Wiki
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Length
4:00
Metal Gods opens with the sound of loud, thunderous, metallic robotic bangs. This was achieved by slamming the large, ornate doors of the church building, compressing the sound, and adding effects to it. The big ‘swoosh’ that can be heard right before the chorus section was a billiard cue sweeping through the air, recorded in the kitchen with heavy compression on it. The whip-like sound in the final bridge was a guitar cable slammed on a flight case. Breaking the Law has the sound of breaking glass towards the end of the song, which was the band actually smashing bottles against a wall outside. Those were the days before samples and sound effects were available at one’s fingertips, meaning that the approach had to be very hands-on and DIY. Everything you hear on the album was created by the band and producer in that house.
Towards the end of Metal Gods, the song emphasises its own rhythm, focusing on the percussive, hypnotic elements of robots marching down the streets. That’s where the cool but uneasy sound effect of hundreds of robotic feet walking in unison sets in. It sounds rather bad-ass, until you learn that this sound was created by Ringo’s cutlery.
“That was me, holding Ringo’s cutlery trays from his drawers,” says Rob Halford. “I’m standing there with a tray full of knives and forks, shaking them rhythmically. It all had to be done in real time. I lifted and dropped that cutlery tray 100 times, I think. Heavy metal cooking!”
And then it all ends. Not with an elaborate play-out section, and certainly not on a fade-out. The song reaches its final note, and – boom! It ends up punctuating the song wonderfully and sharply. A solid and powerful ending.
Like most Judas Priest songs from this line-up, Metal God was written by Halford with guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, the latter two coming up with the music.
British Steel was released on 14 April 1980, and made it all the way to #4 on the UK album chart. Incredibly, it also reached #34 on the US Billboard Top 200 chart, signalling that America were about to wake up to the phenomenon that was Judas Priest.
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