Judas Priest is a British heavy metal band founded in 1969 in Birmingham, England, known mainly for its two leading guitars and its singer's powerful voice. The band's sales of their release formats have reached 50 million albums worldwide. 1)
Judas Priest was formed in 1969, and since Black Sabbath disbanded in 2017, Judas Priest is the longest-running heavy metal band (51 years). 2)
Halford has an incredible voice with a wide vocal reach which is set apart by his shrill shouts and solid vibrato. In any case, with age, his lower range has developed and become more powerful. He had a six-octave vocal range and now has a four-octave range at the age of 69. Along with Ronnie James Dio and Bruce Dickinson, Halford is one of the pioneers of the pseudo-operatic vocal style later to be embraced by power metal singers and routinely shows up close to the top in arrangements of the best metal vocalists/frontmen ever. 3)
This album is responsible for the band's major success and public attention. “Breaking the Law,” “United” and “Living After Midnight” were the songs released as singles. The Guardian also named “British Steel” as the record that defined heavy metal. 4)
Just when it looked like Judas Priest had been dethroned by a new wave of thrash bands that included Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax, the defenders of metal came back with their 12th album, Painkiller, which was released on September 3, 1990. In 1989, the band hired Travis Scott to replace Dave Holland as the drummer, which caused an enormous change in the band's sound and speed. 5)