My favorite Priest albums are those Holland has played on, mostly British Steel and Screaming For Vengeance. I like the simplicity of his drumming and the feel he added to the songs.
I watched clips on YouTube where Scott Travis plays on some the British Steel songs and his adding of unnecessary double bass ruins it all... Steeler, for example, doesn't need any double bass drum, especially not in the rhythm section after the solo (which starts at 3:26 in the clip posted below).
Holland played a lot with his hi-hat closed which added some “bounce” or groove to the beat. Travis plays these parts with the hi-hat open that gives a (perhaps) heavier but slowed down feel.
Ah good ol' Dave Holland. I remeber him when he played in the trio Trapeze with Glenn Hughes and Bernie Marsden (I think it was). This was several years before Judas Priest though. From what I gather Priest wanted to simplify it's sound and be less complex musically. They just needed guy who could keep time and do bare minimum fills and Dave Holland was picked up to do it. I was not a fan of 80s Priest but Holland did his job well. He couldn't pull off some of the older, more technical Judas Priest songs like the ones done with Simon Philips and Les Binks (most of the material of Sin After Sin and Stained Class) so they were simlpy dropped from the set list.
Sad about the fate that has befallen him in latter years though.
Dave Holland of judas priest is extremely under rated in my opinion. Les was an entirely different type of drummer and the songs he played on were arranged for Les, not Dave. When Dave entered his time keeping is essentially metronome like. He never tried to do to much which alot of us drummers tend to do. Big mistake! Listen to Rapid Fire. anything off of british steel for that matter. Perfect time keeping. pounding drums and guitars that required a simple but pounding yet still melodic approach. Each song fits the drums. You've got another thing comin'....Les or Dave? Dave...perfectly played, simple approach. He was a metronome....enough said!
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