"Victim of Changes" is a song by British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 band Judas Priest

Judas Priest

Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...

, featured on their 1976

1976 in music

-January–February:*January 5 – Former Beatles road manager Mal Evans is shot dead by Los Angeles police after refusing to drop what police only later determine is an air rifle....

 studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 Sad Wings of Destiny

Sad Wings of Destiny

-CD Track listing:The 1995 CD reissue by Repertoire Records had track 3 labeled as "Dream Deceiver" rather than "Dreamer Deceiver", this was later changed back to its original title on the 1998 release by Snapper Music. None of the reissues of Sad Wings of Destiny are endorsed by Judas Priest. -...

. Adrien Begrand, writing for PopMatters

PopMatters

PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...

, claimed the song changed the course of metal history. The guitar work is noted as well, Bob Gendron praising the song's "landslide riffs" in the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

. The "epic" song has become a Judas Priest classic, and Martin Popoff

Martin Popoff

Martin Popoff is a Canadian-born music journalist and critic who covers the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine, he has additionally written over twenty books that both critically evaluate heavy metal and document its history...

 listed it at #17 in his "Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time." The song is also notable for showing Rob Halford

Rob Halford

Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...

's full vocal range

The song is a combination of two songs by two Judas Priest singers: "Whiskey Woman," by Priest founder Al Atkins

Al Atkins

Alan John "Al" Atkins is an English heavy metal vocalist, perhaps best known for his association with Judas Priest...

, and "Red Light Lady" by later singer Rob Halford

Rob Halford

Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...

. Live versions of the song appear on several of Judas Priest's live albums, such as Unleashed in the East

Unleashed in the East

Unleashed in the East is Judas Priest's first live album, recorded live in Tokyo, Japan during the Hell Bent for Leather Tour in 1979...

, '98 Live Meltdown and Live in London

Live in London (Judas Priest album)

Live in London is a concert album by British heavy metal band Judas Priest. It was recorded at Brixton Academy on December 19, 2001, and is the last album the band released with Tim "Ripper" Owens before they reunited with Rob Halford. A live DVD was also filmed in the same concert.-Track...

.

Notable covers

• San Francisco Bay area thrashers Forbidden
  Forbidden (band)
  Forbidden is a thrash metal band from the San Francisco Bay Area. Formed in 1985 as Forbidden Evil, the group was founded by Russ Anderson and Craig Locicero, who are both permanent members. Since their formation, Forbidden have broken up and reformed twice with numerous line-up changes...
  
   performed the song live on their "Raw Evil - Live at the Dynamo" release in 1989.
• German power metal
  Power metal
  Power metal is a style of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. The term refers to two different but related styles: the first pioneered and largely practiced in North America with a harder sound similar to speed metal, and a...
  
   band Gamma Ray
  Gamma Ray (band)
  Gamma Ray is a power metal band from Hamburg, northern Germany, founded and fronted by Kai Hansen after his departure from the German power metal Helloween. Hansen is the current lead vocalist, guitarist as well as the chief songwriter of Gamma Ray. The band is known as one of the most prominent...
  
   released a cover of the song as a bonus track to their 1997 release Somewhere Out in Space
  Somewhere Out In Space
  Somewhere Out in Space is an album by German power metal band, Gamma Ray. It was released on August 25, 1997 and is the band's fifth studio album. Continuing in the tradition of the previous four albums, it contained yet another different lineup, but would also be the first album to feature the...
  
  .
• Al Atkins
  Al Atkins
  Alan John "Al" Atkins is an English heavy metal vocalist, perhaps best known for his association with Judas Priest...
  
  , former singer for Judas Priest and co-writer of the song, recorded the song for his 1998 album of the same name
  Victim of Changes
  Victim of Changes is ex-Judas Priest singer Al Atkins's fourth release, named after a Judas Priest song of the same name originally featured on the Sad Wings of Destiny album. The album's sleeve contains three pages of historic photos and a biography outlining his days in Judas Priest...
  
  .
• Mushroomhead
  Mushroomhead
  Mushroomhead is an American industrial metal band from Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 1993 in Cleveland Warehouse District, the band's music can be described as a synthesis of alternative music, heavy metal, and electro-industrial...
  
  covered this song live on 1997.