For anyone who had previously caught up with my recent reviews of the (Dio era) Black Sabbath reissues, you'll already know that 1980 was a truly special year musically for me. I suppose you could say it was the year my Heavy Metal balls well and truly dropped, as along with such great releases that year as Sabbath's 'Heaven And Hell', AC/DC's 'Back In Black', Saxon's 'Wheels Of Steel' and Iron Maiden's classic debut album, you also had this absolute barnstorming celebration of everything great about British Heavy Metal. Yeah that's right, Judas Priest's seminal 'British Steel' album.

Now some thirty years young, the very nice people at Sony/Columbia have decided to mark this milestone by giving this primal slab of Heavy Metal a good going over on the Special Edition front. Simultaneously releasing a scaled down CD and DVD version along with a full Deluxe Edition two CD and DVD version, which is what we at URHQ refer to as being a bit of an essential purchase.

Disc one of this set is basically the same 11 track version of 'British Steel', that first saw the light of day as part of the Columbia 2001 remasters series, with the sound revved up fit to break, and chock full of classics like 'Living After Midnight', 'Metal Gods' and 'Breaking The Law'.  The two bonus tracks being a studio outtake 'Red White & Blue' and a live version of 'Grinder'.

Hardly an essential 'repurchase' then I hear you cry, well that is until you get to discs two and three. 

Disc two is the CD soundtrack of the live DVD that is disc three (got that?). Fifteen tracks of pure Priest caught live in August 2009 at Seminole Hard Rock Arena, Hollywood USA on the '30^th Anniversary Tour' playing the entire 'British Steel' album in sequence, plus some choice cuts from the bands illustrious back catalogue. This truly is the sound of Judas Priest at its most ferocious; from a thunderous 'Rapid Fire' that was the surely the forerunner to what most today will call 'Power Metal' to the bastion of rifferama that is 'Steeler' the four metal gods from Brum and their American powerhouse of a drummer are white hot and ready to slay anyone in their path.  Lesser know album tracks like 'The Rage' and 'You Don't Have to Be Old To Wise' stand up extremely well alongside the crowd pleasing singles, with 'United' still sounding every inch like to Top Ten hit is should have been back at the turn of the decade thirty years ago.

Of the 'classics' that finish off the set you get an ice cool mix up of the usual old stalwarts like 'The Ripper', and  'Victim of Changes' along with arena rockers like 'Freewheel Burning' and set closer 'You've Got Another Thing Coming', making this quite possibly the most 'complete' sounding Judas Priest live album since 1979's 'Unleashed In The East'.

Which just leaves disc three, the DVD version of the aforementioned Hollywood show (with an additional track 'Prophecy' from the bands last album 'Nostradamus' added to the later segment of the show), plus a thirty odd minute 'Making of British Steel' interview with the original four members.  Although both features are a perfect way to spend an evening in with a few mates complete with a fridge full of beer, both have been done better by the band before, with the 'Live Vengeance '82' DVD being the quintessential Judas Priest concert extravaganza and the Classic Albums series of DVD documentaries having already forged as near perfect a document to a near perfect Heavy Metal album. As a complementary disc though, it rounds off this celebration of thirty years of 'British Steel' admirably, as does the fold out packaging and full colour booklet with sleeve notes from Sony Music UK Vice President Dave Shack.

If you are someone who has never heard this album before, then this is a perfect way to discover the sound of true 'British Steel'.  If like me you are an old school fan then this is a fitting addition to your Priest collection. You just have to remember when watching the DVD that the band, like you and I are maybe not quite as sprightly as they once were, and that Rob Halford would now pass as a more of a body double for John McCoy than Tim Brooke-Taylor. 

As the legendary frontman himself states prior to the Hollywood show's closing track You've Got Another Thing Coming', "Judas Priest have been making Heavy Metal music for over thirty five years, and we love what we do".  You can't help but think that the world is a better place simply for knowing this.  This is an essential album from an essential band.

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