HARK THE HERALS
ANGELS OF RETIBUTION SING…
COVER FEATURE
HARK THE HERALD
ANGELS OF RETRIBUTION SING…
GLORY TO THE REBORN
KINGS OF METAL
by Tom Lounges
 JUDAS PRIEST...
Could there ever be a band who more personifies heavy metal music?
It’s doubtful!
Especially after one
chats with the band’s prodigal son, Rob Halford, and hears him
espouse the doctrine of the heavy metal genre which ultimately drew him
back to from whence he came.
“It was something
destined to happen,” surmised Halford, who twelve years ago, walked away
from Judas Priest, the ground-breaking group he helped forge more than
three decades ago in the gritty British steel town of Birmingham.
Judas Priest
–– the definitive line-up of Rob Halford, bassist Ian Hill,
drummer Scott Travis, and dual guitarists Ken K.K. Downing
and Glenn Tipton –– have once again stepped back in the pulpit to
preach the gospel of old-school metal to those who have put false metal
gods before them in recent years.
 They bring with them
a powerful new album – Angel Of Retribution – the first
new collection of music with Halford at the microphone in 15 long
years.
The band has been
re-signed to their original label, Epic Records, which was the home to
such landmark J.P. albums as – Sad Wings Of Destiny, British
Steel, Screaming For Vengeance. Unleashed In The East, and what
many thought was their swansong release, Painkiller.
Hard rock radio has
already embraced the song, “Revolution”, putting the mighty
Priest back on radio playlists with a new, hard-hitting single.
When the news came
last year of Halford’s return to the ranks of Judas Priest, to wrest
back his microphone from the hand of Yankee singer, Tim “Ripper” Owen,
it was almost expected by this writer.
When I had spoken to
Halford in 2003, while he was out promoting his self-named HALFORD
band, he stressed that he would “never say never” to the possibility of
his working with Priest again.
A year earlier, while
speaking with Priest’s Ian Hill, the message that came across was
similar. “That door with Rob has never been shut,” said Hill, even
though he was on the phone at the time to talk up the Owens-fronted
album, Demolition.
One never felt that
either side was happy after the split. For those on the outside looking
in, the whole scenario of that strange and seemingly sudden parting, was
akin to that of a man getting the middle-age crazies, and needing to
have a fling with a pretty young thing, to realize what he had at
home.
“It was all coming as
far back as the Turbo album of 1986,” said Halford of the
tension at that point. “We just had a horriffic and catastrophic
communication breakdown over time. I think a lot had to do with the
fact that Judas Priest had literally been on the road non-stop since the
mid-1970s with nary a break. We were touring, writing, or in the studio
working all of the time...and that eventually took it’s toll.”
Halford explained
that while their Painkiller album was a tremendous success
for the band, there was an incredible amount of very stressful internal
things going on behind the scenes which few people outside of the band
to this day know about. “It’s all bound to come out in a book some day
though,” joked the metal god.
Halford was initially
tempted away from Judas Priest by a desire to chase some new sounds.
Ultimately, he found that he had returned to a very traditional Priest
sound with the Halford band’s Resurrected album.
Meanwhile, the
scorned Priest, like an abandoned marriage partner, took up with a young
Halford clone in an attempt to recreate their happier, youthful days and
heal the wounds by just moving on.
Both sides released
some strong material, but both came to realize that nothing was as great
as the sum of the parts.
“You know Tom, its
family,” sighed the chrome-domed harbinger of high notes. “Like the
best and most loving of families, there are disagreements, but there is
always that bond. Our bond in Judas Priest is the music. Above and
beyond all else is the music. The music is bigger than all of us. The
music is bigger than Rob Halford, or Ken (K.K.) or Glenn, or Ian, or
Scott... It’s bigger than all of us. It’s this monster we’ve all had a
part in creating called, Judas Priest, that has taken on a life of its
own.”
As the aging metal
gods took into account their rich catalog and reminisced about their
many world tours together and the magic of their youthful run during the
1970s and 1980s, it made getting together again for another go around a
no brainer.
THE PAST SPAWNS THE
PRESENT...
“The reunification of
Judas Priest is part of the love affair we’ve had with our fans around
the world for countless decades, from the past to the present time. All
different generations love Judas Priest. We represent heavy metal
music,” he continued.
In fact, it was their
proud musical past, which ultimately helped the band to have this bright
new future together.
Assembling the
career-spanning Judas Priest box set, Metalogy for Sony
Music/Legacy, put Halford back in very close company again with Tipton,
Downing and Hill.
Halford and Travis
had remained close during the course of the vocalist’s three various
solo music excursions –– Fight, Two and Halford –– with
Travis often keeping the beat for him during those years.
“We’d all been seeing
each other and talking a bit while I was away from the band,” noted
Halford. “We must not forget that the band was still there. Judas
Priest had never broken up. Judas Priest was still there, while I was
off doing my own stuff.
“But putting together
Metalogy was the first time we’d all been together in the
same room at one time since the end of the Painkillerr
tour,” he explained.
“When it comes down
to making important decisions, you really can’t do it on the phone. You
can’t do it where one guy talks to this guy, who then goes to talk to
that guy,” he continued, emphasizing the importance of always keeping
communication lines open between band members.
“For something like
this to happen, everyone had to be together in one room, looking at each
other’s eyes and body language,” he said, of sitting down to work on
Metalogy.
“Going through the
songs from the box set... I think we were all wanting to experience that
again, but from a new perspective,” said Halford.
“It was weird in a
way, because Priest has never been one to look back, rest on our
laurels, look at our platinum albums and count the money in the bank,”
he continued. “It was a case of looking at all this great music and
saying –– ‘My God, we did this, and we did that and we did this...’
Looking back at what we had achieved together became a catalyst for
thinking, ‘What might we do today if we carried on...’”
“That was an
important moment for Judas Priest, that has brought us to where we are
today. Had we not all sat down together at the kitchen table at my
house in England like the friends we had always been, then Tom, I would
not be talking to you today about this exciting new Judas Priest
album. If even one of us would have felt the need to say, ‘I don’t
know, let me think about it for a while.’, I doubt any of this would
have happened. It just felt right again to be in the same room
together,” he revealed.
“In a typically
British, logical way of looking at things, we just looked at each other
and we all seemed to feel – ‘It’s time to get back to work!’
Everybody was in the right mood, the psychology was right, and the vibe
was right, because we were all very excited about the Metalogy
box set.. Talking about the old music and our history together as a
band, put us at a very comfortable place, where it was like –– ‘C’mon
guys, let’s go. Let’s do it. We’ve got a lot more work to do together
and more music to make.’”
Before jumping the
gun and flying into the studio on the wings of nostalgia and good buddy
feelings, Judas Priest opted to tour first –– joining the main stage
line-up of last year’s “OzzFest”.
That tour cemented
things firmly between the old buddies and made them fully realize that
they had made the right decision to regroup and that there was still
much for them to accomplish together as a band.
ANGELS DESCEND...
“The great thing
about rock ‘n’ roll, is that it is not dictated by a time line. Which
is to say that when we actually reunited almost a decade later to tour
and write new songs, it didn’t feel as though we’d been apart and out of
each other’s company. It was as though we picked up right where we left
off, after Painkiller,” said Halford.
“That might sound
really bizarre, but I think it really is an important emphasis about
being in the right band. It addresses the passion, and the almost love
affair that musicians have when you’ve been together for 30-odd years of
your life.”
The writing on
Angel Of Retribution is all fresh stuff, with no hold overs from
either the Halford solo camp nor the Owens-era Priest.
“When we agreed to
reunite, we said the first thing we needed to do was to sit down and
write new music,” said Halford. “Because whenever Priest has ever gone
out on the road, it has always been to support new music. So we looked
at the calendar on the wall and said – ‘Okay it’s July, let’s start
writing in September...’ –– which is what we did. We did over
three months of non-stop writing, five days a week. We had this
enormous amount of material, so we finally stopped writing and called in
our producer, Roy Z, to see if we could make any sense of what we’d
done.”
Then the
pre-production and ultimately the recording sessions began. The feeling
was “very positive” throughout the process.
“Yes...to answer
your question... this album is ALL brand, spanking new metal from
Priest,” said Halford. “It’s not leftovers or even bits of left overs
from the past. It’s ALL new stuff. That was important, because as a
band getting back together, we had to make sure that the chemistry
between Glenn and Ken and myself, as a writing trio was still intact.
I’m happy to say that it is. I think we’ve delivered the goods. I
think Angel of Retribution is a very strong album that
stands up to anything we’ve done in the past.”
Now hell bent for
leather and heading out on the highway, to take on their first headline
tour of America in many years, Judas Priest, promises to bring a show to
each town and city they visit, that will re-introduce their history to
fans, while also shining a light on where they are going in the future.
Halford assures that
all the hits from the line-ups first go around will be represented,
along with about four or five new cuts, including: “Revolution”,
“Judas Rising” and “Hellrider.” One song not yet
included in the live set, is Halford’s personal favorite from the new
album – “Loch Ness”.
“Who else but Judas
Priest could or would dare to write a song about Loch Ness?”, mused
Halford.
“I think as more and
more people get the new album, we will work in some of the other songs
as well,” he concluded. “There is not a song on this album that I would
not love to perform live, so we’ll see how things go as the tour
progresses.”
More
information at:
www.judaspriest.com
JUDAS PRIEST perform JUNE 3rd with Queensryche
&
Premonition @ The Tweeter Center in Tinley Park, IL
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