Album dossier / 1980

British Steel

Judas Priest · Heavy Metal/NWOBHM

Judas Priest entered Ringo Starr's residential Startling Studios (formerly John Lennon's Ascot Sound Studios) at Tittenhurst Park in February 1980 with barely any material written, and left 28 days later with British Steel fully recorded, mixed and mastered. Producer Tom Allom spread the band through different rooms of the house — guitars in Lennon's old white piano room and the library, drums miked in the marble hallway — favoring the house's natural acoustics over heavy studio processing, which Allom cites as why the album still sounds 'timeless.' 'Living After Midnight' was reportedly born when Glenn Tipton woke Rob Halford in the middle of the night with a riff idea, while 'Breaking the Law' and 'United' helped push NWOBHM into the American mainstream. Allom would go on to produce every Priest studio album through 1988's Ram It Down.