[3] Over two riffing guitars, vocalist Rob Halford screams in falsetto, alongside a simple bassline that mainly holds down the root notes and somewhat flashy drumming that often revolves around a steady 16th note double-kick pattern as the backbone of the whole rhythm section, as well as featuring abundant use of various cymbals.
'"[4]"Dissident Aggressor" features what Rolling Stone describes as "driving guitar riffs", and guitarists K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton trade solos in the song.
[1] While the double-bass rhythms from Judas Priest are generally measured and technical, "Dissident Aggressor" pushed this to be an example of the style with an increase in "tempo and aggression"[7] which was later adopted by other bands with a much harder-edged approach.
[8] American thrash metal band Slayer covered the song on their 1988 album South of Heaven.
Ironically, Slayer were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2010, for the song "Hate Worldwide", but lost to Judas Priest's new live version of Dissident Aggressor[citation needed].