Theme:LIVING AFTER MIDNIGHT.
Disc:British Steel.
Year:1980
Is anyone able to resist this chorus without raising his fist in the air and chanting every single word the Metal God utters? Hands up who can keep his ass in place and not shake his mane (or shake his head) when this metal psalm is played! Dave Holland, the most enduring drummer of the band's classic era, starts pounding the drums with a steady rhythm until Tipton and Downing pull out of their sleeves one of those riffs that conquer the listener from the very first note.
The audience is ready to sing along with Halford and to the full lung the three magic words with his well known beat. And there it is... we already have one of the definitive metal anthems. One of those songs in which the privileged throat of the “metal god” doesn't need to resort to chilling ascents and descents to take it by storm.
Effective and easy to assimilate melody without losing the innate hardness of this combo stuffed in perpetual leather, Judas could shape equally to songs of convoluted instrumentation and overwhelming thrash as to festive pieces of commercial potential as this “Living After Midnight” and come out victorious in both fields.
When the studs and motorcycles had already become a trademark, the British turned to the steel of their land and recorded their most famous album. Just a year before, AC/DC had signed another temporary slogan with “Highway To Hell”, and the Judas seemed to want to continue the formula of the Australians and create a handful of songs of those that one imagines in the mouth of a full stadium.
“Breaking The Law” and this ‘Living After Midnight’ (released in March 1980 and re-released in May) were two singles chart smashes in an England preparing for the imminent arrival of the NWOBHM, propelling the album to immediate success.
In fact, it was the first of the group's albums to reach the American Top 40, achieving platinum certification along the way. The heavy gods weren't messing around, they had come to establish their image and their big riffs in the heavy rock style and did so for more than a decade. Now that Halford is back on board captaining the best metal machine ever assembled, the scepter and crown of metal are once again theirs...or does anyone think they ever got off the podium?
My people thank you for reading me and I hope you enjoyed this report on this song of one of the great and legendary rock bands such as Judas Priest. So with nothing more to say I'll see you in a new post with the editorials of the great legendary songs of rock. A thousand blessings.
