JUDAS PRIEST — British Steel (review)

JUDAS PRIEST — British Steel album cover Album · 1980 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Stephen
All I can say is "wow!" to see an overwhelming positive response of this album. Nostalgic to some? I believe so, but calling it classic? Definitely no! Judas Priest is metal god, no doubt about it, both Halford cs, along with other names such as Motorhead, Iron Maiden, or Saxon shaped the early heavy metal form that invaded the world, but in this case, even god can fail. If not only for the anthemic commercial metal of "Breaking The Law" with its insanely memorable intro and the infectious hooks of "Living After Midnight", this album is pretty blunt as most of the tracks here are quite forgettable.

The third fave track is probably the closing track of "Steeler". It has nice and neat solos, a real deal of British heavy metal, and deserved a place in the same league as that two singles. "Rapid Fire" has the furious guitar duel of Downing/Tipton but the final arrangement isn't astonishing. "Grinder" and "Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise" are hardly heavy metal to my ears, hard rock probably, good at best. Now, "Metal Gods" is an embarrassing filler, "The Rage" probably should be named "The Reggae" as the intro kinda reminds me of Bob Marley's Jamaican groove, and "United" is the worst of them all. Sounds like an African peacecorps boyscout anthem to me.

I don't mind a band changing style, in this case, stripping off your metal jacket and gone softer is also okay in my book, but pay attention to the strong and impeccable songwriting which plays an important role on a great album. In order to be a true Priest fan, you have to have this album, but apparently they have to be old to be better as their newer releases such as "Vengeance" and "Painkiller" are much better.
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Time Signature wrote:
more than 2 years ago
You're not too far of with the reggae reference. I've seen a documentary about "British Steel" where they say that they were actually deliberately aiming at a reggae feel, because they thought it would be interesting with a reggae section on a metal record. Personally, I think that "British Steel" is much better than, say, "Point of Entry" or "Ram it Down".

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