(Rated this album with 8 out of 10) Reviewed by
e-5-i-50
from America
First, a note on the remaster: The Bonus track live version of "Grinder" was NOT recorded on the British Steel tour as they claim, but is taken from the radio broadcast concert from California on the Defenders Tour. When I first saw this falsehood, I went so far as to attempt to contact the band through their website to find out why they were trying to mislead people like that. I got no reply, but noticed that all the subsequent cd releases after the first four did not specify the source location of the bonus live recordings. I'm not claiming responsibility, but I sure hope they now realize that their fans aren't that stupid. Anyway, back to British Steel... Here come the anthems!! "Hell Bent for Leather" was just the preamble, while British Steel was the body of their Metal Constitution and set the stage for the rest of their career, as far as subject matter goes. "Breaking the Law", "Living After Midnight", "You Don't Have to be Old to be Wise"--not a ballad in sight. But as with all of the remasters, take the printed lyrics with a grain of salt, because their accuracy is way off in some places. British Steel has a very upbeat, good time atmosphere throughout and nearly compels you to raise your fist and shout. Warning: doing this in your car will result in several strange glances from passers-by, and perhaps even the odd restraining order from people you don't even know. The only real downer here is Dave Holland, the new "drummer". WTF? The guy hardly ever uses his toms, instead utilizing a plain, boring Ringo Starr style of snare/kick-snare/kick which any drummer will tell you saps the music of any extra muscle it could've potentially had. It's no surprise that, four albums later, they replaced him with a drum machine for most of the recording, and soon after that they picked up Scott Travis. And Dave just didn't "look" the part, either. With that 'gay bar' mustache, goofy hair and bored-out-of-his-mind smirk, I was sure that he was the queer one in the band all along.
