Defenders Of The Faith (studio album) by Judas Priest

From Repo 12/17/2022 15:29

'84:g Winter Is Coming!
Aka Screaming For A Version 2.0

My vague memory is that I wanted to have this kind of semi-automatic delivery. I remember saying to Glenn (Tipton), “This is what I want to do” and he said, “Then let’s do it.” That is what I love about Priest. You might have the most ridiculous sounding ideas but we never kill it. We’ve always said in Priest, “Try everything.” It doesn’t matter how absurd it might sound in discussion, you don’t know until you try it. You can talk until you’re blue in the face about an idea, but until you go through the motions and you hear it coming back through the speakers you don’t know if it is going to work or not. – Rob Halford on his cross fire vocal acrobratics on Freewheel Burning (the opening track of Defenders Of The Faith)

"Tom Allom, (Judas Priest’s producer for SEVEN studio albums) was as important to us as George Martin was to The Beatles…” - Halford

The Setting: Judas Priest were coming off their most successful album - Screaming For Vengeance. An album that appealed to newbies and lifers in equal measure. In fact, I called Screaming For Vengeance the #1 Metal album of 1982. So there was pressure. Jawbreaking pressure. How would Priest fare in the glare?!

The Listen: Welcome to the future. (Or so we thought!) Judas Priest ditches the warm sounds of the 70s and accidentally discovers a fascinating and magical meld of modern 80s Arena Rock flair to NWOBHM balls. (Def Leppard would take this even further on Hysteria (too far if you ask me, but still an admittedly glorious product.)) Sometimes a formula just needs a tweak to keep it fresh, and that’s exactly what Priest does on Defenders.

When I first plucked this off the rack at my local record shop back in 1984, I thought it would fall under the “If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It” category. It screamed sequel! From the cover art ( A Sentinel instead of a Hellion) that appeared to just slap a Black & Red metallic coat on Screaming’s classic Yellow & Red. But as was the case with my first first marriage, I was wrong. Judas Priest, with the heavy hand of their massively underrated producer Tom Allom, twiddled the knobs to the point of exsanguination.

Out was Screaming's warm 70s badass biker gang feel that Skynyrd fans could appreciate on such songs as "Take These Chains" and "Pain & Pleasure" (It should be noted that the massively underrated Point Of Entry is also replete with tons of these denim & leather biker bangers too! From the obvious ones - "Heading Out To The Highway" & "Desert Plains" to the fan favorite - "Turning Circles").

In was the crispy cold first bite of an apple. A metallic militarized-industrialized-complex scream that declared, "Winter Is Coming!" and, didn't ya hear, "Love bites!"

(It’s a really cool sound, and I’m sure it emboldened Allom & Co. to twiddle the knobs even further on Turbo with sadly lesser results. But honestly, Turbo's not quite the disaster it's made out to be. The songs "Turbo" and "Into The Cold" in particular are Priest classics. No, the production itself did NOT sink Turbo. That distinction lies solely at the feet of the lyrics that seem inspired by Twisted Sister with Halford sounding like an out of touch Dad who's just read a self help book on how to connect to his troubled teen. Published by the Episcopalians! ("Hands off, Private Property"? Really?! ). But let’s face it. They had already hinted at the idiocy to come with the Beavis & Butthead worthy "Heavy Duty" ( "he said 'Duty' huh huh heh heh..."))

The Verdict: This is 80s' Arena Rock For Metalheads! (Not Mall Ratts! Twisted Evil) And one of the great successes of 80s commercial metal. Right up there with the classics from '83 such as Pyromania and Holy Diver. It will just miss my top ten, but it’s super solid and well built. Like Maiden, Priest were master craftsman at this point in their career. And these songs reward repeat listens. Over & over & 0ver again. Especially when the night comes down!

My opinion on this one is similar to that one on British Steel and Screaming For Vengeance - record full of bangers, that also has flaws (especially towards the end).
Best tracks: Jawbreaker, The Sentinel, Some Heads Are Gonna Roll

every time I listen to a JP album that I haven't heard before, I'm impressed. Another brilliant album.
the sentinel is a masterpiece

This is Priest's album on speed. The average pace on all these songs leave most earlier work in the dust. Fast, furious, brilliant the whole way through. One of there heavier albums. This is metal. I rate this up there as one of there best.

100/100

Best Judas Priest album right here!!!

From jeremy9 09/26/2019 11:32

One of their best album

From DaVGManiac 04/28/2018 15:16

I never understood why this album is rated so low when it has the highest average track rating of all the JP records.

El Heavy Metal estaría cojo sin la aportación de Judas Priest, de eso no cabe duda. Pioneros en los 70, supieron extremar su propuesta y adaptarse a la nueva tendencia de la NWOBHM, acertada decisión. 'Defenders of the faith' es una perfecta continuación de 'Screaming for vengeance', con esas construcciones guitarreras cargadas de músculo y pasión. Encontramos a un Rob Halford en estado de gracia, y a la pareja formada por Glenn Tipton y KK Downing haciendo lo que mejor sabían hacer por la época, repartiendo riffs cargados de emoción y con un sentimiento desgarrador. De The Hellion pasamos a The Metallian, y la guerra estaba asegurado, con unos agudos que ponen la piel de gallina como la explosión final de "Jawbreaker" o la caña descontrolada de la inicial "Freewheel burning". Un clásico del Heavy clásico en toda regla.

I feel like this album is kind of overlooked. It's not one of their best albums but it's still a good album. Deserves more credit than it gets.

An amazing collection of some of the best metal songs of the 80s. How can you even compare to the screamo crap that is considered metal today?