Label: Columbia Records
Release date: 14.04.1980
Producer: Tom Allom
Length: 36.02 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 9.5 / 10
Some might think the title of this record was picked on purpose to sound very close to British ears, but then again, it definitely earns it. It went off in Great Britain, and Judas Priest drove their portrait as a band to its peak right then and there. I won’t say creative peak, but all the factors and circumstances around the making and release of the album fit together perfectly. “British Steel” embodies the true peak of the metal scene in 1980. “British Steel” earned Judas Priest the immortal title of metal gods.
For this excellent album, Judas Priest managed to put together a handful of tracks that still happily turn up on plenty of commercial radio stations today. Hearing Living After Midnight or Breaking The Law on Val 202 is nothing special even now, though in a flood of rock imitators, hearing Judas Priest on the radio is always a pleasant surprise that keeps hope alive that the weather will clear up for us Slovenes.
Stylistically, Judas Priest didn’t invent anything “scream-from-the-rooftops” special, but “British Steel” as a whole is an album made with perfection, both in the compositions themselves and in how they’re performed. It’s an album that holds a special place in the heart of every sincere lover of “electric” guitars. The lyrical themes remain rebellion, rejecting everything the clergy and politicians try to shove down our throats hand in hand, and a call to disobedience and a general all-metal uprising, which meshed perfectly with the eruption of the N.W.O.B.H.M. that same year.
“British Steel” contains neutron bombs like Living After Midnight, Breaking The Law, Rapid Fire, Grinder and Steeler. Of course there’s the magnificent Metal Gods, with just two brutally simple riffs locked into the chords D and E and E and F#, with which Judas Priest built themselves a monument and which rounds out the band’s portrait and their faith in heavy metal in the best possible way. The Rage showcases the art of combining an aggressive stance with romantic sophistication, something the band always expressed so convincingly throughout their career. The same goes for You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise. Both tracks hold the most melody and epic feel on the record, though “British Steel” in general doesn’t contain any particularly drawn-out, epically pompous melodic tricks. Everything is counted off straight, one-two-three-four, with zero fuss, the songs razor-sharp, and the approach of all the guys literally fanatical. United is the song through which the band most directly passes their faith on to the masses. Together we’ll take justice into our own hands and seize the throne (“United we never shall fall!”). Judas Priest always loved writing songs like this, with calls for revolution, such as Take On The World or the eighties tracks Rock You All Around The World, Heavy Duty/Defenders Of The Faith, or Monsters Of Rock.
How important Judas Priest are to heavy metal is also proven by how many bands took their names from the band’s song titles. Examples: Sinner, Running Wild, Steeler, Rage and Exciter.
Judas Priest left out the guitar solos in Breaking The Law, while the solo in Living After Midnight is so stripped down you almost miss it. The band’s aim was to keep as much primal punch in the songs as possible. Expressive, short, to-the-point riffs rule the whole record and make for a real little school of songwriting that gets your blood boiling the moment you listen. The rhythms are tailored to that end too, simplified to the max. For the album “British Steel” Judas Priest took on a new drummer, Dave Holland, and with him the lineup stayed stable for the next decade. Dave brought exactly what Judas Priest needed: a bigger dose of explosiveness on the drums. After Les Binks left the band, the drum fills never sounded as sophisticated and refined again, but Judas Priest now needed destructive power in their music, and Dave was the right answer. The production helm was also taken over by a new man, Tom Allom. He stayed with the band, just like Dave, all the way to the album “Painkiller” (1990).
This remastered version will throw a lot of people when they pop it into the CD player. It starts with Rapid Fire. Breaking The Law, which opens the original release, sits third on the current remaster, after Metal Gods. Looked at from a psychoanalytic angle, the start of a record is practically the most important part for the average listener, since that’s when concentration on what a given record has to offer is at its highest. By my own presumption, I’d guess Breaking The Law was put at the start of the album on purpose back in 1980, for commercial reasons. With the current remaster, which opens with Rapid Fire, the band’s wish has finally been fulfilled (again, my personal opinion), since they probably wanted Rapid Fire as the opening track already 21 years ago. The reissue comes with two bonus tracks. The first fits the album title very well by name, though not in style. That’s the song Red, White & Blue. It’s the band’s “personal” anthem to their homeland (the title refers to the colors of the flag of Great Britain). Of course this ceremonial chant doesn’t belong on any Judas Priest album at all, but it’s a very interesting thing that came from the band’s pen. The other bonus is a “live” version of Grinder from the British Steel tour, on which Judas Priest were joined throughout March 1980 by hot new-wave upstarts Iron Maiden as their support act. But that’s a whole other story.
“British Steel” is the album that immortalized the name Judas Priest. Even today it’s one of the most important albums in the history of heavy metal. Overall, through the second half of the seventies Judas Priest lit the torch and opened up space for the new-wave bands on British soil, and the German heavy metal scene was getting very lively too, with a smaller dose of media pomp, and Judas Priest left an indelible mark on it as well. In 1980 the Earth shook, heavy metal landed in the focus of the masses, and with “British Steel” Judas Priest, as a reward for the thorny path they’d walked, deservedly took the metal throne, because that year was completely theirs.
by: Aleš Podbrežnik (March 2002)
Track list:
1. Rapid Fire
2. Metal Gods
3. Breaking The Law
4. Grinder
5. United
6. You Don’t Have to Be Old to Be Wise
7. Living After Midnight
8. The Rage
9. Steeler
Lineup:
Rob Halford – vocals
K.K. Downing – guitar
Glenn Tipton – guitar
Ian Hill – bass
Dave Holland – drums
