Overview
British Steel saw the band reprise the commercial sound they had established on Killing Machine. This time, they abandoned many of the dark lyrical themes which had been prominent on their previous releases. 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. Digital sampling was not yet widely available at the time of recording, so the band used analog recording of smashing milk bottles to be included in "Breaking the Law", as well as various sounds in "Metal Gods" produced by billiard cues and trays of cutlery. 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.
British Steel is the first Judas Priest album to feature drummer Dave Holland. It is also their first album on which all the songs were written by current members of the band: Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings of Destiny featured songwriting from the band's original lead vocalist Al Atkins, Sin After Sin includes a cover of Joan Baez's Diamonds & Rust, Stained Class has a cover of Spooky Tooth's Better By You, Better Than Me, and Killing Machine features a cover of Fleetwood Mac's The Green Manalishi.
The album was remastered in 2001 with two bonus tracks added. Bonus studio track "Red, White, and Blue" was written in the earlier years of Priest's career and recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau in July 1985. 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 their 30th anniversary tour in the US by playing British Steel live in its entirety for the first time. The only other Judas Priest albums of which all the songs have been performed live are Defenders of the Faith and Rocka Rolla, but neither of them were played in the original LP running order or during the same tour.
The 30th anniversary release of the album came with a DVD and CD of a live show recorded on 17 August 2009 at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena in Hollywood, Florida as part of the British Steel 30th Anniversary tour. The live versions of all the British Steel tracks from this release were also made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series beginning 11 May 2010.
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