JUDAS PRIEST 'SAD WINGS OF DESTINY' 2LP

Judas Priest’s 1976 sophomore album, Sad Wings of Destiny, was pivotal to metal for two reasons. For one, it saw the English giants hone their sound into the careening dragster of rubber-burning riffs and wheelie-popping belts that not only established Priest’s sound, but the genre’s at large. And two, it had a totally badass album cover that depicts a fallen angel struggling in a pit of hellish flames, joining Sabbath in codifying metal’s visual relationship with religious imagery. Oh, the songs also rip.