{"id":1827,"date":"2026-05-26T09:25:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metalhed.com\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2026-05-26T09:48:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:48:37","slug":"judas-priest-british-steel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metalhed.com\/?p=1827","title":{"rendered":"JUDAS PRIEST British Steel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here we go with JUDAS PRIEST<\/a> British Steel, their 1980 album and a definite step up in punchiness and general metal-ness. The Song opens up with Rapid Fire, a great statement of intent with a hard hitting main riff a new up front guitar tone and once you get into the album shorter and harder hitting songs that go straight for the throat instead of the meandering sound scapes that were on previous albums. <\/p>\n\n

The listener also has to put this his album in perspective when listening to it, as this came out in 1980 before Venom had an album out, so you basically just had Motorhead and Raven flying the flag for speed on records and basically except for Raven I’d have to put this out there as probably the fastest thing on record.<\/p>\n\n

Next up we have “Metal Gods” a long time live staple of the bands set with a great heavy groove and some neat effects on the guitar. The lads are really punching well here, with catchy songs especially the third track “Breaking the Law” for which the band would be known for for years. “Grinder” keeps the groove going with a great main riff and chorus and here is where you really start to see the magic in this record. The songs are sort to the point and the riffs stick in your head and you just can’t get them out of there. One of the harder parts of reviewing these albums so long after they cam out is that it’s impossible to fully understand how the songs hit at the time. “United”, well I don’t hate it but it sounds a bit campy, like a football anthem or something, and it kind of ruins the flow of the album a little. <\/p>\n\n

“You don’t have to be Old to be Wise” is another catchy as hell number as well as another long time live staple of the bands set “Living after Midnight”. “Steeler” kind of takes me back to the bands earlier roots and i guess its a nice way to tie it into their earlier releases.<\/p>\n\n

The album went on to chart at #4 in the UK charts and make a reasonable dent in the US charts at #42 and the tracks “Living After Midnight” “United” and “Breaking the Law” all released as singles, and all of them charting. <\/p>\n\n

The album is (well amongst my friends)<\/i> considered my many metalheds as one of the better albums by Priest and very influential is shaping future heavy metal and thrash metal releases that would soon start to follow!<\/p>\n\n

<\/p> For more great heavy metal reviews be sure to keep checking back on Metalhed.com<\/a> as regularly as you can!

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we go with JUDAS PRIEST British Steel, their 1980 album and a definite step up in punchiness and general metal-ness. The Song opens up with Rapid Fire, a great statement of intent with a hard hitting main riff a new up front guitar tone and once you get into the album shorter and harder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,25,72],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-heavy-metal","tag-judas-priest","tag-nwobhm"],"yoast_head":"\nJUDAS PRIEST British Steel - Metalhed.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Judas Priest British Steel is the 6th full length studio release from this legendary British Heavy Metal band from 1980\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metalhed.com\/?p=1827\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JUDAS PRIEST British Steel - 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