In my 1st car I kept a shoe box full of 8track tapes (Part 7, Last one!)

[The Polack MSgt]

Is there a single tape that can pin point the end of one hard rock/metal era and serve as a document to the first gasps of the next?

Heh, since I am typing this, obviously yes.

Without this record there would never have been Metallica, Megadeth or Iron Maiden as we know them today.

This band had released several records prior to this masterpiece, but they were unevenly performed and randomly produced.

There were some badass tunes, but no coherent focal point. Nothing that made you take notice.

No 20- 30 minute stretch of killer riffs that convinced you that THIS was the shit - This was the mother fucking JAM.

Well, with Stained Class, Judas Priest fixed that shortcoming with a vengeance...

SO, how can I call this the album that ended an era?

I bought this tape twice.

The second time I did so, it was the LAST 8track I ever purchased.

[JDC]

1. Exciter was on that album. Great song