"Painkiller" is the the first song on British metal band Judas Priest's 1990 album, Painkiller, and was released as the first single off the album later that year.
The song is about The Painkiller. The Painkiller himself is one of a series of fictional messiahs created by Judas Priest. He is described as a metal messiah sent to the world to destroy evil and rescue mankind from destruction. He is believed to be inspired by the fallen angel from the Sad Wings of Destiny album cover that Judas Priest recorded early in their musical years. The most noticeable feature of the Painkiller, besides his metal body is that he rides the metal monster; a motorcycle with a dragon for the chassis and two circular saws for wheels.
The song was covered by death metal band Death in 1998 album Sound of Perseverance. This version also appeared the Judas Priest tribute album A Tribute to the Priest. The brazilian power metal band Angra has covered the song too on the album Freedom Call, released in 1996. Also, more recently, the British Thrash/Power metal band Biomechanical did a cover of the song, featuring Chris Tsangarides, who produced the Painkiller album.
The song is highly regarded for its musical structure. Digitaldreamdoor.com ranked Tipton and Downing's guitar solos at #101 on its List of the 100 Greatest Rock Guitar Solos, Travis's drum performance at #54 on its List of the 100 Greatest Rock Drum Performances, and Halford's vocals at #15 on its List of the 100 Greatest Rock Vocal Performances. Additionally, digitaldreamdoor.com ranked the album's vocals at #14 on its List of the Best Rock Vocal Performance Albums and the album's drums at #42 on its List of the 100 Greatest Rock Drum Performance Albums.
The first guitar solo in the song is played by Tipton, and the second final guitar solo is played by Downing.
