We met in different houses to write, and one day we burst into this riff and the song wrote itself. We wrote the song in about an hour, I think. Rob was just starting to sing „Breaking the law, breaking the law,“ and before we knew it, we had a classic Priest song. The song features some sound effects, including the sound of broken glass and a police siren. For the glass breaking effect, the band used milk bottles, and the police siren was actually guitarist K. K. Downing, who used the tremolo arm of his Stratocaster. A lot of people remember this song for the video we made with Julien Temple all those years ago, which was quite revolutionary. It was one of the first concept videos of all time, at least in metal. Judas Priest is a British heavy metal band formed in 1969 in Birmingham, England. Known for their two lead guitars, their broad opera singing style, and their introduction of S&M leather and the rivet look to heavy metal, they have sold over 50 million albums worldwide. The text talks about some who have (probably) been laid off, cannot find a new job, are unhappy and feel that everything and everyone is against him. 40 years after the album`s release, Judas Priest made an official lyrical video for the song, which was released on April 16, 2020: „Breaking the Law“ is a song by British heavy metal band Judas Priest, originally released on their 1980 album British Steel.
The song is one of the band`s best-known singles and is easily recognizable by its opening guitar riff. Written by: Glenn Raymond Tipton, Kenneth Downing, Robert Halford It was a time in Britain when there was a lot of conflict – a lot of government conflict, miners were on strike, car unions were on strike, there were street riots. It was a terrible time. That was the motivation for me to write a text to try to connect with that feeling that was there. We never walked into a room and said, „We have to try to bring this punk attitude into our music,“ but it certainly seemed to capture some of that anarchy in its projection, musically.