Speaking with Metal Hammer, founding Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill looks back over the band’s extensive 50 year discography and pulls out 10 songs that mean the most to him. Following is an excerpt from the rundown.

"The Rage" - British Steel (1980)

Hill: "'The Rage' has something pretty rare for us… a bass start! It’s another one that shows our versatility, with this reggae opening before going into an epic semi-power ballad, almost two entirely different styles of song. It came about because Ken (K.K. Downing / guitars) or Glenn (Tipton / guitars) asked me to stick something off-beat over the top and that’s what I came up with, while Dave (Holland / drums) stuck the ‘chucka-chucka’ beat over the guitars. Everything became defined over British Steel – our sound, image etc. and that basically took us up the road right to Defenders Of The Faith."

"Freewheel Burning" - Defenders Of The Faith (1984)

Hill: "'Freewheel Burning' hits top speed early and stays there from then on! We were recording that in Miami and ended up having this massive party with (producer) Tom Allom. My lasting memory is Tom sat at a piano playing 'Freewheel Burning' and pulling faces, screaming 'Freewheel Gurning!' Maybe you had to be there… We became very close to becoming a fad at that point and the thing with fads is they eventually go out of fashion. It was a great time though – some of the shows we did were absolutely enormous; we could play up to 20,000 people a night."

"Guardians / Rising From Ruins" - Firepower (2018)

Hill: "I honestly could have stuck the whole Firepower album on – I know people often say their latest album is best, but I do think it’s the finest album we’ve made, the pinnacle of what we’ve been doing for over 50 years. The double of 'Guardians' as an intro into 'Rising From Ruins' feels very apt from the back of the pandemic, but is also an epic production piece that easily could have been in a movie, especially with that piano piece to lead in. I think it makes an enormous statement about who we are now and who we’ve always been."

Read the complete rundown here.