JUDAS PRIEST - Defenders of the Faith

While the release of Defenders of the Faith was an important milestone for the history of metal, I personally see it as a rather “handicapped” album, loaded with incredibly good songs and, well, less-inspired ones.

To be precise, we have nine pieces (plus an outro with the album title). Of the nine tracks, we could say that only the first four are standard-setting for the heavy metal genre. The other five, unfortunately, fail to rise up to their level, giving the impression that the product was released under pressure by the record label and not as desired by the band. And this I rather tend to believe to be true, especially since their previous effort, Screaming for Vengeance, ended up bringing a lot of cash for the label and was in fact the best-selling release in the band’s entire history. 

So, Freewheel Burning is a very good, fast and alert piece. Then we have the superb Jawbreaker, with amazing solos from both guitarists. Rock Hard Ride Free is a melodic piece, with a more laid back tempo this time, and very good rhythm by Dave Holland. Even though Freewheel Burning is the piéce de résistance, I find The Sentinel to be the best on the entire disc, and one of the best in the Judas Priest discography. And this is because it lacks nothing. It’s got the solos, the well-made riffs, Rob Halford’s trademark screaming, slower parts with keyboards... in a word: grandiose!!!

Now, this album should have stopped here as an EP, as the rest of the tracks are nowhere near the above ones. For everyone to be happy, it would have been perfect if this imaginary EP had more versions where each would contain a different bonus track. So, the British version would be accompanied by Love Bites, the Japanese version by Night Comes Down, the Americans would get Eat Me Alive, and so on. This way no song would have been left on the outside and everyone would have been deliriously happy.

Plus, if it were to be released in a final form (say one year later) with all the bonus tracks, as it exists in the real world, I think its sales would have been even greater. Speaking of sales, until 26.09.1988 this album had reached a million copies sold, according to Blabbermouth, but it is more than certain that until now a few more millions of Defenders of the Faith have been sold, considering that we’re dealing with a rock legend.

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