A Touch of Evil

Infobox Single
Name = A Touch of Evil


Artist = Judas Priest
from Album = Painkiller
B-side = "Between the Hammer & the Anvil"
Released = 1991
Format =
Recorded = 1990
Genre = Heavy metal
Dark Metal
Horror soundtrack
Length = 5:45
Label = Columbia Records
Writer = Rob Halford
K. K. Downing
Glenn Tipton
Chris Tsangarides
Producer = Chris Tsangarides
Certification =
Last single = "Painkiller"
(1990)
This single = "A Touch of Evil"
(1991)
Next single = "Night Crawler"
(1992)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Painkiller
Type = Studio
prev_track = "Between the Hammer & the Anvil"
prev_no = 7
this_track = "A Touch of Evil"
track_no = 8
next_track = "Battle Hymn"
next_no = 9"A Touch of Evil" is a song by British heavy metal band Judas Priest, from their 1990 album "Painkiller". It's one of the Judas Priest popular songs. It is the only song on the album that was co-written by producer Chris Tsangarides who wrote the song's guitar riff, while the rest of the song was written by the main songwriting team of Rob Halford, K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton. Tsangarides would team up again with Tipton for songwriting eleven years later, for Judas Priest's album "Demolition", released later that year, on which the two of them wrote the songs "Subterfuge" and "Metal Messiah".

It is the only song on the album on which the synthesizers (which had originally been featured on several songs, but had been removed) remained part of the song. These synthesizers were played by rock veteran keyboardist Don Airey. Between the slow drums and the eerie keyboards, the song was given a chilling sound, making it a sort of pseudo-ballad.

The song's lyrics deal with demonic possession, black magic, and temptation to commit acts of evil. However, according to Halford himself, as cited in Metal Hammer in January 2004, the lyrics deal with a love-related theme, although metaphorically. [ [http://members.firstinter.net/markster/PAINKILLER.html#8.%20A%20Touch%20Of%20Evil Judas Priest Info Pages - Painkiller ] ]

The song features a classically-inspired guitar solo by Glenn Tipton.

A music video was made for the song, vividly depicting each element of the song's lyrics. The video shows a young boy having various visions of things, while flashing images of the band playing the song in between, similar to the way the band are seen in the "Painkiller" video. The song was edited for the music video, and was cut from 5:45 to 4:54, and--among other things--a notable amount of Tipton's guitar solo was cut out from the song.

Personnel

* Rob Halford - vocals
* Glenn Tipton - lead guitar
* K.K. Downing - rhythm guitar
* Ian Hill - bass
* Scott Travis - drums

with:
* Don Airey - synthesizer

ee Also

Touch of Evil (1958 film)

References