154. Judas Priest / British Steel. 1980. 4.5/5.

With the new decade upon the band, and the fans of music beginning their switch from the punk movement to the NWOBHM sound that was punctuating the UK, Judas Priest was at the top of their game. With several successful albums behind them, and riding on the wave of their live album released the previous year, the band brought out this album, British Steel. As they had done over the course of their career, the music they were writing and recording was constantly building and forming into a marketable product. This album had all of that and more surprises in store.

From the outset a few things are noticeable. It’s sleeker. It’s shinier. It has been polished both in production and in recording. The timing hits the right beat all the way through. The songs are more structured, with verse then chorus then verse then chorus. The rhythm is tight and perfect, holding each song within its walls. The guitars are perfectly in sync, only breaking out in their allocated solo section. This is such a regimented album in almost every way, you could probably march to it were you so inclined to do so. Something which some fans do have a problem with.
Let’s face it. New drummer Dave Holland doesn’t have a lot of outstanding work to do here. Most of his work could be categorised as basic 4/4 or 2/4 with a few cymbal crashes thrown in at the appropriate time. It provides the base that this album was obviously looking for and it does its job, but without much variation to it to help colour the songs it does then bring on that feeling of being a similar album throughout. It’s the kind of album you can give to a learner and say ‘play along with that’, and soon enough they will because it is heavy in the basics. This is not meant to be a criticism but just to point out how this album was written.
The same too can be said for the guitars on the album. All of the songs in general have simple riffs and chords for most of the song, before allowing the guitar solos in the middle to help change up this part of each song. And through it all, the vocals are terrific, but there is nothing stretching the range here like on earlier albums. It’s all very within the limitations of other vocalists, and has no breakout screams or high pitched ringers that has always been a part of the Halford trick bag. To try and put a rating on it, British Steel is much like an AC/DC album, with less rock and more metal. The basic premise of the rhythm, both in how tight it is and the tempo in particular, reminds me of how AC/DC operate. That’s not a bad thing in song structure, but it is somewhat different from what Judas Priest had done in the past.
Despite all of this and any belief that I have been bagging the album, everything works. The fast paced opening of “Rapid Fire” is terrific, and the brilliant mood swing into “Metal Gods” is still a joy to listen to even after all of these years. “Breaking the Law” is the track that got most airplay at the time and typifies what this album is about, the simple but effective and memorable riff along with a catchy chorus that people of all ages find themselves singing along to. “Grinder” as well has a great feel to the rhythm riff.
The result of the similar song structures does hold some dangers, and there does come a point where there is some boredom of repetition in some of the songs. Every individual probably has different songs that drives them to distraction on this album. “United” is one of them for me. It is very rigid musically and lyrically, and while it isn’t a bad song it is one of the ones here that I can almost reach for the skip button if I am in that kind of mood. It is improved in a live setting, where the crowd can get involved and chant along, but here on the studio version it eventually gets stale and staid. “You Don’t Have to be Old to be Wise” also has some degree of this seeping in, if only for the constant repeating of the title through the second half of song to the fade out. It does get tedious on occasions. Many people say the same about “Living After Midnight” and I couldn’t knock them if they did, but this like “Breaking the Law” is a Judas Priest anthem, one they always have to play and another where the catchy chorus has people of all ages singing along. “The Rage and “Steeler” close out the album in a similar style.

British Steel has been a classic since its release almost 40 years ago, playing off the success of its two main singles and through the simplistic excellence of the rest of the album. Even now when you listen to the album you can hear the results of the effort put into the writing and recording these songs and the plan that must have been in place for all of them. As a structured masterpiece this ticks almost every box, and only falls short of a perfect rating by the slight nagging in the back of my head that says that a couple of the songs just aren’t quite up to giving it that.

Rating: “I’m getting hotter by the hour”. 4.5/5