Background
The cover art for the album, titled Fallen Angels, was illustrated by Patrick Woodroffe. It is best known for introducing the pitchfork-like symbol known as "the Devil's tuning fork", as worn by the angel.
The producer duo Jeffrey Calvert and Max West were also the main members in pop group Typically Tropical who had a #1 UK hit in 1975.
While the band lost the rights to recording royalties, they obtained copyright ownership of the songs themselves, many of which became staples for their live shows. "Victim of Changes", "The Ripper", "Tyrant" and "Genocide" appear on Judas Priest Unleashed in the East, a live album released by CBS in 1979. "Diamonds and Rust", a Joan Baez song originally recorded for Sad Wings, but omitted from the final album, was re-recorded for Sin After Sin, their first CBS release, and also on Unleashed. Gull later released the band's original recording of "Diamonds and Rust" on a 'best of' album and their rerelease of Rocka Rolla while a demo recording from this era of the song "Mother Sun" which was performed live in 1975 remains unreleased.
The track "Genocide" mentions the title of the next album, Sin After Sin, in the middle of the song. Glenn Tipton's piano playing features prominently on Sad Wings of Destiny, especially on "Epitaph," a song that features no guitar.
The tracks "Victim of Changes" and "Dreamer Deceiver" were co-written by vocalist Al Atkins, who fronted the band in the early 1970s before being replaced by Rob Halford. These songs are known for showing Halfords full vocal range with the latter song containing one of his highest-pitched screams ever recorded.
"Victim of Changes" was originally written as a shorter song. However, another early track called "Whiskey Woman" was mixed in the middle of the song resulting in the final version recorded at the "Sad Wings of Destiny" album.
In 2011, "Sad Wings of Destiny" and "Rocka Rolla" were remastered for the first time.
Read more about this topic: Sad Wings Of Destiny
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
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