A Touch of Evil
Encyclopedia
- For the 1958 crime thriller film, see Touch of EvilTouch of EvilTouch of Evil is a 1958 American crime thriller film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson...
"A Touch of Evil" is a song by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
, from their 1990
1990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
album Painkiller. It is the only song on the album that was co-written by producer Chris Tsangarides
Chris Tsangarides
Chris Tsangarides is a British Grammy-nominated record producer, sound engineer, and mixer. He is best known for his work with many heavy metal bands, including Judas Priest, Anvil, Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy, Helloween, and Yngwie Malmsteen...
who wrote the song's guitar riff, while the rest of the song was written by the main songwriting team of Rob Halford
Rob Halford
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...
, K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton
Glenn Tipton
Glenn Tipton is one of the Grammy Award-winning guitarists for the heavy metal band Judas Priest...
. Tsangarides would team up again with Tipton for songwriting eleven years later, for Judas Priest's album Demolition
Demolition (Judas Priest album)
Demolition is British heavy metal band Judas Priest's fourteenth studio album, and the first in the decade of the 2000s. It is the second and final studio album to feature Tim 'Ripper' Owens on vocals and one of the few albums to feature a Parental Advisory label...
, released in 2001, on which the two of them wrote the songs "Subterfuge" and "Metal Messiah".
It is the only song on the album on which the synthesizers (which had originally been featured on several songs, but had been removed) remained part of the song. These synthesizers were played by rock veteran keyboardist Don Airey
Don Airey
Donald Airey has been the keyboardist in the rock band Deep Purple since 2002, succeeding Jon Lord...
. Between the slow drums and the eerie keyboards, the song was given a chilling sound, making it a sort of pseudo-ballad. However, when played live, the keyboard intro is replaced by a guitar riff.
The song's lyrics deal with demonic possession
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
, black magic
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...
, and temptation to commit acts of evil. However, according to Halford himself, as cited in Metal Hammer in January 2004, the lyrics deal with a love-related theme, although metaphorically.
The song features a classically-inspired
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
by Glenn Tipton.
A music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was made for the song, vividly depicting each element of the song's lyrics. The video shows a young boy having various visions of things, while flashing images of the band playing the song in between, similar to the way the band are seen in the "Painkiller" video. The song was edited for the music video, and was cut from 5:42 to 4:54, and—among other things—a notable amount of Tipton's guitar solo was cut out from the song.
Cover versions
- Lion's ShareLion's ShareThe lion's share is an idiomatic expression which develops from a number of fables ascribed to Aesop and is now used as their generic title, although they exist in several different versions...
on Legends of Metal: A Tribute to Judas Priest (1996) - Lörihen on Acero Argentino: Tributo a Judas Priest (2005)
- Vision DivineVision DivineVision Divine is a progressive power metal band formed in Italy in 1998.-History:Originally a solo project from Olaf Thörsen...
on their own 9 Degrees West Of The Moon (2009)
Personnel
- Rob HalfordRob HalfordRobert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...
- vocals - Glenn TiptonGlenn TiptonGlenn Tipton is one of the Grammy Award-winning guitarists for the heavy metal band Judas Priest...
- lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure... - K.K. Downing - rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
- Ian HillIan HillIan Hill is a founding member and bassist for the Birmingham-based Grammy award winning heavy metal band, Judas Priest....
- bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Scott TravisScott TravisScott Travis is a Grammy Award winning American rock musician, best known as the drummer for the English heavy metal band Judas Priest and the American heavy metal band Racer X.-Biography:...
- drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
with:
- Don AireyDon AireyDonald Airey has been the keyboardist in the rock band Deep Purple since 2002, succeeding Jon Lord...
- synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...