The story behind Judas Priest's iconic album cover 'British Steel'

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Judas Priest would release their sixth studio album British Steel in April of 1980. It would go on to become one of the group’s seminal albums and one of the most important metal albums in history thanks to songs like ‘ breaking the law’, ‘living after midnight, metal gods and united. . The cover of the album, featuring a hand holding a razor blade would create some controversy and today we’re going to take a look at the history of the album’s artwork.

The album artwork was conceived by both frontman Rob Halford, bassist Ian Hill and Polish artist Roslaw Szaybo. The album’s title, which supposedly was thought of by Hill paid homage to striking British Steel workers at the time. Szaybo had a long history working with Judas Priest having designed their covers for 1978’s Stained Class, 1981’s Point of Entry, in addition to their longest living logo.

Szaybo would reveal he didn’t listen to the band’s music, but the title British Steel conjured up images of English Razor blades he would be in Polish street markets. Coupled this with Halford’s memory of Gilette Razor blades that carried had the words ‘Sheffield Steel’ on them and you had the inspiration for the covero f British Steel.

Halford took the idea to his bandmates who were a little skeptical as razors were typically associated with punk rock and not metal. Despite the skepticism the band agreed to use it for their album cover

Szaybo soon designed an oversized blade, putting the band’s logo and album title on it and would wear a studded bracelet, grabbing it by it’s edges. Photographer Bob Elsdale would take the now iconic shot. The image makes it look like the blade is slicing through the fingers despite their not being any blood.

and the artwork allowed the group to not only create something shocking but to also give a nod to being british with guitarist KK Downing telling Classic Rock Magazine “As soon as we saw it,” remembers former guitarist KK Downing, “we thought: ‘This is as sharp-edged as we are.’ It’s so totally fitting. Obviously, we’re aware of the symbolism behind the image. It was a popular razor blade manufacturer, and something we’d seen around since we were so high, hanging around our granddads. It just seemed so very British. “And the way it was portrayed, with the razor blade going into the fingers, but no blood; what it’s saying is that it’s a safe thing to be into this music.”

However the album cover would create some problems in other countries and territories with guitarist Glenn Tipton telling Classic Rock magazine

“I remember, with the hand that gripped the razor blade,” “in some countries they thought it was offensive, because it looked like it was slicing into the fingers. So they airbrushed it so the hand was just holding the razor blade. And we were like: ‘No, we don’t like that. It’s got to have the finger-slicing!’.” with Halford adding
“I think if we’d put blood on it, that would’ve been over the top,” concludes Halford. “Still now, when you look at that cover, it has a tremendous impact. It has a very edgy, almost controversial feel. I think it’s just a very important piece of artwork, because from that stemmed a lot of other artistic ideas.”
It’s been long rumored that late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell donned a razor necklace taking inspiration from the album cover.
The cover artwork for the The 30th anniversary edition of British Steel would have the fingers removed and blood on the razor.

Last year on the album’s 42nd anniversary, rock publication Revolver tried to post the album’s cover on instagram asking it’s followers to name their favourite track off the record,, but according to the magazine it was deemed too controversial for the social media platform. Revolver would claim they soon soon received a message from Instagram stating that the post had to be removed because and ii and i quote "goes against our Community Guidelines." Strangely enough instagram’s parent company facebook and other social media platform twitter had no issue with the post.