Judas Priest's Reviews

British Steel

(Average Rating: 8.84 out of 10)

Very good, but a step below previous work

(Rated this album with 6 out of 10)
Reviewed by 70sfunkfan from West New York, NJ United States

First of all I would like to say this is a great metal album and a very good Judas Priest album. There is no doubt this album hits hard from start to finish, with some incredibly solid songwriting, some usual great singing by Rob and some great solos by Tipton. There is no doubt there are some riffs on this album that will immediately stick in your head, not wanting to ever go away like Rapid Fire, Metal Gods and Grinder.

However I do not agree with people saying this is Priest's creative height. As a matter of fact I think its a step down creatively from the heights of Sad Wings of Destiny, Sin After Sin, Stained Class and Hell Bent for Leather.

British Steel offers very little in the way of experimentation, save for the reggae feel of The Rage, and even that only lasts for a total of a minute through the song. This album shows Judas Priest simplifying their riffs and simplifying their lyrics, and it was a major success for them. Whether they made these changes to appeal to a wider audience or it was simply something they wanted to do musically doesn't really matter, but this album abandons the progressive tendancies that all of their previous studio albums had.

I feel bad not saying great things about this album, because I really do like it. However it must be said that this was the start of the "arena metal" Priest and the end of the with progressive rock experimentation Priest. Who can blame them though, they had achieved such greatness with their innovative albums in the 70's (especially with Stained Class and Hell Bent for Leather), it was time to make a change, and they were rewarded with huge amounts of success.

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