Perfect album, it's ranked 4th among all JP albums to me (Defenders of The Faith no.1, British Steel no.2, Painkiller no.3). Beyond The Realms of Death is definitely the greatest track, but I also love Saints In Hell.

Stained Class is my favourite Priest album too... Every song is a masterpiece. The lyrics were pretty thoughtful back then. Its a shame that the songs from Stained Class are so underrepresented on Unleashed In The East.

White heat red hot is incredible

My favorite is British Steele with Defenders holding a close second.

What is your favourite track from Stained Class?

I. Think Invader Stands Out &Makes Me Daydream That The Spaceship Brings The Cover Silver Surfer

Stained class song-invader has a cymbals sound that most people would think is cowbell 😃🎂

Awesome video! I didn't know that about opening Painkiller with Better by You. I would like to see a video about that. I saw the documentary on the two boys.

Stained Class was and always will be the Heaviest Metal Hardest Rock most powerful devastating album Judas Priest will ever record . Stained Class makes Painkiller and Fire Power sound like Britney Spears . Stained Class contains the most consistently high pitched Rob Halford Vocals.

SC When I heard exciter I had never heard anything like it! Their earlier stuff was tame compared.

Beyond the Realms of Death!!! Hell yeah!

Was going to remind you , Les Binks also recorded “Hellbent for Leather”, but you address this in the comments below, So,, love your channel and topics!! One more small detail,, Unleashed in the East Was recorded while on the Hellbent for leather tour, and not on the Stained Class tour. Look forward to all your vids!! Great job and keep defending the Faith🤘🏼🤘🏼

Lyrically, this is the high point of Judas Priest. They could've gone two directions at this point; expand their poetry, and make some truly beautiful songs that expand on their creativeness. Or go more watered down and commercial. I'll let everyone decide which road they chose to take... Maybe not quite my most fav album, as I find myself listening to Screaming and Defenders more these days, but when I'm in the mood for something a lot more thought provokingand less immediate, this does the trick like no other rock album. Easily their most consistent album too, as most albums tend to drop in quality at the half way mark or so. I really wish the band would sit down and talk about the tracks and the meaning of the lyrics, song by song. Still want to know what the title song is about. Were they based on real events past or present, or purely fantasy and conceptual? Perhaps we'll never know.

Definitely Judas Priests finest lyrical themes and their heaviest slice of vinyl. So heavy makes Sin after Sin sound impotent!

Didn't Les Binks also provide the drum playing in the studio during the Killing Machine AKA Hell Bent For Leather sessions? It would be very strange for Mr Binks to quit the band prior to recording Killing Machine, and then return to lay down the Traps for the Unleashed in the East Studio Sessions. Unless Mr Binks pouted and threw a temper tantrum refusing to join in on the Killing Machine Sessions, because he didn't want to perform Fleetwood Mac material, which was although excluded from the actual Killing Machine LP was from the same time period. I wonder which version of the Fleetwood Mac song was actually recorded first, considering the fact Unleashed in the East was actually a Studio not Live Lp . It's a shame that Saints in Hell, Heroes End , Savage, and Invaders weren't included in the UNLEASHED IN THE EAST Studio sessions, considering that the album received the best production quality any Judas Priest album has received. Maybe the misleading information about such a high resolution recording actually being marketed as a Live album was an inside joke of sorts, considering that it contained the highest quality sound production of any Judas Priest album to date

My favorite Priest album

Stay safe brother 🤘🏻

4:01 I didn`t know David Bowie produced Priest? xD

Les Banks was the drummer on the studio album hell bent for leather.

Great album obviously. Priest and Motorhead were the heaviest bands of that time. Exciter, Saints in Hell, and Beyond the Realms of Death are my favorites. Though the whole album is great. Race with the Devil is a great song too.

I would like them to do an electrified version of Before the dawn making it a bit more heavier and harmonized!!!!!!

This album is the blueprint for Mercyful Fate’s entire career

Savage

Les was on Hell Bent For Leather also, then unleashed. 3 albums.

I see the 70s heavy rock in movements. In early 70s you get heavy, fuzzy blues and proggy weirdness (which was influenced by the Late 60s psychedelia like Beatles Doors and Jimi) and you get bands like Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, heavy, slow and dark. But from 1974 onwards there is this new movement, clearer, more precise production, twin guitars, the power of rock and the energy increases and blues is reduced slightly. Bands like Kiss, Rush, Acdc, Scorpions and Queen would be examples of this (though not all have two guitarists). Priest was this proggy, bluesy rock band on their first, but on their second album the piano interludes and more versatile, Queen-inspired sound starts creeping in. This ”less blues, more energetic hard/heavy rock” approach grows on each album, yet they retain some of the prog rocks willingness to create epic, longer, more complicated songs structures (Victim of changes, Genocide, Sinner, Raw Deal, Let Us Prey, Exciter, Beyond etc) until on Killing Machine they start writing more straightforward, ”easier” songs probably pressured by the success of more direct punk rock and with the hopes of actually making a commercial breakthrough (songs like Evening Star, Take on the World, United are clearly intended to get the audience singing in the style of Queen’s We Will Rock You and We are the Champions). So, there is a logical direction on the first four albums, of which Stained Class is the culmination point and, I agree, one of the best metal albums ever written. If I can only choose one song, I would go with the title track Stained Class. Very technical and complicated arrangement with tons of riffs and ideas without sacrificing any speed.

Pretty sure Les Binks played on Killing Machine/Hell Bent for Leather.

KK wasn't replaced. Richie is just a sub

this was also produced by a guy who mostly did jazz fusion records at the time

I believe Les Spiinks played on hell bent for leather

Best. Fuckin album

Another masterpiece. A definite groundbreaker. Les Binks was awesome. Why did they ever let him go? Huge mistake.

How did Priest make that melted head album cover?

Saints In Hell, "Release the king cobras and blood sucking bats!".

I think it’s the only Priest album with lyrics in French...! “Abattoir abattoirs / Mon Dieu quelle horreure” (sorry spelling probably wrong) ...Saints in Hell! We’re going down (down down) into the fire (fire fire)...! Love it, but I can understand how it could over-all sound a bit thin to some in comparison to later “heavier” stuff (like Unleashed in the East!)...

The Green Manalishi

Me and you differ, I like Judas Priest and love Iron Maiden While you are the flip side of my coin. Does not really matter both bands are awesome!

Not the first time JP fucked up. They didn't pay les for the live album yet he was one of the best drummers they ever had. When les left the song quality definitely took a nose dive.

Saints in Hell is a masterpiece

My favorite: Saints In Hell

...sorry but Les did play even on "Killing machine" studio album..........................

Nothing. Touches. Stained. Class

Les. Banks. Was. Priiests. Best drmmer. Then Scott Travis. Simon phillips

spooky tooth 2007 live in germany sounds better

Stained Class was, is and will be the best Priest album hands down. When it came out in 1978 it was fresh, heavy, dark and exciting. It was the Heaviest Metal album ever recorded up until then. I'm much older now but it still feels EPIC! So many gems on that record- Saints in Hell, White Heat Red Hot, Exciter, Beyond the Realms of Death, Invader, Savage...