Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford recently spoke with Jeb Wright at Goldmine magazine, discussing the 30th Anniversary of the band's legendary Defenders Of The Faith album. An excerpt from the interview is available below: 

GM: We are celebrating three decades of the iconic album Defenders Of The Faith.

Rob Halford: "This is an exciting moment. As the years progress, we are surrounded by these sort of anniversary numbers that seem to come out of nowhere. In this case, it is a real delight and a thrill to reinvestigate all of the great times we had with Defenders of the Faith."

GM: This album takes me back to the days of hanging out in the record stores. Man, I miss those days. I remember purchasing “Defenders of the Faith“ in a local independent store and getting to listen to the album before I even bought it.

Rob Halford: "Fortunately, there is still an outlet for vinyl so fans can experience what we experienced. We can’t go to the record stores anymore, which is sad. Everybody used to go to the record stores and talk about their favorite bands and the shows they were going to see and hang out in the parking lot and bust out their favorite band on the stereo, on 8-Track, et cetera. I am sure it is done in a different way now, but those were glory days for rock ‘n’ roll and Metal in the years of vinyl. You could experience the Metal community in that respect. We’ve got the Metal community now on the Internet on social sites, and so forth."

GM: Defenders… has a lot of anthems. Priest has always had a few anthems on each album, but on this one, most of the songs were anthems.

Rob Halford: "Yeah, I don’t know if that is particular to Metal. I am just thinking about it as we’re talking, if that happens in any other kind of music. I think the anthem idea, whether it’s your countries 'Stars and Stripes' or our 'God Save the Queen', it really unites everybody in the moment to something they truly love, they cherish and they believe in, whether it is your country, family, or your song, or your band. There is just a wonderful emotion that really speaks volumes through the song you’re listening to. In this case, it is that refrain, 'We are defenders of the faith.' That’s all it is, 'We are defenders of the faith' and it’s going around and around. It is a beautiful moment of what we strive to be in Metal."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Coming off an era which saw several Judas Priest albums that have gone down as some of the greatest in the entire history of heavy metal (namely, 1980's British Steel and 1982's Screaming For Vengeance), the band from Birmingham knew that their next release had to 'deliver the goods', to cement their standing as the leaders of metal. And deliver they did, with their platinum-certified 1984 release, Defenders Of The Faith. And on March 10th, a newly expanded three-CD version of the album was unleashed via Columbia/Legacy, which includes the original ten-track album remastered by producer Tom Allom, and a complete live recording from the Defenders tour, recorded at the Long Beach Arena in California, on May 5th, 1984. 

The 21-track concert (split up over two discs) perfectly balances the then-new material from the group's ninth studio offering overall, including such classics as "Metal Gods", "Breaking The Law", "Sinner", "Electric Eye", "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)", "Victim Of Changes", and "You’ve Got Another Thing Coming", among many others.

The remastered version of “Some Heads Are Gonna Roll” can be heard streaming below (restricted to some territories):

As the band states in the liner notes to the reissue, "It's 30 years since we released Defenders Of The Faith - we're very proud to say it has become a classic that's beloved by Priest fans throughout the world"

Judas Priest continues to 'defend the faith' to this day, as the group recently issued their seventeenth studio album, Redeemer Of Souls, which sees the band's popularity amongst metalheads remain as strong as ever, as it debuted higher than any other previous Priest release (at #6 on the Billboard 200). And on the group's current tour, quite a few classics from 'Defenders' are being performed for the first time in years.

And soon, fans will get a chance to re-experience vintage Judas Priest, with the Defenders Of The Faith reissue.

Tracklisting:

CD1 - Defenders Of The Faith Remastered

"Freewheel Burning"
"Jawbreaker"
"Rock Hard Ride Free"
"The Sentinel"
"Love Bites"
"Eat Me Alive"
"Some Heads Are Gonna Roll"
"Night Comes Down"
"Heavy Duty"
"Defenders Of The Faith"

CD2 - Live at Long Beach Arena, California - May 5th, 1984

"Love Bites"
"Jawbreaker"
"Grinder"
"Metal Gods"
"Breaking The Law"
"Sinner"
"Desert Plains"
"Some Heads Are Gonna Roll"
"The Sentinel "
"Rock Hard Ride Free"

CD3 - Live at Long Beach Arena, California - May 5th, 1984

"Night Comes Down"
"The Hellion"
"Electric Eye"
"Heavy Duty"
"Defenders Of The Faith"
"Freewheel Burning "
"Victim Of Changes"
"The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)"
"Living After Midnight"
"Hell Bent For Leather"
"You’ve Got Another Thing Coming"

Trailer:

“Jawbreaker”: