Picking just five is almost an impossible task. In fact, making any JP ranking is difficult in extreme if we considerate all the variety and quality among their discography.
5. Painkiller
The album was the first to feature Scott Travis on drums and his skills are shown since the introduction of the first track. The line-up was at its prime and the sound is bold and consistent. The release also added many more hits to the band repertoire like the self-titled track, Hell Patrol, Leather Rebel, A Touch of Evil, or Night Crawler. Thereafter, the recording helped to set the Heavy Metal standards in the 90s and decades to come.
4. Turbo
The most controversial album of their whole discography. It was created under the heavy influence of the 80s culture and its sound is quite characteristic: closer to hard rock and easy-listening for any audience -not just Heavy Metal fans. Upbeat tempos and guitar synthesizers were the main strategies to get to people ears and hearts. It achieved some success and helped to settle the aesthetics roots of the movement. However, the band was a bit disappointed at the time as they were hoping a much stronger response with this radio-station-friendly recording.
3. British Steel
The album features a simpler sound than the previous ones. Straight-forward hard-driven riffs and catchy melodies helped this album became the most famous ever released by the band. Some of the songs like Breaking the Law, Living After Midnight and Metal Gods have been played in Priest setlists since then.
2. Defenders of the Faith
Considered by some specialists as one of the best Heavy-metal albums of all time, it features amazing hits like Freewheel Burning, The Sentinel and the extremely polemic Eat me Alive, songs that pumped the recording until the 12th position on the UK billboard, the second-best position on Priest career.
1. Sad wings of destiny
This album has shown the first consolidated sound of the band and some of the most important songs from their catalogue come from there, such as Victim of Changes or The Ripper. Even when the album had a very warm reception, the sales were weak and pushed the band to become more ambitious on further releases regarding promotion terms.