BAND: Judas Priest
MEMEBERS: K.K. Downing (lead guitar, backing vocals), Rob Halford (lead vocals), Ian Hill (bass, backing vocals), Dave Holland (drums), Glenn Tipton (lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals)
TRACK LIST: Breaking The Law, Rapid Fire, Metal Gods, Grinder, United, Living After Midnight, You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise, The Rage, Steeler
REVIEW: In the holy books of Heavy Metal, you have the father (Black Sabbath), the son (Judas Priest), and the unholy demon (Iron Maiden). Now, it is because of a few former albums and their stage presence that made Judas Priest one of the top three of Heavy Metal because they created the costume, but it was this album that made it that they created the final sound of Metal. If you listen to any of these tracks, you will notice that they do not have any more ties to the blues in which heavy metal is based off of.
At first glance, these song do appear to be shorter and more radio friendly and would get more air time, but do not let that fool you. These songs are the same head-banging, arena metal jams that we have always loved, just shorter.
The first track is perhaps the most famous of them all: Breaking The Law. The first thing that stands out are three things: the iconic guitar riff, the bass, and the drums. Right off the bat, this is a song that does have full love for their instruments and the song would have worked fine if it was just those sounds, but then you have Rob Halford’s voice that has now earned him the title of The Metal God. I mean, the high notes that guy can hit (and still hit to this day) are beyond fantastic. Another thing that makes this song better is that it is, in a way, telling the story of a man who has nothing left so he decides to do one last thrill for his life: break the law. One thing to look out for in this song is the sound affects of milk bottles being smashed during the guitar solo.
Then, this album kicks it into gear with Rapid Fire. The first thing that you notice is the use of both the leading and rhythm guitars both playing at times the same notes and rifts, then one of them playing the same notes, but higher. The drums are simple in this song and you do not really hear the bass all that well, but in all the instruments play the same basic parts for about a good sixty percent of the time. But the thing to really listen for is Halford’s accent in this song when he starts rolling the “R” in certain words and the high note he hits at the beginning. This is a perfect example of arena metal.
Metal Gods is one of those songs about technology that is telling us what the future of man kind will be: Machines making slaves out of us humans. This song is very different then the previous two in the scenes that is uses sound effects more creatively than in Breaking The Law and uses them to create the sound of robots stomping. The guitars mostly does regular riffs leaving room for the bass to be heard, the drum is the same way. Halford’s vocals still hit high notes, and overall it is the perfect song for Priest to use as their moniker “Metal Gods”.
Based on the song Grinder, I have come to realize two things: first is that the lead guitar is starting to have more character by doing it’s own notes while the rhythm guitar is doing it’s job of keeping the rhythm. Second would be that the chorus of this song, and like the others, are beyond catchy and it actually work. Starting with this song, I do commend the members of Judas Priest on their song writing abilities. Now, the song it self adds nothing to the overall flare or over the top that the previous songs added, other than the lead guitar being more free.
United adds a rock anthem/ protest song to this list, and what is so cool about this one is that it features sound effects of stomping and clapping to go with the beat of the chorus. This one, is mostly beat driven, so I would like to take the time to point out Dave Holland’s drum work on this song. This does stand out in the scenes that it feels different than any previous song on this album and that it does add a nice flair to the track list.
Living After Midnight is this albums equal to KISS’s Rock and Roll All Nite in the sense that it is an anthem for all of those who live their lives parting during the night hours. On this album, it is a little similar to that of united, except that this song has more usage of instruments. Kind of a let down, by still a decent song on it’s own.
You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise is a song that relies on the strength of then lyrics for it to be awesome. On this album, this song is mostly the teenage angst song that does have a strong point: people that are you can be wise and older people should not look down on the youngsters as being inferior. The only thing that saddens me is that some people in this generation will here this song and automatically take it the wrong way.
The Rage is a song that is fantastic for two reasons: It is a song that loves the Bass guitar to such an extent that when you hear everything else, the thundering of the strings cuts threw everything else like a hot knife threw butter. The other reason is what this song is a metaphor for. Rob Halford is known for being openly homosexual and I feel that this song (along with Breaking The Law) expresses the rage that Halford has for the prejudice that gay people have.
Steeler is like Judas Priest’s homework assignment in which they have to go threw all there songs and bring together the best of everything and in this case, the get an ‘A +’. This song has everything from instruments that sound right, to the vocals. This is an almost perfect ending to the album, but I would have liked to hear Halford’s high pitch screech one last time.
In a nutshell, British Steel is the staple of what perfect heavy metal should be. This album, while it does have some flaws, should be heard by anyone who loves metal or wants to get into metal.
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