Today in 1982 Judas Priest dropped a bomb on the United States of America with the release of "Screaming for Vengeance". The Priest's eighth album showed no indications of a band losing steam. Quite the contrary, this is the album that saw Priest move from a group with a rabid but small following into a behemoth in the States.

"Vengeance" is the band's highest charting album, tied with 1986's "Turbo" (I am not counting their late career releases after folks stopped buying records). It is also Priest's first gold and platinum album. Following their landmark 1980 "British Steel" and on the heels of 1981's "Point of Entry" albums, Priest was wise to not mess with a winning formula.

Led by the twin guitar attack of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton along with the unmistakable vocals of Rob Halford, Priest kept doing what it does best - blasting tight, catchy guitar hooks. A late addition to the album, "You've Got Another Thing Coming" was the single that that drew the kids like some sort of metal Pied Piper. 

Once lured in, songs like "Electric Eye", a surprisingly prescient critique of government sponsored surveillance, "Bloodstone" and "Pain and Pleasure" kept the listener locked in. 

By this point Priest had successfully surfed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and become a prominent band in America. More high times would come, there would be some strife, reconciliation, and continued ass kicking but now, in 1982, it doesn't get any more electric than this.