Former Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing recently reflected on which albums fans still talk to him about most, singling out the band’s iconic 1990 release Painkiller.
During an interview with Tim Henderson for “Rapid Fire” on Screaming For Vengeance the guitarist talked about his career as a musician and reflected on “Painkiller” album among other topics.
“I think with the Painkiller album, and I’ve got to say that people don’t realize this, but that album was not as successful as we would have liked it to have been, straight away. There is a lot of things that happened about that time, wasn’t it, Tim? There was a lot of things going on. I think Painkiller was probably a bit of a stretch for a lot of traditional Priest fans, you know. Whether it’s, I think that it might have been a step forward towards the heavier side of metal, for a lot of fans.”
Downing recalled that Judas Priest toured with Pantera during this transitional period, at a time when the Texas band was still playing relatively small clubs and was largely unknown to mainstream audiences.
“But there were a lot of things that were happening at that time, because I know we went out there and we took out Pantera. We were just playing small clubs at the time, nobody knew who they were. But there was a transitional period in metal that was between Painkiller and everything else. Pantera, and Megadeth, and so many other bands. So-called new metal.”
In retrospect, Downing believes Painkiller eventually gained greater recognition as the metal landscape evolved. What initially seemed extreme to some traditional Priest fans eventually appeared comparatively restrained alongside the increasingly aggressive sounds emerging from the new generation of metal bands.
“So, I think it might have been a touch too much for a lot of traditional Priest fans, but as time went on, they realized that Painkiller compared a lot of other bands, wasn’t as edgy, you know what I mean? There were so many new metals coming on, death metal, speed, metal, industrial metal, so many alternative metal styles that made Painkiller almost seem a touch too light for a lot of the new metal fans.”
Today, Painkiller is widely regarded as a landmark release, something Downing attributes partly to the difficulty of getting the timing of a record exactly right.
“But as time went on, obviously the Painkiller album became very much revered as a groundbreaker. We always say when you release an album, chances are, nine times out of ten, that it’s going to be a bit too soon, or a bit too late. It’s very rare that you get the timing for a record exactly right, and when did Judas Priest get a record that was exactly right for the time? Maybe British Steel?”
When Screaming For Vengeance was suggested as another example, Downing agreed, pointing out that the 1982 classic became the band’s biggest-selling album.
“Maybe. You’re absolutely right. I think Screaming For Vengeance may have been another ‘This is the right time, this is the right record’, because that was the band’s biggest-ever selling record.”
