Unleashed in the East
| Unleashed in the East | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Live album by Judas Priest | ||||
| Released | 17 September 1979 | |||
| Recorded | 10 and 15 February 1979 | |||
| Venue | Kosei Nenkin Hall and Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo, Japan | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 44:35 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Judas Priest & Tom Allom | |||
| Judas Priest chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | (mixed) |
Unleashed in the East is Judas Priest's first live album, recorded live in Tokyo, Japan during their Hell Bent for Leather Tour in 1979. It was released in September 1979 and became the band's best-selling album up to that point, reaching the US Top 100 and the UK Top Ten, eventually the album became one of the five Judas Priest albums to gain a RIAA platinum certification. It is the first Priest album to be produced by Tom Allom who would remain at the helm for the next decade for the band, and the last release to feature drummer Les Binks.
To what extent the album was really live remains a matter of contention, with the album sometimes being called Unleashed in the Studio. Years later, after he had left Priest, Rob Halford noted in various interviews that the music was indeed live, but that his vocals had been ruined in the original recording and were later dubbed in a concert-like studio setting.
The 2001 CD reissue featured four "bonus tracks", "Rock Forever," "Delivering the Goods," "Hell Bent for Leather" and "Starbreaker", which had been issued on the 7" bonus disc that came with the original 1979 Japanese vinyl release. Three of these were from their then-current album Killing Machine (released in the US as Hell Bent for Leather), which was not well represented on the original release. "Delivering the Goods" and "Starbreaker" had been exclusive to the Japanese release, although the former would be one of the B-side tracks to the "Living After Midnight" 12 inch, released in March 1980.
These four tracks were previously available on the Japanese pressing of the album (titled Priest in the East and having the same track-list as the remaster), and were recorded at the same time as the original nine tracks. Additionally, two more songs were recorded from the same concerts but were only available as B-sides on various singles:
"Evil Fantasies" was on the "Living After Midnight" 12 inch, along with "Delivering the Goods." This live version of "Evil Fantasies" had an official CD release on Single Cuts (2011), albeit with a 6-second edit to the start, which trims Halford's chat slightly.
"Beyond the Realms of Death" was pressed with "Rock Forever" and "Hell Bent for Leather" on a special 3 track live EP that came with initial UK pressings of "Unleashed In The East". There is also a 1979 UK cassette version with 12 songs: "Rock Forever", "Hell Bent for Leather" and "Beyond the Realms of Death" in addition to the original 9 tracks. To date, this version of 'Beyond The Realms Of Death' has still to be released on CD.
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