Judas Priest – Defenders of the Faith
Joe Siegler
- AllMyVinyl #60
- Band: Judas Priest
- Album Title: Defenders of the Faith
- Release Date: 13 Jan 1984
- Date purchased: Unknown, but early 1984
- Location purchased: Unknown
- Color of vinyl: black
- Number of discs: 1
- Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]
I’ll just say this up front right at the start. This is my favorite Judas Priest album of their entire catalog. I’d hear of Priest before this, but Defenders dropped when I was a senior in High School, and it kicked me in the ass. I of course either own or have heard everything Judas Priest has done, but Defenders clearly remains the best album in their entire catalog for me. Some of the modern albums they’ve done (basically post return of Rob) are great, but I always come back to Defenders as the top of the pile.
When this came out I was as I said still in High School, and one of my old High School friends and I would hang out all the time listen to records, you now, just waste time like friends do. (Hey Rob!) It was also early 1984, so MTV was still a valid place to watch music videos for hours on end, so we did. I don’t remember exactly when we saw it for the first time, but the video for Freewheel Burning came on (will talk about that a little more later), and it was awesome. Bought the album right away because of that (as I didn’t own any Priest prior to this), and man, it was awesome.
I still have the original vinyl from early 1984 – it’s another survivor of my mom’s basement. It’s in fair shape as 40 year old vinyls go. Somewhere along the line I picked up the CD of it too, but I can’t remember where that happened – it wouldn’t have been right away as I didn’t get my first CD player until Christmas 1987. I still have that as well. But I’m actually pleased I still have my original print vinyl from when it was brand new and that it’s still very playable and listenable.
I also saw Priest live on this tour – the first time I had done so. It was as amazing as you’d think this would have been. They were IMO at the height of their power. I absolutely adored it. The setlist for the show I saw was just as awesome as you’d think. They hit Defenders hard, playing 7 of the 10 listed tracks on the original album. The stage was a representation of “The Metallion” (that’s what the cover art is called). It looked great, it sounded great, it WAS great. I wish there was official video of this, but I’ve never found it.
Anyway, getting to the tracks..
Freewheel Burning – As I’ve already said, this is a great track, but it’s more foundational for me. Aside from absolutely digesting it with my friend Rob back in High School, there’s some parts of this that are SEARED in my brain. You have to remember, this hit in early 1984 when I was still 18. I was big into arcades at the time, and the video spoke to that, as there’s a kid playing a racing game (Atari’s Pole Position) in an arcade along with the song (along with someone playing Missile Command). So that spoke to me as I played both games a lot. The riffs and the song itself, were to me off the charts amazing. The look of the band in the video was enhanced by video effects. We had lasers, they put Rob Halford’s head inside the video game for a short bit. In 2024, these are super primitive effects, but in 1984, they were fucking amazing as shit! This was stuff you didn’t see at all. So it looked great. But the song also sounded great to me. The general “speed” of the song worked for me. It wasn’t thrash metal at all, but for that good Priest sound it was a fast song. This extended to Rob’s vocals in particular. The fast singing with “Look before you leap has never been the way we keep, our road is free” just blew me away. I’d not heard singing like that in early 1984. When I’d try and sing along, I had issues singing that fast myself. haha. Then we got Glenn & KK. The guitar solo by Glenn basically melted my face. Now my friend Rob and I would routinely air guitar to this track. Like a lot. So the guitar “screech?” by Glenn at 2:20 of the song is when Rob and I would throw our air guitars “in the air”. It’s a visual that I have never EVER stopped seeing in my brain in the 40 years since Rob and I used to do this. Every time I’ve heard the song in the four decades since, I still see my old friend Rob and I doing this. It’s an awesome memory. There’s also the spot where Rob just stands there in his Metal God gear in the video staring at the audience. All of this comes together to be a song that is in my opinion one of the best album openers by any band anywhere. I adore this song, and realize that I probably have an affinity for it that’s stronger than most (based on the reasons I stated above), but I won’t back down. I love this song, and it remains to this day a Top 5 Priest song for me overall. Hell, while I was prepping this post, I probably have listened to the song about 6 times.
Jawbreaker – While not as face melting as Freewheel was to me, I love this track for Rob. Of course the rest of the band brings it, but I love Rob’s vocal delivery here, especially towards the end when he extends out the word “Jawbreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaker”. Between Freewheel and this, I came away from the early part of the album thinking that it was going to be dominated by Rob’s vocals. Of course, Priest is way more than just the Metal God, but this to me is a song that showcases Rob’s vocals more than a Priest song usually does.
Rock Hard Ride Free – Starts off with a different kind of guitar sound. Once we get to the part where Rob comes in, it’s become more a traditional Priest sound musically, but I liked that different guitar opening. We do get some more good Rob vocals, but this one is more guitar oriented. As I sit here in 2024 writing, I could easily look up who played the solo here but I won’t. Back in 1984, you didn’t know that, because back then unless there was a video to show you who it was, you didn’t know. This song to me speaks to the dual guitar thing of KK & Glenn. I never knew who played it exactly, so I just viewed it as both of them. It’s a mystique that dual guitar bands had in this era that you can’t have now that everything is recorded, shown, and shared. I know these comments went off in a different direction, but it’s where my brain went listening to this.
The Sentinel – If Freewheel didn’t exist, this would be my favorite track off the album. This smokes in a way Freewheel didn’t. This is more of a slower burn. It starts off with that Priest guitar sound, just slower. The song builds over its 5:04 run time to something with a lot of power that just hits you in the nuts. Great track. The lyrics told a tale too, and even without fully knowing what was going on, parts of it gave you a visual that enhanced the song, IMO.. “Sworn to avenge.. Condem to hell… Tempt not the blade… All fear the Sentinel”. There’s a very slow bit about 3/4 of the way through with some fun echo-ed vocals by Rob. Great damn song. Super glad I got to see this live in 84 too. :) Also love the way the song ends – has a great ending sound. Would have been a perfect album closer too, but as it is, it just closes out Side 1 of the album.
Love Bites – As good as Freewheel was as an album opener, I thought this was right there. The opening sounds that started the song also started the concert I saw, which was great. That sound while isn’t in the entire song runs through it as it’s a slower paced song, I loved this. It wasn’t pure sludge like Sabbath’s Volume 4, but for Priest this was their bass heavy low end track. The guitar isn’t the dominant instrument here.
Eat Me Alive – Well, then there’s this. I remember when I first got the album doing a bit of “Mr. Spock eyebrow” to the title. It ended up being picked by the PMRC as one of the “Filthy Fifteen” songs they used as evidence of needing parental guidance stickers on everything back then. KK Downing said at the time.. “In a uniquely British way, Rob’s S&M lyrics were intended to be tongue in cheek—and certainly not “corrupting”, as Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) took them to be.” Me personally.. I thought the lyrics were a bit silly to be honest. It wasn’t ever my favorite track. I don’t hate it or anything, but the controversy around the lyrics made me view it was “Oh yeah, that one”. I don’t skip it, but it doesn’t get me going like the rest of the album does. In reading about this album, it’s also the only song from the album that wasn’t played live on the tour supporting it. It did eventually get played live (Nostradamus tour).
Some Heads Are Gonna Roll – The only song on the album not credited as being written by Tipton, Halford, & Downing. It was written by “Bob Halligan Jr”. He’s currently the singer for the band “Ceili Rain” (who I honestly have never heard of). Halligan has co-write credits on a few other Priest albums including Screaming for Vengeance (Take These Chains), Halford’s “Resurrection” album (Twist), as well as more recently on Priest’s Invincible Shield (The Lodger). He also wrote a couple o ftracks for Kiss’ Hot in the Shade album. I bring all this up, as the song has a different vibe than most everything on the album, and given it was written bye someone else, it would certainly explain things.
Night Comes Down – The slow track. Judas Priest doesn’t do ballads, but this one brings things down a lot. It’s a good change of pace. It’s perhaps not my favorite track on the album, but I don’t dislike it either. A good slower paced track made for a good feel, even if I don’t have a ton to say musically.
Heavy Duty – This is also a song that doesn’t have a ton going on music wise – it’s more about lyrics and attitude here, I think. I mean nobody’s going to pick out the guitar work from “Heavy Duty” on its own as an isolated track. But put together it works.
… and speaking of “putting ’em together” – this song goes right into “Defenders of the Faith” – which is listed as a separate track on the album, but really is just part of Heavy Duty. There’ no break, it plays as a single song, and the same beat behind Heavy Duty is on the title track. Also, the lyrics for the Title track are just “We are Defenders of the Faith” repeated over and over, so this isn’t a real song, IMO. HD/Defenders are the same song, but they’re listed separately. As I said before, there’s not a ton going on musically here, it’s more a statement of intent really.
So that brings me to the end of the album. I have to say Side 2 wasn’t as powerful as I remembered from the past, I think I like Side 1 more than 2, but that’s not to say I didn’t like the back half of the album. It just wasn’t as face melting powerful (Freewheel, Sentinel) as the first half. But the entire album clearly remains my favorite Priest album of them all. I find myself at a loss as to how to wrap this up, as I’d basically just repeat what I said above. Which I’ve done before in this series, but today it feels like the wrong way to go.
I will say this. I wrapped it around and went back to Freewheel Burning again when the album was over, Jim. I had to. :)
The “warning” image here is the last thing shown on screen at the absolute tail end of the Freewheel Burning video. Given what happened with Judas Priest a little bit later on with them being put on trail for a kid who killed himself while listening to Priest’s music – it’s a retroactive eyebrow raiser.