Hell Bent For A Killing Machine

This was originally planned to be another post for Dio vinyl. Today is the one year anniversary of Dio's passing, and this would have been my 5th post featuring Ronnie James in a little over a month. It was, however, not to be.

I had recently picked up the new Back On Black pressing of the first Rainbow album, but to my surprise it wasn't on the expected purple colored vinyl. Instead, I opened it to find that it was on black vinyl. Disappointing. Since I already own the colored vinyl repressings of Rising and Long Live Rock N Roll, I really wanted the purple vinyl pressing. Instead of keeping the black vinyl, I did something that I rarely do...I made a trade. Jeff had an album that I was interested in, and he was looking to unload it. Done deal...and since Rob Halford replaced Dio's spot on the mic with Black Sabbath for two shows in 1992, I can somehow make this post relevant to RJD in someway.

For years now, I've wanted a vinyl copy of Judas Priest's 1979 classic LP, Hell Bent For Leather. But I didn't just want any copy. No, I wanted a copy of the record with the original name of the album, Killing Machine. Sure it didn't have the amazing US bonus track of the Fleetwood Mac cover, The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown), but for this album, I really wanted an original pressing. I wanted a copy as the band had originally intended it to be released...before the US record labels insisted the name be changed.

As a bonus, the copy that Jeff was trading was a Japanese pressing, and we all know that I get a hard on over OBI strips.