The album Judas Priest’s Rob Halford called “sonic blasphemy”
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(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
If you were to ask Judas Priest’s Rob Halford what true metal is, he likely would come up with some kind of answer revolving around the value of tradition and its power when combined with broader musical complexities. For Halford, it’s all about repurposing traditional metal tropes to create something truly original. As he put it: “I’ve always defined metal to the greatest extent by the bass, that big, meaty, Black Sabbath-style riff.”
Despite many of his favourites being the Sabbath-esque originators, he is also incredibly forthcoming about his eclecticism, often reflecting on how different scenes and movements turned him on to different styles. While Judas Priest emerged at the same time as the London punk explosion, Halford realised he enjoyed music that centred around one type of attitude, even though it had roots in different genres.
As he once explained: “I remember seeing the Sex Pistols at a club in Wolverhampton, and I thought they had some metal vibes to them – the attitude and some of the riffs,” he said.
Expanding on the reasons why he becomes endeared to certain music, he added: “I welcome anything like this because it’s the true essence of what rock ‘n’ roll should be all about.”
This attitude and influence formed the basis of their music, providing the appropriate stepping stones for their opus, British Steel, which adopted a distinctive approach to ensure their sound stood out not just among their contemporaries but also their own material. Recorded at the famed Tittenhurst Park, it became home to hits like ‘Breaking the Law’, which was incidentally Halford’s attempts at writing something that “connected with that feeling that was out there”.
Halford’s expansive love of metal once drew him to Emperor’s landmark record, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, the black metal symphonic amalgamation that solidified the band as a mystical force in their space at the time. This was a particularly interesting juncture for the band, who not only made the daring choice to move away from their earlier signature sound but also decided to embrace more ambiguity than before when they were singing more directly about Satanism and nature.
Still, its overt suggestiveness concerning sinister and dark themes piqued Halford’s interest and became one of his most cherished metal albums of all time. Not only did he include it in a list of best metal albums ever for Rolling Stone, he also described it as “sonic blasphemy.”
He said: “I love this because it’s sonic blasphemy from the dark side.”
The entire record also appeared a lot more crisp and refined than their previous material, which is also likely another aspect Halford became endeared to. Within Judas Priest, he is consistently toying with new ways to appear clearer in production without compromising on rawness and authenticity, so it’s likely that he has borrowed from some of the quintessential aspects of Anthems to enhance his own sound.
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