Defenders of the Faith: Judas Priest's 'True Metal Experience' — rollingstone.com

"Heavy metal has consistently been called a low art form, a base, nihilistic art. Two or three years ago, we were pessimistic about whether it could pull through." Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford spoke those bleak words in a Rolling Stone interview in 1980, commenting on how he and his fellow motorcycle-riding, leather-clad headbangers had survived the rise of New Wave and emerged with their defining record, British Steel. This was a new beginning for the band, who throughout the Eighties would build on the lumbering riffs of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple with the sort of galloping rhythms that still pulse through records by everyone from Metallica to the most obscure grindcore screamers. Decades later, Halford and his bandmates' affection for metal remains almost unrivaled.

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