Metal Anarchy

During a recent appearance on Revolver‘s “The Last Show” series, Rob Halford offered an update on the new Judas Priest album. The singer also revealed that the band are planning to re-team with their “Firepower” production team for the effort.

Halford said the following:

“I’ve got another great bunch of ideas from Richie [Faulkner] the other day. He and I are always in touch. He sent me a bunch of riffs and songs — some completed, some half completed. We go back and forth.

It’s a strange way of doing it. This is how you utilize technology. Richie is over in Nashville; I’m here in Phoenix right now. And that’s the way we go back and forth.

All songs start with an idea — just a very simple, basic idea. Sometimes it’s a complete idea. It will start at the beginning. And we’ve had a lot of fun — Richie and I — putting together some of these vibes. And then we generally go back over to England and we hook up with Glenn [Tipton] and with Ian [Hill], and Scott [Travis] comes over, and Andy [Sneap] is there, of course, in the mix. And hopefully we’ll get Tom Allom back in production. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’ll happen as we make the next PRIEST album; we’ll have Tom there. Those guys did a great job with the ‘Firepower’ record, and so we’re gonna dive in and get that work completed as soon as we possibly can. That’s what we do. PRIEST make records.”

Halford also talked about the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on their 2020 50th anniversary tour:

“We were planning to get this tour running, weren’t we? Like so many bands, we had festivals lined up and our own shows to do. It’s all been put on hold. We’ll get to them eventually. I don’t know what shape or form they’re gonna take, how we’re gonna rethink this. We need that vaccine, don’t we? It’s just inconceivable to think of putting 80,000 people at [the] Wacken [Open Air festival] in Germany shoulder to shoulder. We’ve all gotta keep safe. Life is a precious, precious gift, not just for ourselves but for each other, especially in what we call our heavy metal community.

As far as PRIEST is going, we’re looking at [rescheduling] everything for 2021. [Our management] is working with Live Nation and all the other promoters to try and reshuffle everything, much like all the other bands are going with their people that work for ’em — the management and so forth, agents.”

“[The 50th anniversary run will] be a great show; it’s gonna be an amazing show. We’ve been working on production for over a year, putting together this incredible show for our PRIEST family and for anybody that wants to come and check out the PRIEST on our 50th anniversary… PRIEST has been working hard, as I say, for quite a while now, putting together a really, really spectacular 50th-anniversary show that we hope will give some kind of justice — if justice is the right word — to the legacy of PRIEST as we hurtle on.”

[via Blabbermouth]