Defenders Of The Faith

Judas Priest

Defenders of the Faith was an incredible album. It raised the bar for all metal bands. It was amazing then that after such a strong album they took a huge hit from fans with the release of the next album Turbo. Metal heads were clearly not keen on the Priest fiddling with synthesisers. Although Turbo was still heavy it was widely seen as Priest going soft. In the passage of time Turbo is great but Defenders of the Faith set the record straight, very fucking straight.

The best track on Defenders of the Faith is in my opinion ‘The Sentinel’. I couldn’t find a clip of it at the time of setting up the site. There was a studio version of Heavy Duty that over time was changed into someones arty-farty seance track which is a far from what Priest are about as beer is from cheese. You Tube seems to be in a constant state of change and I have now found it. It’s a live clip for The Sentinel, there wouldn’t have been an official release for the album, Priest was never really an MTV type band. Check out the 7 solos in the middle, Tipton and Downing, masters of their art.

JAMES DAUBENEY