Best Metal Videos of All Time
Number 10: Breaking the Law--Judas Priest
10: Breaking the Law—Judas Priest (UK) Total score = 9+
Scoring rationale: average = 7+ but two bonus points for telling a story—no matter how cheesy—and introducing a social matter (stealing as a last resort because the government is robbing you is OK);
It’s not their best song, isn’t it? No, but unfortunately they never made an official video of either “Victim of Changes” or “Beyond the Realms of Death”. And British Steel is one of their most popular albums.
Then why? According to your own rules, one aspect must be turned up to eleven. The cheesiness. Real metal likes to laugh at itself, showing it takes itself seriously by not taking itself too seriously1.
That’s a paradox. Like the glasses of a bank clerk shattering because of the sheer sound of the double guitars. Like a vault opening because you point your guitars at it. Like breaking in to steal your own gold album. Like a security guard who plays the song on a wooden guitar cut-out. I could go on.
So it’s in the top 10 because its cheese mountain is larger than anybody else’s? And because it’s Judas Priest, the band that made gay S&M gear part of the standard heavy metal outfit.
You’re kiddin’ me. I’m serious. Rob Halford was (is?) an active participant in the Amsterdam gay scene (he has an apartment in Amsterdam), and the leather gear, the wristbands with spikes, the studded belts and other ‘metal’ paraphernalia2 came from that scene. Say after me: true metal is gay!
Be that as it may, but being gay—unlike the time when Alan Turing3 was prosecuted in the UK—is not “Breaking the Law” anymore. True, thankfully, but the song has some hidden depths.
Hidden depths? Pull the other one! Those who listen to the actual lyrics know there’s social commentary underneath all the silliness. That it’s alright to steal—as a very poor citizen—when the government acts like a reverse Robin Hood; that is, stealing from the poor and giving to the rich4.
Don’t say: Hey Rob, what happened to the Harley?
Do say: The Metal God is gay, hallelujah!
And this was some four years before “This is Spinal Tap”;
Like the chains and handcuffs Halford used to wear on his belts;
Now—rightfully—a much-lauded genius in mathematics and computation;
Which the current Tory government wouldn’t do, right? Right? Ehrm. . .