British Steel

I first saw this band in 1983, still have the t-shirt. Amazing album, especially Breaking The Law, Living After Midnight, and United. Good metal never dies!

First, a note on the remaster: The Bonus track live version of "Grinder" was NOT recorded on the British Steel tour as they claim, but is taken from the radio broadcast concert from California on the Defenders Tour. When I first saw this falsehood, I went so far as to attempt to contact the band through their website to find out why they were trying to mislead people like that. I got no reply, but noticed that all the subsequent cd releases after the first four did not specify the source location of the bonus live recordings. I'm not claiming responsibility, but I sure hope they now realize that their fans aren't that stupid.
Anyway, back to British Steel...
Here come the anthems!! "Hell Bent for Leather" was just the preamble, while British Steel was the body of their Metal Constitution and set the stage for the rest of their career, as far as subject matter goes. "Breaking the Law", "Living After Midnight", "You Don't Have to be Old to be Wise"--not a ballad in sight. But as with all of the remasters, take the printed lyrics with a grain of salt, because their accuracy is way off in some places.
British Steel has a very upbeat, good time atmosphere throughout and nearly compels you to raise your fist and shout. Warning: doing this in your car will result in several strange glances from passers-by, and perhaps even the odd restraining order from people you don't even know.
The only real downer here is Dave Holland, the new "drummer". WTF? The guy hardly ever uses his toms, instead utilizing a plain, boring Ringo Starr style of snare/kick-snare/kick which any drummer will tell you saps the music of any extra muscle it could've potentially had. It's no surprise that, four albums later, they replaced him with a drum machine for most of the recording, and soon after that they picked up Scott Travis.
And Dave just didn't "look" the part, either. With that 'gay bar' mustache, goofy hair and bored-out-of-his-mind smirk, I was sure that he was the queer one in the band all along.

Judas Priest are metal gods, they forever changed rock/metal music and for the better, they are an incredible band that continues touring and recording music even today. After the complex brand of rock'n'roll Judas Priest was doing during the 70's there seemed like they couldn't expend much further on this sound and therefore the band decided to go a simpler way with the arrival of the 1980's. There's no problem with the sound of British Steel at all, sure it's less complex than "Stained Class" for example and I must say that the blues elements are gone as well but it's still Judas Priest. The fact that Priest simplified their music doesn't mean they didn't have any creativity or great music left in them, as it turns out British Steel is one of the albums that really defined metal, is considered one the band's best albums and when the band is mentioned it is often for BS .

British Steel has them all: heavy songs (Rapid Fire), classics (Metal Gods, Living After Midnight) pop-metal anthems (Breaking The Law) and radio staples (United). Honestly there is not a single bad song on this album, no fillers it's all good (even if some are better than others). The singles are excellent Priest but the rest of the album is equally as great if not more impressive. The 2001 edition remasters series of Judas Priest albums features extra songs and this one is no different, it only has two of them "Grinder (live)" from the Defender of the Faith tour and "Red White And Blue" from the Turbo sessions. The unfortunate thing is that those two songs aren't from the era of BS, there is nothing extra from the album's sessions or even the tour supporting the album but two extra songs is two extra songs so I'll take them.

Although this is not my favorite Priest album I'm going to have to go with the majority and rate British Steel 5 stars, it really deserves it. It was my introduction to Judas Priest and I'm sure it was for many other fans. Classic album, greats songs, great musicianship and I could go on. If this is not in your rock/metal collection then let me tell you that there is a huge hole in your collection! It's an essential classic.
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