and the band have come to see Sad Wings of Destiny as the album on which Judas Priest consolidated their sound and image. In Rolling Stone Kris Nicholson gave the album a positive review, comparing it favourably to Deep Purple's Machine Head of 1972. Martin Popoff cites the album's "reinvention" of the heavy metal genre. The technical dexterity and operatic vocals pointed toward trends in heavy metal that new wave of British heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden were to follow, and the album's dark themes reappeared in the 1980s American thrash metal, such as in the music of Slayer and Metallica. An early sign of the band's influence was that Van Halen included "Victim of Changes" in their sets before achieving fame. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth relates that his brother-in-law punched him in the face for listening to Sad Wings of Destiny; Mustaine called this a turning point, where he chose heavy metal as a career as "revenge". Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth named Sad Wings of Destiny his second favourite metal album. PopMatters described the album as "not-at-all shabby" and listed "Epitaph" as one of its "25 Best Progressive Rock Songs of All Time" in 2011. Halford has called the album his favourite of the band's. "Victim of Changes", "The Ripper", "Tyrant", and "Genocide"—with an extended introduction—appear on the band's first live album, Unleashed in the East (1979). The first three of those songs have survived until 2019 in the band's setlists, with "Victim of Changes" being one of the band's most played songs ever, while "Genocide" got retired in the early 1980s. With "Dreamer Deceiver", "Deceiver" and "Island of Domination" present on 1975–76 set lists, 7 of the album's 9 songs have been performed in concert. During the Sad Wings sessions, Howells encouraged the band to work on a heavy metal cover of "Diamonds & Rust" by folk singer Joan Baez, but it did not appear on the album. The band had a hit in the UK with a re-recording of the cover version the following year, after they had moved to CBS Records. Gull released the version from the Sad Wings sessions in 1978 on the compilation album The Best of Judas Priest. Judas Priest's 1990 album Painkiller features a winged figure Halford has described as a futuristic version of the Fallen Angel from the Sad Wings of Destiny cover. The band's 2005 album Angel of