Judas Priest "Point Of Entry (2001 Remastered, UK Pressing)"

Point of Entry is the seventh studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 26 February 1981 by Columbia Records. Following the commercial success of their previous album British Steel (1980), Priest pursued a more radio-friendly direction on Point of Entry. Following the conclusion of the British Steel Tour, the band began work on their next project. By this time, the band possessed sufficient funds to fly all their equipment to the state-of-the-art Ibiza Studios in Spain. This gave Point of Entry a louder, stronger, more "live" sound than previous Judas Priest albums.

Three singles were released from the album: "Heading Out to the Highway", "Don't Go" and "Hot Rockin'", all of which had accompanying music videos. The song "Heading Out to the Highway" has been a staple in live shows since its release, "Desert Plains" was regularly played throughout the 1980s and in 2002 and "Hot Rockin'" was returned to the setlist for the 2005 Reunited Tour, where Priest also played "Solar Angels" on rare occasions. On the World Wide Blitz Tour of 1981 supporting Point of Entry, "Solar Angels" had been the opening song of every show, while "Troubleshooter" was also performed on parts of the supporting tour. On the contrary, five songs from the album – "Don't Go", "Turning Circles", "You Say Yes", "All the Way" and "On the Run" – have never been performed live.

"Europe, Mexico and most of South America got an intriguing and colorful sort of futuristic metal wing over a horizon shot...designed by Roslav Szaybo, who had done all the band's CBS albums to date." The North American cover differed from the rest of the world, this being repeated with the remaster. The US artwork, featuring computer printer paper to simulate the line in the middle of the road and white cardboard boxes on the back, was designed by Columbia Record's John Berg. "'The sleeve was awful, scoffs the guitarist (Glenn Tipton), 'and we've got to blame management for that because they didn't shop around enough to get one that was suitable. The American cover was different, but that turned out to be even worse!'" The American artwork also saw the introduction of the 3D Judas Priest logo, which would be used up to Turbo.

The album was remastered in 2001, with two bonus tracks added, a live version of "Desert Plains" and "Thunder Road", a track from the Ram It Down sessions.

In the booklet of the Remastered CD, the band states:

Recorded on the island of Ibiza with multiple distractions, glorious sunshine, and extremely low cost alcohol, this album was regarded with mixed feelings because it was different from what people expected. The album was nearly all spontaneously written and performed in Ibiza - it was an experiment in the sense that before this we had already written the majority of the songs before going into the studio.

Track listing:

All tracks are written by Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford and K. K. Downing, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Heading Out to the Highway" 3:47
2. "Don't Go" 3:18
3. "Hot Rockin'" 3:17
4. "Turning Circles" 3:42
5. "Desert Plains" 4:36

Side two

1. "Solar Angels" 4:04
2. "You Say Yes" 3:29
3. "All the Way" 3:42
4. "Troubleshooter" 3:59
5. "On the Run" 3:47

2001 bonus tracks

1. "Thunder Road" (Recorded during the 1988 Ram It Down sessions) Glenn Tipton and Rob Halford 5:12
2. "Desert Plains" (Live at Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri; 23 May 1986) 5:03

Recording information:

Recorded at Ibiza Sound Studios, Spain

Mixed at Starling Studios, Ascot, England

Mastered at Trident Studios