Wiki
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Release Date
14 April 1980
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Length
9 tracks
British Steel is the sixth album by British heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 14 April 1980. British Steel was recorded at Tittenhurst Park, home of former Beatle Ringo Starr, after a false start at Startling Studios, a recording studio located on Tittenhurst's grounds. Sampling did not yet exist at the time of recording, so the band recorded the sounds of smashing milk bottles to be included in "Breaking the Law", as well as various sounds in "Metal Gods" produced by "trays of cutlery" and "billiard cues". It was released in the UK at a discount price of £3.99, with the advertisements in the music press bearing the legend, "British Steal". Songs "Breaking the Law", "United", and "Living After Midnight" were released as singles.
The album was remastered in 2001, with two bonus tracks added. “Red, White and Blue” is a previously unreleased track from Turbo sessions in 1985, eventually released as a bonus track of the remaster edition of British Steel. This patriotic song was written as an anthem for audience participation, like the songs “United” from the same album or “Take on the World” from their 1978 album, Killing Machine. According to the liner notes of the remastered version of Judas Priest’s sixth studio album, the band felt that the end tag of Rule Britannia was very fitting for a British band especially on an album entitled British Steel. The second bonus track, a live performance of "Grinder", was recorded on 5 May 1984, in Los Angeles during the Defenders of the Faith tour.
In 2009 Judas Priest kicked off the 30th anniversary tour in the US playing the entire album live for the first time.
Anthrax guitar player Scott Ian said in an interview in the documentary Heavy Metal: Louder than Life that British Steel was probably the album that really defined heavy metal, because it, according to him, did away with the "last shards of blues" that had otherwise been characteristic of the genre. He said, "Even the title… how does it get more metal than that?"
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