British Steel (The Remasters)

Judas Priest with Rob Halford a from far my best band ever and British Steel is my favorite album from the Metal Gods. So if that's not a good start for a review I don't know what else to say. Yes, the reign of steel has begun... This album was recorded whiting four weeks at the Tittenhurst Park which belonged to Ringo Starr. I don't know if it was the fact to be close to one of The Beatles but the band recorded there one of their very best opus ever with some of the bands biggest anthems. The band welcomed a new drummer called Dave Holland which came from Trapeze and started to work with Tom Allom, their producer, which was like the sixth man of the band. The success of British Steel bounded them for a long time journey. The tittle of the album says a lot about the bands patriotism. It's also because they are coming from Birmingham a city surrounded by steel factories. There is maybe more to say about the cover which is very powerful when you see this man's hand coming out of the darkness with a razor-blade on which the mighty Judas Priest logo and the unusual tittle track on it. The cover is like Heavy Metal: sharp like a razor-blade but you don't get hurt, metal is a safe thing. The band wanted to add blood first on the blade and finally decided to leave it like this and its better this way. Breaking The Law is made into a promotional video by Julian Temple who worked also with the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols. It is very funny on the clip to see the band dressed like priests while they rob (Halford !!!!!! It's an easy one but I had to do it sorry...) a bank with their guitars. The videos promoted British Steel a lot and the radios were also very active. Breaking The Law gets as number 3 in the UK charts and Living After Midnight gets number one on a French radio channel and a big hit in the USA. It also gets golden album in the USA and Japan. Judas Priest played at the very first Donington's Monsters Of Rock festival and cemented their position as the Metal Gods . They played in front of a crowd of 60'000 people right after the Scorpions, April Wine, Saxon, Riot, Touch and Rainbow were headlining the event. They were as a matter of fact one of the leaders of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal because they already existed in the 70's and already had experience. Rapid Fire is one of the most fantastic songs of British Steel. It is raw, intense and the way Rob says the lyrics are very British. The solo duets with Ken and Glenn challenging each other are just perfect. This is maybe the impulse for different styles like speed, death or thrash metal. Even 20 years after you can hear the influences of the band on different styles of Heavy Metal. Red, White & Blue the bonus track is a metal anthem alike Take On The World or United in a very "British style" kind of....