Painkiller
by Judas Priest
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Judas Priest bestography
Painkiller is ranked 4th best out of 31 albums by Judas Priest on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Judas Priest is British Steel which is ranked number 1099 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,589.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Painkiller on YouTube
Painkiller track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Painkiller rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | PapaShiz86 | Top 50 Music Albums of 1990 | 39/50 | 1 |
| 2026 | svk4ever | Top 50 Music Albums of 1990 | 20/50 | 3 |
| 2026 | VanillaBean | Top 66 Music Albums of the 1990s | 34/66 | 10 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Guide to building a prog collection as Feat. on Metal Storm | 17/100 | - |
| 2026 |  Glitterboiii | Top 50 Music Albums of 1990 | 12/50 | 4 |
| 2026 |  slatsheit | My Top 202-243 (The Rest of the 5 Stars) | 4/41 | - |
| 2026 |  DommeDamian | Top 23 Music Albums of 1990 | 20/23 | 1 |
| 2026 | byuzak | Top 45 Music Albums of 1990 | 16/45 | 3 |
| 2026 | daCritic | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 69/100 | 6 |
| 2026 | SethGunde | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 96/100 | 5 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 270 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,337 | |||
Painkiller collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 125 members
Painkiller ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 348 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/20/2026 09:58 | traistboar | 1,787 | 79/100 |
| ! | 09/15/2026 06:26 | Glitterboiii | 4,952 | 88/100 |
| ! | 08/24/2026 23:51 | Untitled | 1,811 | 77/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.0/100, a mean average of 78.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.8.
Painkiller favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 67 members
Painkiller forum mentions
Tha1ChiefRocka 11/10/2023 04:51 in The Greatest Album Openers
BestEverAlbums 06/01/2023 20:00 in Album of the day (#4547): Painkiller by Judas PriestPainkiller comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Madadude 02/08/2013 04:35 | #64443 | TOP COMMENT
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Easily the best Judas Priest album, but also one of the finest metal albums that exists on the face of the earth. Several great songs and perfect consistently throughout the tracks.
stefano 11/29/2017 13:38 | #202305 | TOP COMMENT
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Produced by Chris Tsangarides.
Very good and compact and nice sounding heavy metal album.
Yes, it is pure camp.
Yes, it is over the top and silly.
Yes, it is non stop action man music.
Yes, the drums are pure pumping adrenaline.
Yes, guitar duo and their sollos are face melting.
Yes, Rob Hallford is most entertaining singer ever.
Yes, Painkiller cannot be stoped,
Yes.
(Edited)
Heavy metal wasn't strong in the 90's.
But then comes this
I might choose this number one for 1990 Halford is back at full form and song writing and guitar riffs and solos are the best since Screaming for vengeance this is in my top 5 for Judas Priest albums
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