It's pretty rare I have something I'm completely hooked on for a week or two at a time. Last week it was Candlemass - Nightfall (especially "Bewitched"). But I'm going through my collection, trying to listen to albums I've only given 3 or less listens.
Yeah, I liked this album, but I'm just NOW realizing how awesome it is. I've always liked Painkiller but kinda didn't like how it blew its load too early in the album (title track, anyone); the rest is good but it's a noticeable taper in quality, with a track or two that I'd consider filler (the damn album's so fucking long).
But Stained Class. It sounds incredibly ahead of its time for a heavy metal album in 1978. A time when most metal albums were either still proto-metal or far less riff-laden than this album or had such piss-poor production. And like NWOBHM, it still has that 70s classic rock twang, which I never really cared for in my heavy metal, but this album does it so awesomely. Halford's vocals are gloriously top-notch (haha he sounds so young compared to in Painkiller) and he has the perfect combination of tenor and touches of falsetto.
Really, there isn't a bad song in this album. Even my least favorite track, "Saints in Hell," is damn solid. This album pulls of in '78 what bands were still trying to accomplish in 1982 (hell, "Exciter" could be considered one of the first speed metal songs). I'm still kicking myself in the ass for not realizing how great this album is in the 7 years I've been listening to metal.
This album is surely one to enter my regular rotation of favorites.