Judas Priest‘s best-selling and highly influential album ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ — best known for the breakthrough hit ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin” — turns 30 years old today (July 17).

In addition to that enduring anthem, the album is notable as one of the most cohesive collections in the band’s career, and the point where they best blended heaviness and catchiness.

From the sleek double-time chug of opener ‘Electric Eye‘ to the even more frantic ‘Riding on the Wind‘ and the somehow yearning ‘Bloodstone,’ all the way to the steadily unfolding and unbearably sing-able album-closer ‘Devil’s Child‘ (“I beleeeeeeeeeeeeeve you’re the Devil…”), there’s never a second to be bored.

As AllMusic notes quite smartly, “The results were catchy and accessible, yet harder-hitting, and without the awkwardly apparent calculation that informed the weakest moments of the album’s two predecessors.”

The band’s recently-retired guitarist, K.K. Downing, has shared his memories on the creation of this landmark record with a blog post on his official website, stating in part that he feels the album connected so well because it “has an undeniable completeness about it. By that I mean a good and varied selection of songs, a cool cover and an overall uplifting feel that was perfect for the time when it was released.”

That seems like a complicated way of saying something totally rocks but hey, sure, whatever — sounds good to us! The album obviously continues to resonate in modern culture.  ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin” returned to the mainstream via the almighty “electric eye” of television in a surprising way two years ago, as the soundtrack to a surprisingly cool mini-van commercial — and people must like it, the darn thing is still airing as of a few weeks ago!

Watch Judas Priest Perform ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin”

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