NYDailyNews.com reports:

JUDAS PRIEST's ROB HALFORD has been hell-bent for leather since the mid-1970s. But the frontman and his band made a huge leap forward with the release of the seminal album, British Steel, 30 years ago this year. Now, the Metal God takes the Daily News back in time to the sessions that marked a major breakthrough in heavy metal history and the legendary partying afterwards.

"As you're making your music, you're absolutely clueless as to any significance it might have in your career and beyond. But there certainly seems to have been value and importance placed on British Steel three decades later.

The '80s were a blur of booze and sex and drugs. Hollywood was absolutely insane, the strip was alive every night. The Rainbow was packed to the gills, night after night after night. It was just a remarkable time. The sixties had the hippy movement, and then the hard rock/metal scene in the '80s, in America especially, was just the opposite end of that scale. Everybody was wondering will I wake up tomorrow and some of us didn't.

The music itself succeeded because of just the simple straight forward manner that it was put together in the very short space of time that we had. Tom Allom, our producer, insisted that we were in and out in 28, 29 days in John Lennon's former house in London, where we recorded the album.

That just seems inconceivable with today's way of doing things. I think from 1980 onward, we were banging out a record every year and a world tour. That's just what young hungry bands do. You get caught up in the excitement and the momentum and all you want to do is play and you'll do whatever you need to do to do that. The British Steel sessions were just the next in the process of delivering a release on time to our label. Dates had been booked for a world tour. We don't really have time to think about the situation."

Read more at this location.

VEVO/YouTube recently premiered the video for 'You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise' live, another video from the British Steel Anniversary album. Check it out below:

British Steel: Legacy Edition features the 2001 remaster of the original 36-minute, nine-song album (plus two bonus tracks). Also included is a DVD which combines a live 16-song concert filmed in August 2009 at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena in Hollywood, Florida (the album sequence plus seven more cuts), with a 30-minute Making Of British Steel interview that includes all four original band members.

Check out photos of the packaging below:

British Steel was the sixth studio album by Judas Priest. Released on April 14th, 1980 and produced by Tom Allom, British Steel was recorded at Tittenhurst Park in England - a mansion owned at the time by former BEATLE Ringo Starr, and previously owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

British Steel has long been considered one of metals all-time classics. It was with this release that Priest truly broke through to the masses, with a pair of tracks that have become fixtures on rock radio - the enduring anthems 'Breaking The Law' and 'Living After Midnight'. But like all classic albums, there is not a single weak track detected on British Steel, as evidenced by such standouts as the perennial concert highlight, 'Metal Gods', as well as 'Rapid Fire', 'Grinder', 'United' and 'The Rage', amongst others.

In 2009 Judas Priest performed the British Steel album in its entirety for the first time ever as part of their 30th anniversary USA tour. A filmed recording of the show on the August 17th, 2009 at The Seminole Hard Rock Arena, Hollywood, Florida - will be included in both the limited edition deluxe and deluxe releases. The show was captured in front of a vibrant American audience and in full 5.1 surround and stereo sound. Known for their high-energy and spectacular stage shows the band played the entire British Steel album in sequence as well as a number of other well-know tracks from their catalog.

The live concert was mixed in stereo and 5.1 by the original British Steel producer Tom Allom.

British Steel: Legacy Edition tracklisting:

Disc 1 – Remastered album

'Rapid Fire'

'Metal Gods'

'Breaking The Law'

'Grinder'

'United'

'You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise'

'Living After Midnight'

'The Rage'

'Steeler'

Bonus tracks:

'Red, White & Blue'

'Grinder' (Live)

Disc 2 – DVD The British Steel 2009 Tour (Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena, Hollywood, Florida, August 17, 2009)

'Rapid Fire'

'Metal Gods'

'Breaking The Law'

'Grinder'

'United'

'You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise'

'Living After Midnight'

'The Rage'

'Steeler'

'The Ripper'

'Prophecy'

'Hell Patrol'

'Victim Of Changes'

'Freewheel Burning'

'Diamonds And Rust'

'You’ve Got Another Thing Coming'

Back On Black - the company who specialize in vinyl reissues of classic metal albums and is dedicated to providing top-quality releases for record collectors and metal fans worldwide - has released British Steel on 180gm limited edition gatefold red vinyl.