Sad Wings of Destiny

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Sad Wings of Destiny

Studio album by Judas Priest
Released	23 March 1976
Recorded	November-December 1975 at Rockfield Studios, Wales
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	39:12
Label	Gull Records
Producer(s)	Jeffery Calvert, Max West & Judas Priest
All Music Guide link
Judas Priest chronology
Rocka Rolla (1974)	Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)	Sin After Sin (1977)

Sad Wings of Destiny is the second album by the British heavy metal group Judas Priest, released in 1976. It was the album that would establish the band as a major force in the heavy metal scene (at a time when hard rock and heavy metal music was in a general decline in popularity), and ultimately moved them closer to commercial success. Alongside later albums such as British Steel and Screaming for Vengeance, Sad Wings... is a favourite album amongst Judas Priest fans.

It is considered by fans and critics alike to be the most important and influential heavy metal album since Black Sabbath's self-titled debut in 1970. Whilst the album contained some of the band's early stage material (for instance, "Victim Of Changes" dated back to 1972, and was originally titled "Whiskey Woman"), it was a definite progression in style from their debut album Rocka Rolla. It was also a step forward from the style of early British heavy metal, especially on tracks such as "The Ripper", "Tyrant" and "Genocide", arguably making it the first New Wave of British Heavy Metal album.

The cover art for the album was done by artist Patrick Woodroffe, and was titled 'Fallen Angels'.

1 Original LP Track listing
2 CD Track listing
3 Personnel
4 External links

[edit] Original LP Track listing

Side A

"Prelude" (Tipton) – 2:02
"Tyrant" (Halford, Tipton) – 4:28
"Genocide" (Downing, Halford, Tipton) – 5:51
"Epitaph" (Tipton) – 3:08
"Island of Domination" (Downing, Halford, Tipton) – 4:32

Side B

"Victim of Changes" (Atkins, Downing, Halford, Tipton) – 7:47
"The Ripper" (Halford, Tipton) – 2:50
"Dreamer Deceiver" (Atkins, Downing, Halford, Tipton) – 5:51
"Deceiver" (Downing, Halford, Tipton) – 2:40

[edit] CD Track listing

"Victim of Changes"
"The Ripper"
"Dreamer Deceiver"
"Deceiver"
"Prelude"
"Tyrant"
"Genocide"
"Epitaph"
"Island of Domination"

In effect, the CD reissues reverse Side A & Side B of the original LP release. This may have been done because the extended fade-in intro of "Victim of Changes" and the outro of "Island of Domination" seem to book-end the album better (considering the continuous play of the CD format) when compared to the relatively abrupt intro of "Prelude" and the less dramatic outro to "Deceiver".