Point of Entry (Exp) [Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

As it says, this is a remastered release of the 1981 " Point of Entry" Album. Although it sounds cleaner than my vinyl copy, I cannot hear much difference to My sons CD version (not remastered).
This album has been much maligned and described as Priests weakest offering to date, an unfortunate consequence of following the EXCELLENT " British Steel" album. However there are some good tracks on this album and I do not believe it to be as bad as the critics say. It has a very commercial feel and you can imagine most tracks being released as singles, although they were not.
Opening track " Heading Out To The Highway" is a great track, uptempo and with a great dual guitar part during the song. "Don't Go" slows things down a bit before more high paced antics in the form of " Hot Rockin'" ( anyone seen the hilarious video to this track). " Turning Circles" starts with a slight reggae feel before recovering itself. " Desert Plains" is a STORMING track and is the best of this album, live it came across even better, as you will hear as you get it as a bonus track ( Oh Goody! ). Next you get the phasing guitar intro to another great track, a slow little number called "Solar Angels".
After this comes the problem with this album, 4 songs that are just album fillers. I can think of not much to say about " You Say Yes, "All The Way", "Troubleshooter" and "On The Run". Maybe the group were rushed into releasing this album and did not have the time to come up with anything better. Unfortunatly all 4 songs sound a bit weak and thats being polite.
What makes up for this though is the bonus tracks. There is a song that never saw release called "Thunder Road", Why this was not releaed is a mystery as it is a really good track, uptempo stuff, great vocals from Rob and a middle Bass part, unusual for Priest. I would hazard a guess that it was written around the time of "Turbo"-"Ram It Down". Last track, as mentioned is a great live version of "Desert Plains".
Another thing to recomend this CD is the sleeve layout, nice pictures and all the lyrics, plus some band notes to do with making the album.
Overall worth getting for your Priest collection because of the bonus tracks or you are collecting for the box set.
Remember if this album were not recorded we may never of had the truly brilliant " Screaming For Vengeance" album. You can always skip the naff tracks.

This is one of priest's lesser known albums, but it is still a good album. It sounds very different to the preceding 'British Steel' and the album was obviously an attempt by Priest to win more fans in the States, because the album is very American sounding. It does nevertheless have some great tracks on it, and it is by no means a bad album. 'Heading out to the Highway', 'Hot Rockin' and 'Desert Plains' are its stand out moments. Recommended for any Priest fan.

Judas Priest's Point Of Entry was released just one year after their classic British Steel album, and the band sought to further the radio success of 'Living After Midnight' et al with a more commercial sound, but failed to break big critically or commercially. The album is seen as something of a disappointment for a lot of Priest fans.

Stylistically, the album isn't the fastest or the heaviest Judas Priest album you're likely to hear, the music is actually much closer to classic rock than to the heavy metal sound of the most loved Judas Priest albums.

Regardless of their musical directions, all albums stand or fall on the quality of the music within. For the most part; Point Of Entry is hit and miss, a mixture of good songs and songs that are unobjectionable but just kind of forgettable, had the ratio been better then the world would have been kinder to Point Of Entry, but unfortunately the album doesn't have enough classic material to really make it a must have.

The album isn't devoid of good moments, tracks like `Hot Rockin,' `Heading Out To The Highway,' and `Desert Plains,' are all enjoyable. `All The Way,' is perfectly good too if you don't mind the obvious inspiration from about five famous Kiss songs.

If you like Judas Priest, you may want to check Point Of Entry out; after all you still have the guitar and vocal talent as with any Priest album, in addition to a few genuinely good songs here and there. If you are new to the band I'd advise not trying this album until you are already familiar with all the classics first.

Overall, Point Of Entry is neither good nor terrible. It certainly doesn't deserve its awful reputation, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it was criminally underrated either. In summary; a decent, if somewhat forgettable album.