Stained Class is the fourth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 10 February 1978 by Columbia Records.

Musically, Stained Class is considered the album on which the band honed many of the elements of their hard-edged signature sound, dispensing with most of the progressive and blues rock overtones and softer ballads of previous efforts.

[5] The album features such notable tracks as "Exciter", considered an early precursor to speed metal and thrash metal,[6] a cover version of "Better by You, Better than Me" by Spooky Tooth – which became the subject of an infamous civil suit in 1990 which alleged the song subliminally influenced two teenaged boys to make a suicide pact – and “Beyond the Realms of Death”, which is considered one of the band’s greatest songs by many fans and frequently included in the band’s live setlists.

Upon release, Stained Class was a modest commercial success, reaching number 27 on the UK Albums Chart and becoming the band's first LP to enter the US Billboard 200; it was eventually certified gold in the latter country.

[14] Twelve years after its release, Stained Class was the subject of a 1990 civil action brought against the band by the family of a teenager, James Vance, who entered into a suicide pact with his friend Ray Belknap after allegedly listening to "Better by You, Better than Me" on 23 December 1985.

Belknap succeeded in killing himself, and Vance was left critically injured after surviving a self-inflicted gunshot to the face, eventually dying of a methadone overdose three years later.