Judas Priest

There are few heavy metal bands that have managed to scale the heights that Judas Priest have during their 50+ year career. Their presence and influence remains at an all­-time high as evidenced by 2018's 'Firepower' being the highest ­charting album of their career, a 2010 Grammy Award win for 'Best Metal Performance', plus being a 2006 VH1 Rock Honors recipient and a 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

Judas Priest originally formed in 1969 in Birmingham, England (an area that many feel birthed heavy metal). Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing and Ian Hill would be the nucleus of musicians (along with several different drummers over the years) that would go on to change the face of heavy metal. After a 'feeling out' period of a couple of albums, 1974's 'Rocka Rolla' and 1976's 'Sad Wings of Destiny' this line­-up truly hit their stride. The result was a quartet of albums that separated Priest from the rest of the hard rock pack ­- 1977's 'Sin After Sin', 1978's 'Stained Class' and 'Hell Bent for Leather', and 1979's 'Unleashed in the East', which spawned such metal anthems as 'Sinner', 'Diamonds and Rust', 'Hell Bent for Leather', and 'The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)'. Also, Priest were one of the first metal bands to exclusively wear leather and studs – a look that began during this era and would eventually be embraced by metal heads throughout the world. 

In 2023, the band were concentrating on recording their new album and hadn't intended to do any shows that year, but when they were offered the massive PowerTrip Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, they decided it was too big a festival to turn down – the band co-headlined with AC/DC on October 7th. 

 

Judas Priest's 19^thstudio album, Invincible Shield, was issued on March 8, 2024 and the band remain one of metal's top concert attractions, as evidenced by their world tour in support of Invincible Shield, which sold out all over the UK and Europe, and was so successful in North America that a second leg for the fall was just announced.

 

Priest have been storming their way across the globe in 2024 – currently with headline shows in the and some forthcoming dates in Japan in December 2024 – the band are spreading their special brand of heavy metal throughout and will continue to do throughout 2025…..

 

04.11.2024