Judas Priest – Defenders Of The Faith

To be honest, reviewing an album like “Defenders Of The Faith” should be fairly easy.

You’d just need to mention some of its tracks, such as “Freewheel Burning”, “Jawbreaker”, “Rock Hard Ride Free”, “The Sentinel”, “Love Bites” and the duo formed by “Heavy Duty” and the title track.

There you have half a dozen of classic, heavy metal staples. Is there any need to say anything else?

Which is funny because by 1984 Judas Priest had already been not only influential but truly seminal for almost a decade, and fundamental albums such as “Sad Wings Of Destiny”, “Sin After Sin”, “Killing Machine”, “British Steel” or “Screaming For Vengeance” were already in the past, not only helping to define their times’ hard rock and heavy metal scenes but, more than 40 years on, these are still acknowledged as key stylistic touchstones.

So, in an apparent state of grace and only two years after that solid blast of heavy metal called “Screaming For Vengeance” and a hugely successful tour that got them a lifetime ban from the Madison Square Garden, the Priest still had the inspiration to put together a further masterpiece of eighties’ heavy metal.

And what a brilliant album this is.

From its title, we know we are getting a no- nonsense, all- out, heavy metal album, and you just need to listen to any the above mentioned songs to realize that.

Rob Halford’s voice soars high together with K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton’s already mythical, razor-sharp double guitar attack, all backed by the tight rhythm section held together by the steadfast Ian Hill and Dave Holland, flawlessly rocketing those magnificent ten songs into history.

I’d like to mention “Night Comes Down”, a sometimes overlooked song within such an album packed with classics, which took me through many night walks across my city played in my old cassette Walkman, remaining a personal favourite of mine to this day.

i think there was a plan to release this and now it's been canned

Never ever heard of this... Idon't think it really exist...

What's the word on the release date for this? I haven't found any info on it.

wasn't there supposed to come a vinyl version of this on Record Store Day?

i have the JAPANESE shm mastered copy of this great deluxe edition i am so glad this was released a couple of weeks ago, you get the classic defenders of the faith album from 1984 remastered ( minus the 2 useless bonus tracks that have been on reissues of this since about 2001) and you get a very common bootleg from long beach in 1984 on the defenders tour, i am mainly a big 70S priest fan, i thought british steel was awesome, point of entry ok and screaming for vengence the best album they did in the 80s, i got into priest in late 1978, a lot of guys like me that go that far back with priest did not seem to like this record to much for whatever reason, I HAVE DISAGREED for the past 31 years, THIS was the last awesome priest record in my opinion even though the production is not as crisp on this as screaming was, regardless if you love priest like i have for over 36 years GET THIS as i am sure you will enjoy it, for superior sound get the japanese edition as the remastering sounds best on that one......................... the first judas priest album i heard in late 1978 was an 8 track of stained glass a relative of mine had at the time, i was only 10 and i was hooked INSTANTLY