Band:	Judas Priest
Album:	British Steel
Style:	Hard rock, Heavy metal
Release date:	April 19, 1980
A review by:	Pierre Tombale

Disc I
01. Rapid Fire
02. Metal Gods
03. Breaking The Law
04. Grinder
05. United
06. You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise
07. Living After Midnight
08. The Rage
09. Steeler
10. Red, White & Blue [2001 re-release bonus]
11. Grinder [Live at Long Beach Arena, 5 May 1984] [2001 re-release bonus]

Disc II [CD] [Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena][30th Anniversary Edition bonus]
01. Rapid Fire
02. Metal Gods
03. Breaking The Law
04. Grinder
05. United
06. You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise
07. Living After Midnight
08. The Rage
09. Steeler
10. The Ripper
11. Hell Patrol
12. Victim Of Changes
13. Freewheel Burning
14. Diamonds & Rust [Joan Baez cover]
15. You've Got Another Thing Coming

Disc III [DVD] [Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena][30th Anniversary Edition bonus]
01. Rapid Fire
02. Metal Gods
03. Breaking The Law
04. Grinder
05. United
06. You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise
07. Living After Midnight
08. The Rage
09. Steeler
10. The Ripper
11. The Prophecy
12. Hell Patrol
13. Victim Of Changes
14. Freewheel Burning
15. Diamonds & Rust [Joan Baez cover]
16. You've Got Another Thing Coming
+ Interview: The Making Of British Steel [bonus]

Obviously not the best start into the 80's is this Judas Priest album, although it contains some of the bands classics such as 'Metal Gods', 'Breaking The Law' and 'Living After Midnight', but even these songs have seen better times especially as on stage performances.

Nearly all songs on 'British Steel' fail to bring up the metal feeling that the 70's stuff did. The faster the songs the poorer they are, maybe Priest were still tired of their world tour when they recorded this album saying: hey let's make something slower.You can consider it better looking at it as a rock album (with slight american influences regarding the style, which is really irony of fate when you look at the title) than as a metal album. As a rock album it is fun listening, but not at all times, you should at least be in the mood!
Certainly the band has produced better albums, but if you want to collect all the Judas Priest albums you get at least some classics. The 70's sound has not changed yet, but it will in the following years. At this point let me just mention 'Screaming For Vengeance' from 1982 which is kind of a milestone in metal history. The two bonus tracks do not count for rating this album up, because one of them is a live version of the original material and the other is a very cheesy hymn really bad, no it's awful.

I don't know because back in 1980 I was just one year old, but if this album sold well, then only because it's so damn mainstream... or at least because of the band's success in the late seventies. There is no point liking it more than it deserves and it does not deserve too much.