20 Most Important Hard Rock Albums Of All Time
9. British Steel - Judas Priest
Though the 70's saw the birth of heavy metal, the genre didn't really have a definitive name or band to call their own. While Deep Purple and Black Sabbath may have had traces of heaviness laced throughout their music, it wasn't until Judas Priest came along that the genre finally found its home. Even if Priest's earlier material produced many classics, British Steel was where the band finally had all the metallic elements in line.
From start to finish, this record is nothing but killer tracks, with songs like "Breaking the Law" leading the charge and never letting off the gas for over half an hour. Across songs like "Metal Gods" and "United," metal started to transform from a niche subgenre of rock to something that could fill stadiums around the world. Look no further than a song like "Living After Midnight," whose singalong chorus is only matched by the signature crunch of the Glenn Tipton and KK Downing's guitars.
Not long after this album's releases, bands would begin to emerge with a sound that became known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. British Steel may not have been the first metal album ever made, but it was the one of the first to make metal a household name.