"A Touch of Evil" is a song by the English heavy metal band

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Judas Priest have also been referred to as one of the p ...

, from their 1990 album ''

Painkiller An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic, antalgic, pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used for pain management. Analgesics are conceptually distinct from anesthetics, which temporarily reduce, and in s ...

''. The record was released as the second single from the album via

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

label.

Overview

It is the only song on the album that was co-written by producer Chris Tsangarides, who wrote the song's guitar riff, while the rest of the song was written by the main songwriting team of Rob Halford, K. K. Downing, and

Glenn Tipton Glenn Raymond Tipton (born 25 October 1947) is an English guitarist. Often noted for his complex playing style and classically influenced solos, he is best known as one of the lead guitarists for the Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Judas P ...

. Tsangarides would team up again with Tipton for songwriting eleven years later, for Judas Priest's album ''

Demolition Demolition (also known as razing and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction (building), deconstruction, which inv ...

'', released in 2001, on which the two of them wrote the songs "Subterfuge" and "Metal Messiah". It is one of the few songs on the album on which the

synthesizers A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(which had originally been featured on several songs, but had been removed from some) remained part of the song. These synthesizers were played by rock veteran keyboardist

Don Airey Donald Smith Airey (born 21 June 1948) is an English musician. He came to prominence as the keyboardist of the rock band Rainbow during 1979–1982. He has been the keyboardist of Deep Purple, the band from which Rainbow was a spinoff, since 2 ...

. 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 Spirit Possession is an altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors which are purportedly caused by the control of a human body and its functions by Supernatural#Spirit, spirits, ghosts, demons, angels, or Deity, gods. The concept ...

black magic Black magic (Middle English: ''nigromancy''), sometimes dark magic, traditionally refers to the use of Magic (paranormal), magic or supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes. The links and interaction between black magic and religi ...

, and temptation to commit acts of evil. However, according to Halford himself, as cited in ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'' in January 2004, the lyrics deal with a love-related theme, although metaphorically.
The song features a classically-inspired

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...

by Glenn Tipton.

Personnel

* Rob Halford –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

* K. K. Downing –

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

* Ian Hill –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

(credited but may not actually appear) * Scott Travis –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

with: *

– keyboards,

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

bass

Music video

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

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.

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Touch of Evil, A 1990 songs 1991 singles Judas Priest songs Songs written by Glenn Tipton Songs written by K. K. Downing Songs written by Rob Halford Columbia Records singles Heavy metal ballads