A sepia-toned banner depicting a factory and smokestacks reading, "Welcome to the home of British Steel," obscures the stage. The half-house configured St. Pete Times Forum makes the half-full crowd of not more than several thousand look less than impressive. People cheer loud enough as the lights dim and hammers strike steel over the PA. Twin guitars chug, the banner falls, and the metal god snarls, "Pounding the world/ like a battering ram." So begins "Rapid Fire," the opening track of British Steel – Judas Priest's 1980 breakthrough album – set to be replayed sequentially on every stop of their current U.S. tour in order to commemorate its 30th anniversary. So what if the album's only 29 years old? Nobody's perfect! (Photo by Ross Halfin from Wembley Stadium, February 2009; courtesy of JudasPriest.com.)

Judas Priest wasn't supposed to carry the metal load by themselves this summer. Prior to this past week, fellow English hard rockers Whitesnake capably warmed up crowds with their mix of pop rock success ("Here I Go Again") and '80's hair-band anthems ("Still of the Night"). That was until frontman David Coverdale's vocal chords could no longer handle the strain. I guess that's why Coverdale isn't the metal god, and Halford is. Hey… nobody's perfect!

But isn't the phrase 'nobody's perfect' merely optimist-speak for 'inherently flawed'? (Setlist and some decent fan-recorded video after the jump).

This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2009.