Judas Priest

Judas Priest is a British heavy metal band created in mid-1969 in Birmingham, England.[source needed] Formed by K.K. Downing and Ian Hill, the band is considered one of the forerunners of modern heavy metal, being one of the most influential groups in the history of the genre. It was the first band to unite the heaviness and dark themes created by Black Sabbath with the speed of some groups such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, gradually suppressing the blues heritage and emphasizing heavier rock. They are also credited for pioneering the use of two guitars, Rob Halford’s innovative operatic vocals, and the introduction of leather clothing in heavy metal.

With their first albums in the 1970s the band gained a growing fan base in the scene, and after the release of the albums British Steel (1980) and Screaming for Vengeance (1982), the quintet gained worldwide fame, achieving several gold and platinum certifications over the years. With over fifty years of career and seventeen studio albums released, Judas Priest has sold nearly 45 million records worldwide.In 2009 they received a Grammy Award, winning in the ‘Best Metal Performance category with the song “Dissident Aggressor.”

In September 1969, in the village of West Bromwich, near Birmingham, lead singer Al Atkins formed a new band with his friends Bruno Stapenhill on bass, John Perry on guitar and John Partridge on drums. However, after a few days Perry died in a car accident, and they had to look for a new guitarist. For this they held auditions in a small room in Birmingham where they reached, among others, K.K. Downing, but who had not been accepted due to his little experience at the time. Finally the chosen one was Earnest “Ernie” Chataway, who could also play harmonica and keyboard, and who came from the band Earth, the prototype of what would later become Black Sabbath. In turn they began to experiment with various names, until Stapenhill proposed that they call themselves Judas Priest, a name taken from the song “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest” by singer Bob Dylan.

They started their career doing covers of the band’s Spirit and Quick Silver Messenger Service, to later and with the help of Alan Eade -the owner of a small recording studio- write their first songs; “Good Time Woman” and “We’ll Stay Together”. With them, they did a series of concerts in small clubs in England as part of the so-called Judas Priest Tour. In one of these performances, specifically the one on November 25, 1969, at The George Hotel in Walsall, some executives from Harvest Records and Immediate Records were in the audience, as well as Led Zeppelin’s lead singer Robert Plant. However, within a few months, the label broke up, triggering discouragement among the members and causing the group to split up.

In mid-1970 Atkins returned to Birmingham wherein his own words “one night in front of Holy Joe’s in Wednesbury I heard a band that sounded very good; their name was ‘Freight’ and it consisted of K. K. Downing, Ian Hill and John Ellis.” Noting that they had no vocalist, Atkins offered to join the band and was eventually accepted. Upon his arrival, he presented them with his songs written with his previous group and also offered to use the name Judas Priest.[7]

This second incarnation formed by Atkins on vocals, Downing on guitar, Hill on bass and Ellis on drums, began the composition of new songs focused on a more blues-rock and hard rock style.[8] In this way, on March 16, 1971 they gave their first concert at Essington St. John’s Hall in Staffordshire, which began The Return of the Priest Tour. This series of concerts allowed them to play at various clubs and theatres in the UK, usually, in support of the bands Slade, Budgie and Warhorse, and at some events they shared the stage with guitarist Gary Moore. In July of the same year, Atkins wrote the songs “Holy is the Man” and “Mind Conception”, which were released on a demo independently and which, according to him, only ten people heard at that time.

During the tour, the group received no offers from record companies and the money they earned was barely enough to cover their travel expenses. So Ellis withdrew from the band on October 6, 1971, just when they would have to play as Slade’s backing band at the Yeoman venue in Derby, giving way to Alan Moore, who debuted on the 11th of the same month at Slough College. For the year 1972, they composed the songs “Whiskey Woman”, “Winter”, “Never Satisfied” and “Caviar and Meths” and started the Whiskey Woman Tour already with new drummer Chris Campbell, who was nicknamed by his bandmates as “Congo” because of the color of his skin. During this year they opened shows for bands such as Status Quo, Thin Lizzy, UFO and Family, and this time they had the newly formed Magnum as a support band. Despite being, up to that time, their tour with the most shows booked the financial problems continued, causing Atkins to leave in early 1973 to get a stable job, since his daughter had been born.

In mid-1973, Hill’s fiancée introduced him to her brother, Rob Halford, who until then had been working as a theater lighting technician and in his spare time was the lead singer of the local band Hiroshima.[9] One day at the Halford home, Hill coincidentally heard him singing in front of the radio and was impressed with his high-pitched singing. Consequently, Hill and Downing asked him to join the band, an offer he accepted without hesitation. With Halford in the band, they called Atkins to ask him if it bothered him that they continued to use the name Judas Priest and the songs they had written with him, which he gave his approval.

Shortly after, Campbell left the group and was replaced by John Hinch, who was a drummer and Halford’s partner in Hiroshima. In 1973 they wrote the songs “Run of the Mill” and “Ladies”-prototype of “Red Light Lady”-, which along with “Caviar and Meths” were released as a demo independently. To promote them, they again came out in support of the band Budgie, whose tour was called Never Turn Your Back on a Friend.

The demo tape caught the attention of the independent label Gull Records, which, in early 1974, offered them a contract on the condition that they included a keyboardist or a trumpet player to add to their sound. Not liking this idea, but aiming to publish their first production, Downing suggested adding another guitarist, which was accepted by the label. Thus they chose Glenn Tipton, who played the role of guitarist and vocalist for The Flying Hat Band, known at the time for performing with Deep Purple.

The band’s debut album entitled Rocka Rolla was released in September 1974,[source needed] produced by Rodger Bain (who was known for producing the first three Black Sabbath albums). The sound was more focused on hard rock and progressive rock, with a heavy influence of Led Zeppelin and Queen in both sound and dress. After the release, drummer John Hinch left the band and was replaced by Alan Moore, who had played a few times with Priest shortly after Ellis left. To promote the album, on September 10 they began the Rocka Rolla Tour,[lacks sources] with a series of concerts through various cities in England and which the following year made it possible for them to play Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark for the first time.

The group took advantage of Al Atkins’ compositions being sung well by Halford, but the album did not fare as well with critics.

Sad Wings of Destiny and Sin After Sin (1976-1977)
During November and December 1975 in Wales, they went into the studio again to record their new album entitled Sad Wings of Destiny, which relied on very little money for its production.[lacks sources] It was recorded with Alan Moore on drums since in 1975 John Hinch left the group, fired by the other members.

Sad Wings of Destiny is released in March 1976 and, although it did not reach the music charts, it gained great critical acclaim. The frontman Rob Halford was highlighted in this album, in which he began to explore his high-pitched vocals, and with his remarkable voice, it would be one of the main characteristics of Judas Priest that contributed to the development of metal. Among the best songs from Sad Wings of Destiny are “Tyrant”, “Island of Domination”, “Dreamer Deceiver”, “The Ripper” and “Victim of Changes”, the last two being fan favourites and performed frequently in the band’s concerts to this day. Considered one of the most important productions of the genre, it marked a closer approach of Judas to heavy metal itself, a style that the band followed and improved in the following years.

Simon Phillips, the drummer who recorded Sin After Sin
The positive results of the album caught the attention of CBS Records executives, who offered them a deal with their label at the end of the same year. This offer together with the lack of support from Gull led to the termination of the current contract with them, which meant the loss of all rights to the first two albums, as well as all the demos recorded so far.[13] In early 1977 the artist manager Paul Atkinson became interested in their sound and got them a contract with Columbia Records for the distribution of their next works in the United States. In an effort to bolster them, CBS invested £60,000 for their next recording, which featured Roger Glover (Deep Purple) as co-producer.[lacks sources] Finally in April 1977 the LP Sin After Sin was released, which reached position 23 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the group’s first album to enter the UK music charts.

Sin After Sin was the only one with the presence of Simon Phillips -only 19 years old- on drums, a position Moore left before recording began. In terms of sound, the album features the innovative double bass drum, with fast rhythms in semiquaver bass and guitar, which came to redefine the genre. Some of the songs of note are “Diamonds and Rust”, the cover of the folk singer Joan Baez, as well as “Call for the Priest” and “Dissident Aggressor” which have been considered by critics as the first steps of speed metal and thrash metal respectively. Even though he was offered a contract as a permanent member, Phillips was unable to participate in the Sin After Sin Tour, as he said he had prior commitments with the Jack Bruce Band. A few days before they started the tour, Glover suggested drummer Les Binks to replace him, a young Englishman who had participated in Deep Purple’s bassist’s album The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast.[source needed]

The respective tour enabled them to play for the first time in Finland and Switzerland, and likewise in June of the same year, they began their first tour of the United States as support, on some occasions, for REO Speedwagon.[source needed] Their last performance in the North American country was at the “Day on the Green” festival as Led Zeppelin’s backing band, before over 55,000 people.

Between October and November 1977, they began work on their new production, Stained Class, recorded at Chipping Norton Studios under producer Dennis Mackay. It came out in February 1978 and featured the first appearance of the characteristic logo, created by Polish artist Rozslav Szyabo. It was clear that Judas Priest was in a transitional phase, from heavy rock to heavy metal proper, with lyrics ranging between the occult, science fiction, fantasy and futuristic themes.[lacks sources] With songs the size of “Exciter” and “Beyond the Realms of Death”, Stained Glass is one of their most influential works for thrash metal and speed metal, as well as for the so-called New wave of British heavy metal. [18] Their fourth studio album meant a major breakthrough in the US market, reaching position 173 on the Billboard 200.[19] The Stained Class Tour took them to Japan for the first time, with three performances in Tokyo, one in Osaka and one in Nagoya.[source needed]

Rob Halford in his leather outfit
To promote it, in January 1978 the single “Better By You, Better Than Me” -original from Spooky Tooth- was released, which had a cover with the band all dressed in leather clothes, marking the first public image with this new outfit.[search for sources] The precursor of this clothing was Rob Halford, who, in his own words; “… we needed a new image that identified the power of our music. Heavy metal bands couldn’t wear a tutu and play those songs.” Earlier in the year at a London sex shop called Mr. S, Halford began buying leather goods and metal accessories linked to sexual fetishism and masochism. Soon he induced K.K. Downing to shop at the same place, and for this reason, all the band members adopted such an image. This “fashion” became very influential during the following years, both for NWOBHM and for glam metal and extreme metal subgenres.

In the second half of 1978 they released the fifth album, Killing Machine, which had to be renamed to Hell Bent for Leather in the United States because it was considered a violent title. [lacks sources] The album contained songs such as “Take On the World” and “Evening Star”, which reached positions fourteen and fifty-three on the UK Singles Chart, respectively, being their first singles to debut on the UK charts.[14] The US version had the song “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)”, a Fleetwood Mac cover and among their best re-recordings.[20]

In October they began the Killing Machine Tour in the UK with the group Lea Hart providing support. They toured the US a few times opening for their UFO compatriots, and the following year they went to Japan for the second time, where they recorded some performances for an eventual live album. In September 1979 they played again in several American cities with Kiss, and in October they gave their own concerts in that country. Finally, during November and December, they played for the first time in Belgium, Germany and France as AC/DC guest artists.

In mid-July 1979, drummer Les Binks left the band, and in his place came former Trapeze member Dave Holland, who debuted on September 1 of the same year. However, before his departure, Binks participated in the recording of Priest’s first live album, Unleashed in the East, which reached #10 in the UK, their first release to enter the English Top 10. During the first few months after its release, the press speculated that the album had been recorded entirely in the studio, but the rumours were denied by the band stating that the only thing modified in the mastering process was Halford’s voice, who during the performances in the Japanese capital was suffering from partial laryngitis.[source needed] Unleashed in the East would in the future reach platinum certification in the United States.

British Steel – Point of Entry (1980-1981)

Judas Priest in 1981
In April 1980 they published British Steel, considered one of the most influential records of world metal at the time, and which established them in the world market.[lacks sources] On its release, it reached the fourth position in the UK charts and in little more than a month had already sold more than sixty thousand copies, becoming the most successful album in their home country. [14][22] From this album became singles the songs “Living After Midnight” and “Breaking the Law”, which won music videos and reached position twelve on the UK Singles Chart.[14] “Breaking the Law” would become the band’s most famous song, due to its striking riff and the showing of the promotional video on television channels. Also notable was the song “Metal Gods”, which years later served as a nickname for the band members and in particular lead singer Rob Halford.[23]

To promote it, they embarked on an extensive tour called the British Steel Tour, which featured Iron Maiden as a support band in concerts throughout the United Kingdom and in the United States they performed on a few occasions with Def Leppard and Scorpions. This tour was notable for containing few songs from the album, of which they performed “Steeler” and “You Don’t Have to Be Old to Be Wise” mainly.[lacks sources] In August 1980, they were part of the first Monsters of Rock festival celebrated at Derby’s Donington Park, along with Rainbow, April Wine, Scorpions, Saxon, Riot and Touch.[24]

“Breaking The Law”
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Excerpt from the band’s biggest hit
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Between October and November 1980 they travelled to Ibiza, Spain, to work on their seventh studio album, Point of Entry, which went on sale in February 1981. Despite containing a more hard rock sound, its sales initially equalled British Steel.[lacks sources] From it came the singles “Don’t Go” and “Hot Rockin'” which placed in the Top 60 in their own country,[14] and “Heading Out to the Highway” which reached position ten on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks, thus becoming the band’s first single to reach that list. [19] In turn, the promotional tour called the World Wide Blitz Tour allowed them to play again in several European and North American cities, which even featured the quintet’s first performance in Puerto Rico in December.[source needed]

Screaming for Vengeance – Defenders of the Faith (1981-1984)
During the second half of 1981 they began writing and recording new songs for their new album that was original to be called Screaming. However, both the band and producer Tom Allom were not satisfied with such recordings, so they had to redo the process.[lacks sources] Finally between January and May 1982 they completed the recording to release in July of the same year the album Screaming for Vengeance, enshrining it as the band’s best-selling production in the world. The album reached #11 in the UK and #17 in the United States, where it was certified double platinum for having sold over 2 million copies. To promote it, they published three songs as singles, of which “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'” stood out, reaching #4 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and #67 on the Billboard Hot 100, being to this day their only single to reach that American music chart.[19]

In August 1982 they began the World Vengeance Tour, which took them through February 1983 playing various cities across the United States and Canada. Also and within their ninety shows, on May 23, 1983, they performed at the US Festival during heavy metal day, where they shared the stage with the group’s Van Halen, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Triumph, Quiet Riot and Mötley Crüe, in front of over 350,000 people. Finally, in December of the same year, they played at several British venues and at the Rock and Pop Festival in Dortmund in Germany, a festival that also featured the Scorpions, Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Michael Schenker Group and Def Leppard.

Glenn Tipton in 1984
Just a few days before the World Vengeance Tour ended, in January 1984 they put out Defenders of the Faith which, despite not generating radio hits like its predecessors, was considered one of their heaviest records in the eighties, with highlights including “Freewheel Burning”, “Love Bites” and “Some Heads Are Gonna Roll”. In their respective concert tour called Metal Conqueror Tour, they performed the album live in its entirety with the exception of “Eat Me Alive” and allowed them to play in Spain for the first time with performances in three cities.

Turbo and Priest…Live! (1985-1987)
With the success of the Defenders of the Faith promotional tour, the band took a break from activities for several months of 1985, whose only live performance was at the Live Aid festival celebrated in July of the same year in Philadelphia, in which they played the songs “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)”, “Living After Midnight” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’.” [28] Around this same time, they began recording a new studio album that was originally to be a double-disc and was to be called Twin Turbos, but the CBS label cancelled the project due to the high costs of its release. Thus, they chose nine of the nineteen songs recorded and published them on April 14, 1986, under the name Turbo.

The album Turbo was the most polemic of the band’s albums, which incorporated electronic instruments in their search for a more modern sound. Despite the huge sales (driven by the excellent previous albums) the album was not well accepted by critics or the public. Turbo incorporated eighties technical/instrumental elements to Priest’s sound (the most remarkable would be the use of synthesized guitars), but it sounded damaged by the theme of the lyrics and by the very commercial sound, incompatible with the band’s history. The band’s own look during the period, with clothes, haircuts, posture and the stage production of the tour resembled the glam metal of other bands of the time, leaving their original image. On this subject, Rob Halford in an interview with Radio MCB on February 2, 1991 commented: “I think that if we had been embarrassed by Turbo, we wouldn’t have published it. In fact, Turbo was successful in America. You know that bands go through different periods, both in music and image, and I’m glad we were able to do this.”

To promote it they released three singles, among them “Turbo Lover”, which to this day is the only song from the album frequently played live. In addition, on May 2 they started the Fuel for Life Tour that took them to various countries in Europe and North America until December of the same year.

From the Turbo promotional tour, they captured live material from the shows on June 20 in Atlanta and on June 27 of the same month in Dallas to release it on their new live album, the result of which was Priest…Live!, put on sale on June 21, 1987.[source needed] Their second live album was also released in VHS format which sold much more than the compact disc and received several reviews from the specialized press.

In October 1987 they were invited to record a version of the song “Johnny B. Goode” by guitarist and singer Chuck Berry, to be the main theme of the movie of the same name. Although they refused the proposal at first, they decided to record it as a kind of tribute to one of the classics of rock and roll. Only two months later they started recording their eleventh album Ram It Down, which included four songs written for Twin Turbos, which were reworked and re-recorded.

Published in 1988, Ram It Down showed a return to the band’s characteristic sound and look, and, with relative success in the United States, they received a gold record for selling over five hundred thousand copies in the U.S.[26] However, the band’s efforts to “return to the origins” did not convince part of the fans or the critics. To this day, despite the band’s vehement denials, it is thought that some of the drums used in the final mix were electronic. The Mercenaries of Metal Tour made it possible for the band to return to play in their home country after four years of absence from the English stages, where they played again songs written in the seventies such as “Sinner” and “Beyond the Realms of Death”, which were omitted from the Fuel for Life tour.

In 1989 drummer Dave Holland announced his retirement from the band. To replace him, at the end of the year Scott Travis joined the band from Racer X.[source needed] After this change, the band started recording a new studio album, which was released on September 3, 1990 under the title Painkiller. The album received good reviews from the press, praising their return to their characteristic aggressive sound,[30] and is considered the fastest and heaviest album in the band’s discography to date. It is worth mentioning the songs “Night Crawler”, “Leather Rebel”, “Metal Meltdown” and especially the title track “Painkiller”, which has become one of the greatest anthems in history of metal.

Their respective Painkiller Tour saw Judas Priest play for the first time in Austria, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, and the state of Alaska. As early as January 23, 1991, they played their first show in Brazil at the Rock in Rio II festival where, in a memorable night, they played alongside other big names in the scene such as Megadeth, Queensrÿche and the Brazilian Sepultura.

In July 1991 they began the Operation Rock ‘N’ Roll Tour, only two months after finishing the promotional tour for Painkiller. Their last date on August 19 in Toronto was also the last show with Rob Halford, who in 1992 left the group due to musical differences with the group.[lacks sources] His departure caused a hiatus of more than four years in Priest, where each of the members worked on a distinct project: Halford, for example, founded the band Fight along with Scott Travis, and Glenn Tipton recorded his first solo album called Baptism of Fire.

The Ripper (1996-2003)

Tim “Ripper” Owens
Downing and Tipton met to define the future of the band, whose final decision was to continue, but with the difficult task of searching for a new vocalist. After some auditions, they finally found the American Tim Owens, who had been part of Winter’s Bane and sang in a Judas Priest tribute band called British Steel (this fact inspired the director Stephen Herek to write and produce the movie Rock Star). In 1996 he officially joined the band and soon after received the nickname “Ripper”, taken from the song of the same name, which was accepted by his fans and even by his own mother.

Recorded with this line-up, the album Jugulator was released in October 1997, which brought a band totally different from everything they had ever done: a much heavier thrash metal album, with low pitch guitars and even some guttural flashes. The band’s revered solos are not as elaborate as on its predecessor. From Jugulator came the single “Bullet Train”, which was nominated for a Grammy Award, and in January 1998 they embarked on the Jugulator World Tour, with great success in Europe and North America, where they gave their first concert in Mexico.

In September 1998 their third live album named ’98 Live Meltdown came out. The double album contained old and new songs, all adopting the band’s new sound, with a strong thrash metal influence. Ripper Owens shows himself to be versatile in interpreting the songs of the-Halford era, in addition to his own songs – one of his most remembered contributions to Judas Priest is his version to “Diamonds & Rust” (originally by Joan Baez) from the album Sin After Sin.

In July 2001 they released their fourteenth studio album, Demolition. Regarded as one of their most controversial albums, Demolition continued the changes begun with Jugulator, and even included elements of industrial and nu metal. It has received mixed reviews since its release, and has become Judas Priest’s best-selling album of the year, although the promotional tour has paid off considerably. On December 19, 2001 they recorded another live album, Live in London, at Brixton Academy in London, which was released in 2003 as a double disc and DVD.

After several months of speculation about lead singer Rob Halford’s return to Judas Priest, the band confirms his return through a letter sent to the media in July 2003, and with that came the information of a small tour to celebrate his return. After it was all made official, Tim Owens gave some statements to the press saying he was grateful for the years he spent in Judas, probably the best years of his life. Soon after, Owens became a singer in the group Iced Earth and in his own band, Beyond Fear.

In May 2004 the Columbia label published the compilation Metalogy, which was composed of four discs that summarized the band’s career from their debut Rocka Rolla to Demolition, their last work with Tim Owens.[33] In June of the same year, they began a reunion tour called Reunited Summer Tour, consisting of fifteen performances in several European countries, including at some of the biggest music festivals such as Italy’s Gods of Metal and Belgium’s Graspop Metal Meeting. During their time in North America, they were one of the cast leaders at the Ozzfest festival between July and September.

In 2004 they also began writing the first songs for their reunion album, Angel of Retribution, which went on sale on February 28, 2005 in Europe and March 1 in the United States.[source needed] The album, which brought back the traditional heavy metal sound to their music, reached rank 13 on the Billboard 200, their best position on the American chart up to that point.

Five days after the official release of Angel of Retribution in Europe, they started their Retribution World Tour, which during 2005 took them to several European, North American, Latin American countries, to Japan, and enabled them to play for the first time in the Baltic countries, Ukraine, Russia and Chile. [lacks sources] On May 18 at their performance at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan they recorded the DVD Rising in the East, published on November 8 of the same year through Rhino Records and which within a few months received a gold certificate in the United States, with more than fifty thousand copies sold.

Nostradamus, Downing’s departure and the Epitaph Tour (2008-2012)
In the year 2008 and just over a year of hard studio work, they published Nostradamus, a double album which was also their first concept album and which tells the story of the French prophet and alchemist Nostradamus.[34] At the time of its publication, it received positive reviews but also some negative ones, due to the fact that much of the album was composed of symphonic and atmospheric interspersions. Regarding the music charts, Nostradamus was successful, especially in the North American charts where it reached position eleven.[19] To promote it, on June 3, 2008, they started the 2008/2009 World Tour which toured for two years several countries around the world and had several famous groups as a support band, such as Megadeth, Testament and Whitesnake.

Judas Priest in 2010
Between June and August 2009, they returned to North America with a tour celebrating the thirty-year anniversary of the release of British Steel, playing live all the songs from the album. Also in 2009, they released A Touch of Evil: Live, composed of eleven songs recorded on the Angel of Retribution and Nostradamus tours. The live version of “Dissident Aggressor” contained on the album earned them a Grammy Award the following year for best metal performance.[36]

On December 7, 2010, via their official website, they announced the Epitaph World Tour, which would be their farewell tour and would last until 2012. Despite this, on January 27, 2011, they stated that it would not be the end of the band and that they had written new songs for an eventual album, and that the Epitaph World Tour was intended to be their last world tour. Three months later, K.K. Downing announced that he would not be taking part in this tour and that he was disbanding Judas Priest due to problems with the rest of the band.

With the shows already scheduled, the English group hired Richie Faulkner, then Lauren Harris’ guitarist, to begin performances starting June 7, 2011, in the Netherlands, playing for the first time in Serbia, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Singapore. The last show took place on May 26, 2012, at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, which was chosen for the recording of the Epitaph DVD, put on sale in 2013.

Redeemer of Souls (2013-2016)
After months of rumours about a supposed seventeenth studio album, at the end of 2013, the band informed through their official website that the new album would appear in mid-2014. That way, on April 28, 2014, Judas Priest announced the album title and released the song “Redeemer of Souls” by streaming on their official page and the next day turned it into a digital single. Finally, on July 8 they released the album Redeemer of Souls, with great success in music charts around the world, especially the sixth place on the Billboard 200, becoming the first work of the group to enter the top 10 of the American charts. It was praised by professional critics, marking Judas’ return to traditional metal.

On October 1 in Rochester (New York) the promotion of the album began, which will last until mid-2015, touring several American cities with Steel Panther as a support band. The next concerts are scheduled for Europe, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. The tour of the Redeemer of Souls album led the band to record their sixth live album called Battle Cry, released on March 25, 2016. This live production had been recorded at Wacken Open Air on August 1, 2015.

Firepower and Tipton’s retirement from touring (2016-present)
In November 2015, Richie Faulkner claimed that the band would be working on a new album starting in 2016. In April 2016, the website Loudwire posted a photo of the band meeting for the production of new content, with Halford confirming that the album would be underway in 2017. During an interview at Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp, Rob Halford showed dissatisfaction when asked if they would make an album along the same lines as their previous one. Faulkner noted that the band would begin recording in early 2017 and that a tour would not be planned until the following year.

While discussing the 30th anniversary of the Turbo album’s release in Ultimate Classic Rock, Rob hesitantly said that the band was ”catching up to create new material. In March 2017, the band begins recording Firepower with support from Tom Allom, producer and guitarist Andy Sneap, and engineer Mike Exeter, who had worked with the band on the previous album. This was Priest’s first time working with Tom after Ram it Down, made in 1988.

In an interview with Planet Rock in April of the same year, Halford attested that the band was finally reaching the final moments of production on the new album and was looking forward to the tour they would be doing next year. In a post made by Andy Sneap in June on Instagram, he claimed that the recording sessions for Firepower were complete. In October the band was nominated along with 18 other bands for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, however, the winner was Bon Jovi. They later announced the world tour of their eighteenth stadium album starting on March 9, 2018, accompanied by the bands Saxon and Black Star Riders.

On February 12, 2018, guitarist Glenn Tipton announced that he will no longer be able to perform live with Judas Priest due to Parkinson’s Disease. His replacement will be Andy Sneap, who was already working with the band as a producer.

Prior to the release of the Turbo album, Rob Halford was admitted to a rehabilitation hospital in November 1985. It all started with a severe depression due to the years of keeping his sexuality a secret, as well as his excessive drug and alcohol consumption. At the end of November and during rehearsals for what would be the Turbo tour, he took a large amount of painkillers with the intention of killing himself. Although he survived, he was admitted to a hospital to detox and later entered a rehabilitation center. Finally in February 1986 he was discharged and began extensive work on his voice in order to further his career. In 2001 producer Tom Allom commented on the case: “Rob had this amazing voice that any metal singer wishes he had, and he’s better than ever since he stopped drinking.

Also in the second half of the 1980s, Judas Priest found themselves involved in two controversial cases: a trial for allegedly influencing subliminal messages in the attempted murder of two young men; and persecution by conservative right-wing groups – both in the United States. In 1985, the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), an American committee that seeks to encourage parental control over access to “violent” media, listed 15 songs considered dangerous to youth, among them the song “Eat Me Alive”, from the album Defenders of the Faith. According to the committee (headed by Susan Baker, wife of then-Senator Al Gore), it alluded to forced oral sex; however, the media exposure of the song only increased the band’s popularity in that country. Judas Priest answered the charge on their next album, Turbo, with the song “Parental Guidance”, released in 1986. In 1989, the band was put on trial by the parents of two boys, Ray Belknap and James Vance, accused of driving them to attempted suicide because of a backwards message on the track “Better by you, better than me”, from the album Stained Class, that supposedly said, “do it”. Ray died, and James survived for three years until he succumbed to the effects of the gunshot. The case happened in 1985 after the young men had consumed large amounts of marijuana and alcohol. Rob Halford said at the time that if there were subliminal messages in his songs, they were certain to get the public to buy more records, not to incite them to suicide attempts or any violent acts. It was taken into consideration at the trial that the song was actually a cover by the band Spooky Tooth, originally released in 1969. The case ended with the acquittal of the band, but the trial has never been forgotten and is still a reason for the persecution of heavy metal groups, considered aggressive and destructive by more conservative segments of American society. There was extensive press coverage of the case and in 1992 a documentary was released about what happened, entitled Dream Deceivers, directed by David Van Taylor.

In 2012, guitarist Bill Kelliher (Mastodon) discovered a Gap brand t-shirt with artwork very similar to Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance album cover and posted a picture of it on his Instagram account, repudiating the label for the alleged plagiarism. The case came to the band’s attention and was investigated, and the consequences of this are still unknown.

On January 5, 2014, the band made an appearance on The Simpsons, singing a version of the hit “Breaking The Law” in the episode Steal This Episode. In one of the scenes, one of the characters points out the band as a component of death metal. Some fans of the band were angry about this and complained to FOX executives about the mistake. In the following episode, the production apologized by grounding Bart Simpson on the blackboard at Springfield School by writing “Judas Priest is not death metal. In the following episode, the production apologized by grounding Bart Simpson on the blackboard at Springfield School by writing “Judas Priest is not death metal.”

Judas Priest is recognized as one of the most representative groups of heavy metal and in turn, one of the most influential. MTV ranked them as the second most influential band in the history of the genre, only surpassed by Black Sabbath.[66] According to several critics, they are considered a group that defined the genre, thanks to the albums Sad Wings of Destiny -considered as the album that reinvented metal-[12] and Sin After Sin, which introduced the combination of the double bass drum with fast rhythms in semiquaver bass and guitar, innovating within heavy music.

In addition, they are considered to be the forerunners of metal clothing, the main responsible for which was vocalist Rob Halford. This new dress based on leather and metallic props, taken from masochism and sexual fetishism, was first seen on the cover of the single “Better By You, Better Than Me” (January 1978) and which was highly popularized during the release of Hell Bent for Leather. This new way of dressing received great attention in later metal from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, through extreme metal, to 1980s glam metal.

As for their music, their early albums are cited as direct influences for metal and its later subgenres. In the review of Sad Wings of Destiny, for example, by Steve Huey of Allmusic, he mentioned, “it took heavy metal to new depths of darkness and to new levels of technical precision. Similarly, Stained Class is held as a reference for thrash metal, speed metal, and even NWOBHM. Some individual songs were equally important for the development of metal in general. One example is “Genocide” from 1976, which according to writer Mikal Gilmore is one of the roots of thrash and a major inspiration for the extreme metal bands of the 1980s. Call for the Priest” and “Dissident Aggressor” from 1977 are also cited as the first steps of speed and thrash, respectively.

On the other hand, and similar to Motörhead, there is some discrepancy as to whether or not they really are part of the New Wave of British heavy metal. However, several critics claim that they were one of the forerunners of the movement, including pioneering groups of the same such as Saxon and Venom, to name a few who have already named them with one of their main influences. Similarly, the Germans of Accept consider Priest essential to their career. Their legacy also played a key role in the future thrash metal and groove metal of bands like Overkill, Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Annihilator, Kreator and Pantera. The power metal of Helloween, Gamma Ray and Primal Fear was also inspired in part by the British quintet. The same thing happened with dozens of groups from other subgenres such as glam, black and death and had a direct influence on the sound of Twisted Sister, Lizzy Borden, Skid Row, Death, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Queensrÿche, Opeth and Gorgoroth, among others.

However, their legacy is not only present in the musical field, as their songs and the musicians themselves have appeared in movies and television series. As an example, two chapters of the cartoon The Simpsons contain two of their songs, “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight”. More recently, in the Steal this episode of the twenty-fifth season of the series, they make an appearance with the current line-up, where Rob Halford performs a comic version of “Breaking the Law”. In a chapter of the series My Name Is Earl, Earl says: “I only remember Judas Priest’s lyrics and Polish jokes. Furthermore, in the series Vaya Semanita, Evaristo, brother of “El Jonan de Baraka,” when they rob him, says, “These guys are professionals…like Judas Priest!”, a clear allusion to the music video for “Breaking the Law.

Finally, Judas Priest has received dozens of awards and honours over the years, both for their albums and the ensemble. Highlights include their inclusion in Kerrang! magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Revolver Golden Gods awards in 2010 and the Golden Gods Icon, both given by Metal Hammer magazine. In 2006, along with Queen, Kiss, and Def Leppard, they were the first artists to be inducted into the VH1 Rock Honors, a ceremony that honours bands that have been influential in rock music.