Stained Class originally appeared in 1978 and is the album on which Judas Priest let go of blues rock for good. Les Binks came in on drums with a faster, more technical approach, audible straight away in the opening track Exciter, whose tempo and double bass drum point ahead to speed metal. Against that stand the long, bleak Beyond the Realms of Death and a version of Spooky Tooth's Better by You, Better Than Me. Dennis MacKay produced the album, which later became known against its will through an American court case over alleged hidden messages in that song; the band was cleared in 1990.

This edition is an LP.