Okay, many consider this as one the lower points in Priest's discography. I'd say it is not comparable as a whole to Priest's greatest albums but it is quite enjoyable - it retains for the most part that sound Priest is famous for. However, a fair share of uninspired songs bring some of its charm down.
  When this album wants to kick ass, it does ... in a very respectable manner. Three songs here are absolute killers. "Heading Out of The Highway", the opening song, is classic Priest. The lyrics do a great job in not turning its risky subject into something cheesy (It talks about life as a road where you can choose which direction you want to turn and stuff) while also kicking some ass. "Desert Plains" is another killer. Just check the great drumming from Dave Holland. Simple but effective. A driving love song with tongue-in-cheek lyrics by Halford - "The engine roars between my thighs"!?!? What? "Solar Angels" is even more sucessful, with its surreal mood in the lyrics and melody. The rest is just the rest: Hyper-commercial songs with the same one or two simple riffs recycled over and over and corny chorus that would make Kiss proud (One of them is the extreme case of suckage in this aspect - the chorus is just "You say yes/I say no" - what the hell is that?). They all are very similar in approach, but at least they let me notice when the track changed. They are not really memorable, so none i would really recommend you to check if you ask me. At least most of those commercial songs in "British Steel" had some smoking riffs to back them up and help to hide their obviously radio-friendly nature (Even Halford is lacking some). The exception is "Hot Rockin'", which is a great, great track. The chorus is just as undeveloped as the others - "I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go...Hot Rockin'!"  - but this one is fast and hits hard, yay!
  Fans shouldn't be afraid of getting this album (well, probably they would anyway - but you can get this album later), the ones with casual interest in Priest should check those four tracks i mentioned and just forget about the others.
* As a bonus you have "Thunder Road". I just enjoy the main riff - kinda cool. The rest is forgettable. Sounds just like Turbo era material. The other bonus track is a live version of Desert Plains. Unfortunately, the faster tempo here kills the great mood the studio version had.
Okay, many consider this as one the lower points in Priest's discography. I'd say it is not comparable as a whole to Priest's greatest albums but it is quite enjoyable - it retains for the most part that sound Priest is famous for. However, a fair share of uninspired songs bring some of its charm down. When this album wants to kick ass, it does... in a very respectable manner. Three songs here are absolute killers. "Heading Out of The Highway", the opening song, is classic Priest. The lyrics do a great job in not turning its risky subject into something cheesy (It talks about life as a road where you can choose which direction you want to turn and stuff) while also kicking some ass. "Desert Plains" is another killer. Just check the great drumming from Dave Holland. Simple but effective. A driving love song with tongue-in-cheek lyrics by Halford - "The engine roars between my thighs"!? !? What? "Solar Angels" is even more sucessful, with its surreal mood in the lyrics and melody. The rest is just the rest: Hyper-commercial songs with the same one or two simple riffs recycled over and over and corny chorus that would make Kiss proud (One of them is the extreme case of suckage in this aspect - the chorus is just "You say yes/I say no" - what the hell is that? ). They all are very similar in approach, but at least they let me notice when the track changed. They are not really memorable, so none i would really recommend you to check if you ask me. At least most of those commercial songs in "British Steel" had some smoking riffs to back them up and help to hide their obviously radio-friendly nature (Even Halford is lacking some). The exception is "Hot Rockin'", which is a great, great track. The chorus is just as undeveloped as the others - "I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go... Hot Rockin'! "  - but this one is fast and hits hard, yay! Fans shouldn't be afraid of getting this album (well, probably they would anyway - but you can get this album later), the ones with casual interest in Priest should check those four tracks i mentioned and just forget about the others. * As a bonus you have "Thunder Road". I just enjoy the main riff - kinda cool. The rest is forgettable. Sounds just like Turbo era material. The other bonus track is a live version of Desert Plains. Unfortunately, the faster tempo here kills the great mood the studio version had.