Judas Priest's Reviews

British Steel

(Average Rating: 8.84 out of 10)

The Priest Near the Top of Their Game-Delivers on the Hype

(Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by sirch from United States

Buying metal albums in the early 80's was strictly hit or miss. Before MTV and the internet, you had to rely either on word of mouth (if you didn't have a friend who could afford $30 imports on vinyl than you were out of luck) or you read reviews in Kerrang! magazine (which hailed every act as the 2nd coming...) or you picked a record by its cover.

I chose the 3rd method with usually dissapointing results. Sorting through the metal bins stuffed with Saxon, Raven, UFO, Krokus, Rainbow, Scorpions, Exodus, Manowar, Helloween, etc. trying to find a good album that had more than one song you liked (if you were lucky) was an expensive trial and error process. For every 'Back in Black' (great cover, great record) there were a dozen (or more!) like 'Cultosaurus Erectus' (cool cover, mediocre music).

'British Steel' was a record I looked at many times before I finally broke down and bought it. And for once, I had found a record that delivered well beyond its hype. It is one of those rare metal records that is melodic without losing its heaviness. It is consistently good throughout. It dips into more commercial songs ('Living After Midnite', 'Breaking the Law') without ever losing its edge (something they did on their very good but uneven next album -'Point of Entry'). It contains some of my all-time favorite metal tunes ("Grinder','The Rage') and would lead Priest to the metal summit two albums later on 'Screaming for Vengeance'. Highly recommended!

Buy this album on Amazon at $10.99