Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Defenders of the Faith is often seen as Judas Priest’s last great album by metal aficionados (even though I haven’t heard all their later releases yet) largely because it’s an the album that is a pure metal thoroughbred within the genre, by demonstrating the band’s total love for their profession and also it’s the last classic album by a band that had been at the forefront of metaldom over the last several years. The band’s previous killer album Screaming for Vengeance had broken the band big in the USA and it was an album that had effectively married the pure menacing metal from the band’s Stained Class era, to the more commercial punch of the British Steel one and it give us one of metal’s premier signature albums from the early to mid 1980s period. On Defenders of the Faith the band would continue the same formula of speed rockers, mid-tempo grinders and metal anthems in another pure fist punching metal exercise, and as they say if it ‘ain’t broke don’t fix it’ and Priest certainly didn't try to here. Album cover art was again provided by Doug Johnson who did the cover art for Screaming for Vengeance, hence the obvious similarity between the two album covers. The album opens with the soaring energy of “Freewheel Burning” and its video with a kid playing a game on an arcade machine, kind of reminds me a bit of the atmosphere of Black Sabbath’s “Zero the Hero” track. The album then enters into the cream of its tracks with “Jawbreaker” the almost archetypal Priest grinder and then onto the anthemy “Rock Hard Ride Free” one of the best metal anthems ever put out by the band and both songs easily rank among the band’s very best. The guitar work by K.K Downing and Glenn Tipton on both these tracks is pretty breathtaking at times making both cuts real metal essentials. “The Sentinel” is a great track as it harks back to the band’s more complex roots and therefore is stellar for just that reason. The obvious single from the album is “Love Bites” which I guess may have been too mechanical sounding for the record label to really believe in it though. The S&M themed “Eat Me Alive” is probably best remembered as one of those songs which upset the PMRC censor, who were red hot against these bands especially at this time. The second obvious single choice from the album is the Robert Halligan Jr. penned “Some Heads are Gonna Roll” which again keeps that mechanical feel that the album now seems to have adopted. Of the final tracks “Night Comes Down” is very AOR orientated and "Heavy Duty" isthe heaviest on the album and enters into the Manowar stratosphere. The title track "Defenders of the Faith" basically just serves as a heavy outro to the album and lasts just over a minute and some versions of the album have the bonus track "Turn on the Light" a pretty neat sounding track. Defenders of the Faith would be another monster album for the band despite the fact that it failed to deliver a strong single like “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight” from British Steel or “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin” from Screaming for Vengeance. The previous mentioned points are often seen by some critics as detractors against the album, personally I think that’s nonsense as this was time anyway, when many a great band seemed to save some of their best material simply for the album and to have it not be served up as singles. Overall Defenders of the Faith is one of Priest’s most solid outings and ranks amongst their best, despite the fact that a number of its tracks can be seen as being obviously basic and accommodating a overly mechanical aura at times.

Rob Halford- Vocals
K.K Downing- Guitar
Glenn Tipton- Guitar
Ian Hill- Bass
Dave Holland- Drums

Production- Tom Allom

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History