Judas Priest, Heavy Metal and Nostradamus

After a successful world tour, the pioneer heavy metal band Judas Priest is at the apex of the movement to "bring back" heavy metal to social and contemporary musical prominence.

As many fans of heavy metal know, Judas Priest, for all intents and purposes "broke up" when Rob Halford, lead singer and front man, left the band to go off on his own solo projects. This left the band to struggle along. Although the band did garner some critical acclaim among hard-core fans, replacement singer Ripper Owens could never match the screaming vocals, range or "feel" of metal god, Rob Halford.

Last year, the band reunited with Rob Halford and put out the awesome Resurrection album and they toured their way around the world. From Asia to Eastern Europe, the blistering "double axe attack" of Glenn Tipton and KK Downing, the pulse pounding bass of Ian Hill and the "scream" of Rob Halford, resurrected the hey-day of metal music and brought it back to the attention of music critics everywhere.

Some may have thought that the reunion of Rob Halford and Judas Priest was the last gasp (and the last "money grab") of the "metal gods" but Resurrection proved to be far from a light-hearted attempt at metallic nostalgia. Now the Band has announced that a new Priest album is in the works. Judas Priest is working on their first "concept album" based upon the life and prophecy of Nostradamus.

Rob Halford has expressed that the album will have a world-wide tour that promises to be a throwback to the spectacular extravaganza shows that were the norm at the height of metal; i.e., KISS and Alice Cooper, for example.

All I can say is that Judas Priest has always been among one of my favorite heavy metal bands. When Rob Halford left the band, I keenly missed "the old Judas Priest". Fortunately, Rob honed his skills and developed new directions in heavy metal through his work with Pantera and his own solo efforts. When Priest reunited, I was thrilled but I didn't really expect much. Man was I surprised! The first Priest album in over ten years, Resurrection, seemed to take off where JP left off. The band never missed a beat. And now, we have a new Priest album to look forward to.....all I can say is "We Got Another Thing Coming".

I've only got one thing to say.




BREAKING THE LAW! BREAKING THE LAW!

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant
Judas Priest is working on their first "concept album" based upon the life and prophecy of Nostradamus.

now that sounds interesting... any word on that lately? i just did a quick overview of their site and didn't really see anything...

after Tim "Ripper" Owens left JP, he went to ICED EARTH... his album with them was my introduction to IE and i was like, that dude sounds like he could be in JP, not know at the time that's where he came from, lol... i never heard any JP with him, but he did ok with IE... i like IE's previous singer, Matt Barlow, best... last i heard, Ripper has a new band called Beyond Fear...

anywayz, i think a JP album of a Nostradamus nature would be quite interesting indeed...

If you are interested in Judas Priest, one of the best heavy metal groups of all time, you might be interested to hear a rumor concerning Rob Halford. Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) formed a trio of Heavy Metal vocalists; Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Geoff Tate (Queensryche) and, of course, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) came together briefly to form a group called "TRINITY". I am not sure whether they have done any serious recording together but, from what I've heard, they did entertain the idea of coming together as a super-group, of sorts. There might be some bootlegs floating around of their effort though, again, I haven't heard of any performances featuring the three.

It is interesting to note that when Rob Halford left Judas Priest in the mid 90's, Bruce Dickinson supposedly auditioned as Halfords' replacement. I don't know why they bothered with an audition. Dickinson would have been awesome, I'm sure, in that role.

Anyway, Halford, Dickinson and Tate all seem to be friends, at least professionally. The rumor of "Trinity" also bears some credence as Halford and Dickinson both sang on a Halford recording, "The One You Love To Hate" -- an amazing HM tune. Furthermore, Geoff Tate and Queensryche opened for Judas Priest on their reunion tour, at least for the US leg. Regardless, the concept of three of Heavy Metals' premier vocalists coming together in a group named "TRINITY" is a thought provoking idea. I can almost feel my ears bleed just thinking about it.

The Priest is BACK


As I reported in the OP made back in '06, Judas Priest, the Metal Gods, are back!
Judas Priest are releasing their first theme album, Nostradamus. The album is due out in late May / early June. The title track, aptly named "Nostradamus" , sounds like it hearkens back to the early days of heavy metal: featuring sizzling guitars, Halfords ear-piercing vocals and a powerful classically operatic composition -- the Priest is BACK....

Judas Priest -- "Nostradamus" (2008)

I must have this... and I have to go to the concert. Thank you for posting that. The Metal God will have to show the mtal larva how it is done.