British Steel

decent for metal

Pretty good! I will say though, there are two genuinely horrible songs that tarnish this album. Most albums have a stinker, but "United" and "Red White & Blue" are absolute ass.

From now on, my life will be divided into two distinct segments: the time before I listened to Grinder (Live from Long Beach, California) and everything that came after that startling moment. I had no idea how bad this whole ‘Judas Priest is a real band’ thing had become until then. Real people actually went to see them and cheered for them. I’m dumbfounded.

Fantastic album. Reminds me a bit of Iron Maiden at times and easy to listen to. 5/5

Some of the music is hokey by today’s metal standards, particularly the bizarrely patriotic tracks. But Halford is indisputably one of the most badass singers of all time and it’s incredible how he was able to pitch these songs that are clearly about gay sex over the heads of two decades of homophobic metalheads.

In my 40+ years I have met exactly one person who told me that Judas Priest was their favorite band. That's not really relevant but I always thought it was interesting.
There are three things I always think when I hear Judas Priest: 1) the guitars are skillful yet mundane. 2) the drums are always better than expected. and 3) Rob Halford is an absolute beast of a vocalist and should get more credit than he does. I feel like this album perfectly demonstrates all three of those things. I mean if you've ever listened to classic rock radio, nothing here should really be a surprise. Well maybe the random inclusion of what sounds like an British pub song towards the end. But it's a fun album, an influential one, and definitely deserves a place on the list. 4/5

'Pounding the world / Like a bat-ter-ing ram.' These so-called 'metal gods' are ear-shat-ter-ing hams: they're not exactly actorly b/c their acting skills are awful, but they're performative & only this, i.e., you can detect nothing genuine in their bang-&-thud rhythms. They're never 'breaking the law' - their sonics are too formulaic - tho they go around pretending that they're rough & tough. 'So keep it up / Don't give in / Make a stand / We're gonna win.' That's honestly the only moment that's so bad it's almost good. I've always wanted to develop a taste for metal, especially 80s metal, one that is appreciative of camp & fantasy. I've yet to succeed, b/c besides a few moments of instrumental inventiveness & pop sensibilities, this is dreadful.

Sonically, this is an early metal album. Metal is a style of music I don't usually reach for (and I still don't think I will at this point). The songs were certainly all high energy with plenty of guitar solos throughout, but they didn't really differentiate too much from each other. "The Rage" is the exception to that, it was more experimental and I would have liked to hear more songs like that one (the bass line carried it well). I'll also praise the drummer because the beat was steady and consistent and my foot was tapping along pretty much the whole time. I'm just not into the classic feel of this album, but it's listenable.

tá aí uma banda que eu nunca gostei mto, nem na minha época de rock

mas é até que legalzim. breaking the ló é um clássico mas o resto não fica mto atras não. bacaninha, até

3/5 Decent but not great. There were better Judas Priest albums before this one and they’d go on to put out a few records much better than this one after. The record does have a very strong opening stretch though running from “Rapid Fire” to “Grinder.” But then it hits a brick wall with the overly cheesy and sappy “United.” the lyrics in general are a weak point for me. But there’s still enough great riffs on here for it to be an enjoyable experience.

Pretty awesome.

Love the guitars and drums and they definitely feel ahead of their time.

Only issue is it's a bit samey and repetitive apart from the odd moment through the album.

I love Priest, but not this album. They have probably 10 albums I like more than this one. It's a little too restrained, streamlined and samey for my taste. Nevertheless, Breaking the Law is an all time iconic metal song (deservedly so) and I can see how the album would have been influential back in 1980, so my 3.5 gets rounded up. Painkiller or Sad Wings of Destiny would have gotten 5.

Definitely can hear the punk influence 10 years after metal was formed. Listening to this record made me realize how much I love the choogling, 4-on-the-floor rhythm of heavy metal (4.5-5)

Some decent old school metal. Nothing that set my hair on fire, but not bad.

Just what I needed to drag myself to the office on a freezing Friday.

malo je pederski al je lepo. od tih kao hardrock/metal (ne bih ovo nazvo metalom) brijâ podsjeća me najviše na black sabbath, koji zapravo nečemu i valja. i ovo je bilo okej poslušat, ugodno iznenađenje, tako da trojčica

Meh but girls liked it. One or two bangers.

Some of these songs are pretty one-note. Not bad overall, but not anything which I'd return to. 2.7/5 -> 3/5

3.11

This isn't my thing at all, so was going to give it a 2, but it's not that bad so I'll go with 3.