Painkiller (Judas Priest song)

"Painkiller" is the opening track on British metal band Judas Priest's 1990 album, Painkiller, and was released as the first single off the album later that year.

The song is written in E minor, but the key signature changes during the guitar solos. The first guitar solo in the song, which alternates between the keys of F# minor and C# minor, is played by Glenn Tipton. The second, also in F# minor, is played by K. K. Downing. The song is noted for Rob Halford's high pitched vocal style and screams throughout the song as well as Scott Travis' complex drumming. Tipton has also stated that the Painkiller solo is his favourite to play. It is also his first recorded solo to heavily feature the technique of sweep picking.

The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance during the 33rd Grammy Awards (1991), the second year the award was presented but lost to Metallica's cover of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy".

Overview
The song tells the story of the Painkiller, the character featured on the cover of the album, a cyborg superhero who saves mankind from destruction.

Cover versions

 * The song was covered by death metal band Death on their 1998 album The Sound of Perseverance.
 * The Brazilian power metal band Angra has covered the song too on the album Freedom Call, released in 1996. This version also appeared on the Judas Priest tribute album Legends Of Metal - A Tribute To Judas Priest Volume II.
 * In his 2004 tribute album, Mirada Electrica: Tributo A Judas Priest, Arturo Huizar, a prominent pioneer of Mexican heavy metal, covered the song in Spanish with his band Lvzbel. The tribute album also includes other popular Judas Priest songs translated to Spanish.
 * British thrash/power metal band Biomechanical included a cover of "Painkiller" on the Limited Edition of their 2005 albumThe Empires of the Worlds, featuring Chris Tsangarides, who produced the Painkiller album.
 * In 2010, Taiwanese metal band CHTHONIC released a version of "Painkiller" that incorporated elements of East Asian music.
 * French industrial metal band Obszön Geschöpf covered "Painkiller" on their 2013 album Highway of Horrors.
 * Japanese band Babymetal performed an abridged version of the song at the 2016 Alternative Press Music Awards alongside Rob Halford, which led into another Judas Priest song, "Breaking the Law." Babymetal would perform these songs again later in the year during their tour supporting Red Hot Chili Peppers, with singer Su-metal performing all vocals and RHCP's Chad Smith playing drums.[1] [2]
 * Korean metal band Mahatma covered "Painkiller" on their 2007 album Perseverance.

In other media

 * In Rock Band 2 and Rock Band Unplugged, "Painkiller" is the final song to be unlocked. It is considered to be the hardest overall track for both games, being the first song in the Rock Band series to have an "Impossible" difficulty rating for all instruments. In addition, the song was also featured in the video games Madden NFL 10, the final boss battle in Brütal Legend, and Guitar Hero: Van Halen, the latter omitting the drum intro for licensing reasons.
 * "Painkiller", along with "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking the Law", is one of three Judas Priest songs featured as downloadable content for the videogame Rocksmith.