‘Grinder’, ‘Metal Gods’, ‘Living After Midnight’’, ‘Breaking The Law’: all staples of the Judas Priest live set for more than a generation. All from the same album! Hands up, all those who were already born when British Steel was initially released. Fewer still were actually listening to metal at the time, the music about to undergo its most prolific spell, coming on the mainstream listeners’ erosion of short-lived flings with disco and new wave. Unlike many contemporary albums-played-in-their-entirety offerings, JP give fans the original configuration, plus a DVD of last year’s tour (Seminole, FL stop at the Hard Rock Casino), where they began the show with a run through British Steel, then added a couple of indispensible oldies. Pair of “bonuses” (the umpteenth live version of ‘Grinder’ and ‘Red, White & Blue’, an outtake from the Turbo sessions?) now augments the studio effort. So aside from this historic piece of metaldom, there’s a new (’09) interview with the four originals, all seated together in a living (after midnight) room. Soft spoken and articulate (no “F-ing A, dude!” verbosity), they share a few laughs, discussing the band’s creation, longevity and the album at hand (interspersed with footage from ’09 show and clips from the campy, pre-MTV videos). The four progress chronologically through the track listing. Similar to the one witnessed in person, the concert (indoors, while most of the dates were in amphitheatres) begins with the album material and tacks on a few classics (16 songs all told). Lasers, and at the beginning, a variety of cinematic techniques (black and white vs. color, overlays, split screens), break the “you-are-there” voyeurism. The twelve page booklet lifts four pages of montage images off the DVD and contains a two page overview from English writer Dave Shack. A special three disc version is available via the band’s website (where a second audio disc captures the entire concert, minus ‘Prophecy’. Sorry Jim Nostradamus Bartek). If you don’t already own a digital copy of British Steel, they’ve made it very difficult NOT to pick one up and for those that do, there might just be enough new stuff (especially on the tri-disc option) to make you get this one too.

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