Judas Priest’s ‘Rocka Rolla’ Gets New Remix and Remaster

Judas Priest will launch a remixed and remastered model of their debut album Rocka Rolla to commemorate the LP’s fiftieth anniversary. The digital remaster arrives on Friday, and vinyl and CD copies will hit cabinets on Nov. 22.

“It’s nice to look again and see our future unfurl — from little metallic acorns mighty metallic oaks do develop,” Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford stated in an announcement. “One small step for metallic, one big leap for metalkind — a lifelong metallic journey started with these songs. This album lit the everlasting metallic flame — as actual and contemporary as ever 5 many years on.”

The seeds of Judas Priest’s world domination have been planted on Rocka Rolla, however listeners had to make use of their imaginations to check the Steel Gods’ futures. The band — Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Okay.Okay. Downing, bassist Ian Hill and drummer John Hinch — recorded the album throughout night-shift classes to economize and had no say within the mixing and mastering processes. Consequently, the album suffered from subpar manufacturing and featured little of Judas Priest’s signature heavy metallic thunder.

READ MORE: Judas Priest’s ‘Rocka Rolla’ Monitor-by-Monitor: Unique Excerpt

“I put the needle onto the groove and I sat again. And I simply slowly began to deflate,” Halford recalled. “I used to be so dissatisfied with the best way it was sounding … All of us have been — we’d all labored so laborious to get to this place. And now this music that we all know once we play dwell is roaring — the heavy metallic is roaring even in these early primitive days — none of that was popping out of the audio system.”

For a very long time, it appeared like Judas Priest’s inauspicious debut could be doomed to “wasted potential” standing. However in 2022, Gull Data — which initially launched Rocka Rolla and its successor, Unhappy Wings of Future — bought the masters and publishing rights to Attain Music and Exciter Data in partnership with Judas Priest. Longtime producer Tom Allom helmed the remixing and remastering course of.

“I’m simply thrilled … as a result of it simply goes to point out you once you get an knowledgeable concerned in a venture, it’s doubtless that you’ve a second likelihood,” Halford stated. “And I believe that Tom Allom is giving us a second likelihood right here with the best way that quite a lot of the weather have been misplaced in Rocka Rolla. And it’s additionally good, like a very nice feeling, particularly to connect it to what will likely be a fiftieth anniversary second. It’s only a lovely feeling.”