Album · Judas Priest
British Steel by Judas Priest
British Steel is an album by Judas Priest, released in 1980. 5 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 125 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Living After Midnight”, on 80 lists with a best position of #17.
British Steel, Judas Priest's sixth album, hit the racks in April 1980 and did what the Birmingham band's earlier records hadn't: it made them a mainstream proposition. Tom Allom produced, and Dave Holland, making his debut on the drum stool, locks in behind Rob Halford's vocals, the twin guitars of Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing and Ian Hill's bass.
It picks up where Killing Machine left off and trims harder still: shorter, simpler songs, less gloom in the lyrics, riffs stripped down to chrome and rivets. Three singles, "Living After Midnight", "Breaking the Law" and "United", all went top 40 in Britain, and the first two have been airplay staples ever since. Looking back, it stands as the band's breakthrough and one of the first landmarks of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from British Steel on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Living After Midnight#487 of all time | 80 | #17 | – | 1980–2026 | |
| 2 | Breaking the Law | 42 | #64 | – | 1990–2026 | |
| 3 | Metal Gods | 1 | #309 | – | 1990 | |
| 4 | Grinder | 1 | #561 | – | 1990 | |
| 5 | Steeler | 1 | #908 | – | 1990 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.