Judas Priest "Defenders Of The Faith"

Defenders of the Faith is the ninth studio album by British heavy metal band Judas Priest. Three tracks were released as singles: "Freewheel Burning", "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll" and "Love Bites". The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Defenders of the Faith was recorded at Ibiza Sound Studios, Ibiza, Spain, and mixed from September to November 1983 at DB Recording Studios and Bayshore Recording Studios in Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida. The LP and cassette tape were released on 4 January 1984, and the album appeared on CD in July. A remastered CD was released in May 2001. Simultaneously with the album's release, the band kicked off their tour in Europe, with the bulk of concerts taking place in North America during the spring and summer.

Stylistically, Defenders of the Faith did not greatly depart from its predecessor and contained the same mix of short, up-tempo metal anthems with stadium shoutalong choruses, although progressive elements returned on some tracks such as "The Sentinel" and the album also introduced some hints of speed metal into their sound.

The album was an immediate success, only going one spot below Screaming for Vengeance on the US Billboard 100 Albums Chart. Some critics nonetheless objected to the lack of a standout single comparable to "Breaking the Law" or "You've Got Another Thing Comin', and the album's general similarity to Screaming for Vengeance.

The cover art by Doug Johnson (who also designed the Hellion in Screaming for Vengeance) depicts the Metallian, a ram-horned, tiger-like land assault creature with Gatling guns and tank tracks conceptualized by the band. The back cover contains a message:

Rising from darkness where Hell hath no mercy and the screams for vengeance echo on forever. Only those who keep the faith shall escape the wrath of the Metallian... Master of all metal.

"Eat Me Alive" was listed at number 3 on the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen", a list of 15 songs the organization found most objectionable. PMRC co-founder Tipper Gore stated the song was about oral sex at gunpoint. In response to the allegations, Priest recorded the song "Parental Guidance" on the follow-up album Turbo.

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. They certainly didn't warrant being included on the PMRC's "Filthy 15" list a few months after the album was released. For us, the song was a bit of fun—but I won’t deny that we included it with full knowledge that it would get media attention. Little did we know at that time that its inclusion on the "Filthy 15" would be the precursor to a far more disturbing predicament for us.
— K.K. Downing (guitarist)

In December 1983, the band released the "Freewheel Burning" single and performed the song in a short UK/Germany tour in the same month. In January 1984, the band embarked on the Metal Conqueror Tour across Europe, North America and Japan. On this tour, the band played every song from the album live, with the exception of "Eat Me Alive". During the band's 2008 tour in support of Nostradamus, they played many songs which had never been played live before, one of them being "Eat Me Alive". To date, this made Defenders of the Faith the second Judas Priest album from which every song had been played live (the first being Rocka Rolla), followed by British Steel during the 2009, British Steel 30th anniversary tour.

• Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian has been quoted as saying that Mark Dodson's engineer work on this album and Sin After Sin inspired the band to work with him as the producer of their 1988 album State of Euphoria.
• "Jawbreaker" was covered by Rage for the single "Higher than the Sky" and also appeared on the tribute album A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal and All G.U.N. Bonustracks CD. In 2010, "Jawbreaker" was covered by Swedish power metal band Sabaton on the Re-Armed Edition of their album Metalizer.
• "The Sentinel" was covered by Machine Head for the special edition version of their 2011 album Unto the Locust.
• "Night Comes Down" was covered by Katatonia for the Japanese edition of their 2016 album The Fall of Hearts.

Track listing
All tracks are written by Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford and K. K. Downing, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Freewheel Burning" 4:22
2. "Jawbreaker" 3:25
3. "Rock Hard Ride Free" 5:34
4. "The Sentinel" 5:04

Side two

1. "Love Bites" 4:47
2. "Eat Me Alive" 3:34
3. "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll" (Robert Halligan, Jr.) 4:05
4. "Night Comes Down" 3:58
5. "Heavy Duty" 2:25
6. "Defenders of the Faith" 1:30

2001 CD edition bonus tracks

1. "Turn On Your Light" (Recorded during the 1985 Turbo sessions) 5:23
2. "Heavy Duty/Defenders of the Faith" (Live at Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, California; 5 May 1984) 5:26

"Freewheel Burning" was originally released as a single in 1983 shortly before the "Defenders of the Faith" album release. The 12" maxi-single features a dual-guitar intro to the song that didn't make the final cut of the album.

"Rock Hard Ride Free" was originally written around 1981-82 during "Screaming for Vengeance" sessions and was called "Fight for Your Life", but did not make the final cut on that album. The original version can be heard on the 2001 reissue of "Killing Machine".

Some copies of the British issue came with a competition insert offering the chance to win one of three Suzuki GS 125 motorcycles, and a cover sticker advertising this. Runner-up prizes were six tour jackets.

All tracks by Halford, Downing, & Tipton (except track 7 by Halligan Jr.)

Recording information:

Recorded in Europe.

Mixed at DB Recording Studios, Miami, Florida and Bayshore Studios, Miami, Florida.

Mastered at Sterling Sound, New York.