Judas Priest "Sin After Sin"

Sin After Sin is the third studio album by English heavy metal group Judas Priest, released in 1977. It was remastered in 2001 with two bonus tracks added.

The album represented several major milestones in the group's career; the band made their major label debut and were able to work with a famous musical artist as their producer, former Deep Purple member Roger Glover. The band also fully embraced an aggressive metal sound with this release, significantly toning down the arena rock and blues rock influences shown in their past work, and the group achieved widespread popularity on the radio stations for their first time, oddly enough with their hard-edged version of Joan Baez's song "Diamonds & Rust".

Judas Priest formed in 1969 in industrial West Bromwich, Birmingham. By the time they released their first album Rocka Rolla in 1974, there had been many lineup changes. Finances were tight: the record label Gull provided a recording budget of £2000 for each of the band's first two albums. During the recording of their second album Sad Wings of Destiny (1976), the band members restricted themselves to one meal a day, and several took on part-time work: Tipton as a gardener, Downing in a factory, and Hill driving a delivery van.

The band grew dissatisfied with lack of financial support from Gull. Sad Wings of Destiny caught the attention of CBS Records, and with the help of new manager David Hemmings, the band signed with CBS and received a £60,000 budget for their next album, which was to draw its title from the phrase "sin after sin" from the lyrics to "Genocide" on Sad Wings. The signing required breaking their contract with Gull, resulting in the rights to the first two albums and all related recordings—including demos—becoming property of Gull.

Rehearsals took place at Pinewood Studios in London and recording in January 1977 at The Who's Rampart Studios in the Battersea district. Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover produced it and Mark Dodson was engineer.

Judas Priest began recording themselves, but the label wanted a professional producer and had the sessions restarted. The band agreed to Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover, but after one session the band informed Glover they would rather produce themselves. After a few weeks of unsatisfactory recordings the band recalled Glover and began the sessions over, with only six allotted days remaining. By this point the band had replaced drummer Alan Moore with Simon Phillips.

The album includes a cover of Joan Baez' "Diamonds & Rust", a decision which was encouraged by producer Roger Glover in the interest of adding a more commercial track. It was the first song by Judas Priest to get any radio play, and Baez herself reportedly enjoyed the cover. This was the band’s second attempt to cover the track, and the earlier version from the Gull Records era was only released later on compilations and as a bonus track on reissues of Rocka Rolla.

Sin After Sin was the final Judas Priest album to feature their original "gothic cursive font" logo, though it would be used on later Gull Records reissues of their pre-Sin After Sin material.

The mausoleum depicted on the Sin After Sin album cover is based on a photograph of the Egyptianate mausoleum built in 1910 for Colonel Alexander Gordon, located on the grounds of Putney Vale Cemetery in London.

This was the first (in order of release) of Judas Priest's main albums to be remastered in 2001, which included all of the albums between this and their 1990 Painkiller album. The remaster corrected an error in the track listing; "Call for the Priest", which forms one track with "Let Us Prey", had erroneously been listed as forming one track with "Raw Deal" until then.

Track listing

Side one

1. "Sinner" Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton 6:45
2. "Diamonds & Rust" Joan Baez 3:27
3. "Starbreaker" Halford, K. K. Downing, Tipton 4:49
4. "Last Rose of Summer" Halford, Tipton 5:37

Side two

1. "Let Us Prey/Call for the Priest" Halford, Downing, Tipton 6:12
2. "Raw Deal" Halford, Tipton 6:00
3. "Here Come the Tears" Halford, Tipton 4:36
4. "Dissident Aggressor" Halford, Downing, Tipton 3:07

In 1988, Slayer covered "Dissident Aggressor" on their album South of Heaven. Forbidden also covered it for A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal, Vol. II (1997), as did Halestorm on their 2013 EP ReAniMate 2.0.

In 1997 Therion recorded a cover of "Here Come the Tears" on their 10-year anniversary release A'arab Zaraq – Lucid Dreaming.

Arch Enemy covered "Starbreaker", which was eventually released on a bonus disc with their Wages of Sin album. "This track was never intended for Century Media's Judas Priest tribute album", wrote guitarist Michael Amott in the Wages of Sin liner notes. "Originally we got a request from the label in Japan to record a cover – any cover for some sort of compilation they were planning. We decided to try out another studio in 1998 and our choice fell on a local facility where Daniel had worked with his previous band, Eucharist. The recording turned out really cool: the best out of the three covers we've done, in my opinion. The Japanese compilation never materialized and [this] was never released – until now that is."

Devin Townsend covered "Sinner" for Volume 1 of A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal.