This is the first of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) albums, the successors to Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin that includes Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. Def Leppard came from Sheffield noted for its steel industry, while Judas Priest follow fellow Brummies Black Sabbath (and Slade). Sadly ironically, the steel industry in the Midlands came to an end in this very year.
This is something common to many British bands of the late Seventies/Early Eighties, however. As British industries were collapsing, and their heartlands becoming more impoverished, music was one escape route; hence the predominance of bands from places like Sheffield, Birmingham, and Newcastle.
Sound-wise, Judas Priest blend some of the harder elements of punk back into the hard rock of their predecessors, to make something that’s clearly a musical successor but just that bit darker and heavier. The guitarists KK Downing and Glen Tipton don’t do a lot of widdly-diddly (except for some bursts of soloing on The Rage and You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise) but rather provide a solid wall of noise.
This complements the industrial feel of the music, with tracks like Rapid Fire referring to “hammering anvils”, and the excellent song about the robot overlords Metal Gods - “From techno seeds we first planted, evolved a mind of its own” leading to the robots “marching in the streets, dragging metal feet” to the sound of metallic crashing and clanging. Grinder has images of meat for the grinder (nothing to do with gay dating apps despite the way that the hyper-masculinity of heavy metal can often feel a little like its over-compensating).
Singer Rob Halford is closer in Ozzy in sound than the high squeals of, say, Robert Plant, and likes to clearly enunciate and roll his R’s as he growls out the lyrics. The famous track, Breaking The Law, is one of several tracks that address modern society - “So much for the golden future, I can't even start. I've had every promise broken, there's anger in my heart”. A sentiment echoed in You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise where Halford sings that he’s "sick and tired of the same old lies”
Although it’s very British compared to the likes of Kiss and Van Halen, the track United has a bit of a big stadium singalong to it. For me it’s probably the weakest track on the album, entirely too nice to fit with the rest of the industrial wasteland feel.
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