Point of Entry is the seventh studio album by English heavy metal bandJudas Priest, released on 26 February 1981 by Columbia Records. Following the commercial success of their previous album British Steel, the band pursued a more radio-friendly direction on Point of Entry. Following the conclusion of the British Steel World Tour, the band began work on their next project. By this time, they had sufficient funds to fly all their equipment to the state-of-the-art Ibiza Studios in Spain. This gave Point of Entry a louder, stronger, more "live" sound than previous Judas Priest albums.
Promotion
Three singles were released from the album: "Heading Out to the Highway", "Don't Go" and "Hot Rockin, all of which had accompanying music videos. The song "Heading Out to the Highway" has been a staple in live shows since its release, "Desert Plains" was regularly played throughout the 1980s and "Hot Rockin is still performed. On the 2005 "Re-united" tour they also played "Solar Angels" on rare occasions, while on the World Wide Blitz Tour of 1981, it had been the opening song of every show. On parts of that tour, "Troubleshooter" was also performed.
Cover
"Europe, Mexico and most of South America got an intriguing and colorful sort of futuristic metal wing over a horizon shot...designed by Roslav Szaybo, who had done all the band's CBS albums to date." The North American cover differed from the rest of the world, this being repeated with the remaster. The US artwork, featuring computer printer paper to simulate the line in the middle of the road and white cardboard boxes on the back, was designed by Columbia Record's John Berg. "'The sleeve was awful, scoffs the guitarist, 'and we've got to blame management for that because they didn't shop around enough to get one that was suitable. The American cover was different, but that turned out to be even worse!'" The American artwork also saw the introduction of the 3D Judas Priest logo, which would be used up to Turbo.
Reissues
The album was remastered in 2001, with two bonus tracks added, a live version of "Desert Plains" and "Thunder Road", a track from the Ram It Down sessions. In the booklet of the Remastered CD, the band states:
Critical reception
In 2005, Point of Entry was ranked number 352 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. In the 2007 book Metal: The Definitive Guide, author Garry Sharpe-Young wrote that the album consists of "radio-friendly fillers." Moreover, Sharpe-Young called the original British artwork "bland" and subsequent American alternative artwork "an even worse compromise." Opinions about the album from within the band have been mixed. Ian Hill has stated, "It came across… people think it’s just a commercial album. And it’s not, there are some good songs in there. And I think it’s overlooked.". In a Louder article, it is noted that "Halford admits to being "dismayed" by the reaction it received." In the same Louder article, K.K. Downing takes on a more mixed perspective, stating, "People don’t understand how pressurised we were by the label, either to do covers or make hits", he says. "With that album, we gave them what they wanted."
