‘Rising from darkness where hell hath no mercy, and the screams of vengeance echo on forever, only those who keep the faith shall escape the wrath of The Metallian… Master of all Metal.’
The only thing that even comes close to being as metal as the legend on the back of this album is maybe the titanium plate implanted into Slayer frontman Tom Araya’s neck from too much headbanging. And, of course, the contents of the album itself. Defenders Of The Faith is frequently overlooked in favour of its predecessor Screaming For Vengeance. In terms of breaking the band and overall impact, there’s no denying that Screaming… was more important but here they perfected the formula. Freewheel Burning, The Sentinel, Jawbreaker… these are slabs of pure metal perfection and this is the pinnacle of Priest. And, therefore, classic metal as a whole.