Judas Priest: Defenders of the Faith [COLUMBIA / LEGACY]

Why you'll love it

This EU pressing presents the 1984 album in stereo. Defenders of the Faith reached No. 18 on the Billboard 200, sold more than 800,000 copies by the end of 1984 and went platinum in the US.

This edition

• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Picture a horned, tiger-like beast with Gatling guns and tank tracks for feet, and you have the Metallian, the creature on the cover painted by Doug Johnson, who also gave the world the Hellion on Screaming for Vengeance. The music inside lives up to the artwork: Judas Priest cut it at Ibiza Sound Studios in the summer of 1983 and mixed it in Coconut Grove, Miami, that autumn, then took "Freewheel Burning" out on a short run of UK and German dates before the album came out.

"Freewheel Burning" opens at full gallop with Rob Halford's scream and the twin guitars of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, "Jawbreaker" and "Rock Hard Ride Free" are built for shouting along, and "The Sentinel" brings back the band's taste for epic storytelling. "Love Bites" and "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll" were singles, and the closing pair "Heavy Duty" and the title track make a stomping finale.

The band played nearly every song from it on the Metal Conqueror Tour across Europe, North America and Japan in 1984. Few album covers put a tiger on tank tracks, and fewer still make it look this sensible.

Also at Kops: more Judas Priest on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Legacy, a reissue of the 1984 album.