Sad Wings of Destiny (50th Anniversary Remixed & Remastered)

Fifty years after Gull Records released it in March 1976, Judas Priest's second album has been mixed anew. For Sad Wings of Destiny (50th Anniversary Remixed & Remastered) the original analogue multitrack reels were restored and transferred at British Grove Studios in London; Tom Allom produced the new version, Luie Stylianou mixed it and Matt Colton mastered it, the same three who reworked Rocka Rolla in 2024. Allom, in Ian Hill's words, has been with the band since 1979. The 1976 album had been produced by Jeffrey Calvert and Max West, with Chris Tsangarides engineering, first at Rockfield Studios in Wales and then at Morgan Studios in London. The running order changes too. Gull's sleeve listed the side that opens with "Prelude" first while the record itself began with "Victim of Changes"; the label calls the Prelude-first sequence the one the band intended, so here "Prelude", "Tyrant" and "Genocide" lead and "Victim of Changes" is sixth. "Diamonds and Rust", taped at the same sessions and left off the album, closes the disc as a bonus, newly mixed with the rest. The reissue goes back to 2022, during the 50 Heavy Metal Years tour, when Gull and its owner David Howells chose to part with the masters and publishing of their two Judas Priest albums and contacted Michael Closter of Reach Music Publishing, Glenn Tipton's music publisher. After talks that involved the band's manager Jayne Andrews, Gull accepted Reach's offer, and Reach Music and its record label, Exciter Records, came to own both albums together with Judas Priest. Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing, Ian Hill and Alan Moore play on it; it is the only Judas Priest album with Moore on drums, and Patrick Woodroffe's painting Fallen Angels on its cover was the first appearance of the band's trident emblem. The remix has been streaming since 2 October 2026, and Exciter Records' CD, in a digipak, has a release date of 27 November 2026, alongside a 45 rpm double LP. The label's other anniversary edition, Sad Wings of Destiny (Original 1976 Masters), remastered from the original master tapes, came out on CD and LP on 9 October 2026. No Japanese edition had been announced as of 3 November 2026.