JUDAS PRIEST — British Steel (review)

JUDAS PRIEST — British Steel album cover Album · 1980 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Kingcrimsonprog
British Steel is one of those all time classic albums, like Reign in Blood, Number Of The Beast or Paranoid. The kind of album that half the things you’ve ever read have told you is amazing and beyond reproach and the other half has told you is overrated and nowhere near the band’s best work. Sometimes its difficult to get an unbiased opinion either way.

Released in 1980, British Steel helped Judas Priest a long way in becoming the institution they are and formed a large part of the public’s perception of the band.

The album contained the hit singles ‘Breaking The Law,’ ‘Living After Midnight,’ and ‘United.’

Elsewhere; songs like ‘Rapid Fire,’ ‘Steeler,’ and ‘Grinder,’ delivered the hard and fast metal sound that helped form the basis of the thrash sound a few short years later, while tracks like ‘Metal Gods,’ and ‘You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise,’ stay closer on the borders of rock.

The quality of songwriting is genuinely good and there is no filler, this is a good album plain and simple. The band took everything they had been doing over their career and compressed it down into an easy to manage collection of pure metal.

As Scott Ian is fond of stating, Judas Priest were the first band to really take up the banner of metal, to revel in the name, to champion the genre. They weren’t ashamed, they wouldn’t rather be thought of as a Blues band or a Folk band or anything else. They wanted to be metal.

The material should speak for itself as this is a great record; if you like Judas Priest you may find another album you like more, but British Steel is one of the all time classic metal albums and there’s not much you can do about that if you don’t like that situation, it may have commercial appeal, some of it may sound cheesy to you, the production may be too slick for you… but British Steel is a classic.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Suffocated By Fungal Odors Deathcore
VISCERAL EXECRATION
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lethargy Metalcore
HEARTLAPSE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Vitriol Deathcore
BEHEADING THE ICON
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cecità Atmospheric Sludge Metal
NITRITONO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Resiliencia Metalcore
SOURCE OF MYSTERIES
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Suicidal Tendencies - Send Me Your Money
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
UMUR· 12 hours ago
Suicidal Tendencies - Trip at the Brain
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
UMUR· 12 hours ago
Suicidal Tendencies - Nobody Hears
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
UMUR· 12 hours ago
Suicidal Tendencies - You Can't Bring Me Down
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
UMUR· 12 hours ago
Thanatos - Source Of Mysteries (Video Oficial)
SOURCE OF MYSTERIES
Bosh66· 1 day ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed