Judas Priest

Judas Priest formed in Birmingham in 1969, though they didn't settle into their heavy metal sound right away. By 1976, with Rob Halford on vocals, they released 'Sad Wings of Destiny,' an album that helped define their approach with its guitar work and energy. It wasn't a commercial hit at the time, but it became important to how people heard them.

In 1980, 'British Steel' brought them wider attention with songs like 'Living After Midnight' and 'Breaking the Law.' They followed that with albums like 'Screaming for Vengeance' in 1982, which included 'You've Got Another Thing Comin'.' Their sound in those years, twin guitars, Halford's range, straightforward rhythms, became a template for a lot of metal that came after.

Halford left the band in the early 1990s and returned about a decade later. Through various lineup shifts, they've kept recording and touring. Later songs like 'Painkiller' from 1990 and 'Angel' from 2005 show they can still deliver that kind of precise, heavy sound when they want to.