The Metal God, Rob Halford, says Judas Priest will start recording their next album in 2016.
Rejuvenated by the addition of new guitarist Richie Faulkner, the band released 17th album Redeemer Of Souls in 2014. And just a few months later, Halford said he was already thinking ahead to album no.18.
Now the frontman says he expects work to begin next year and adds that they can’t afford to wait too long to hit the studio again.
He tells Sixx Sense, “We’ll be heading out for the rest of this tour until Christmas time, take a break, and then more than likely in the studio early of 2016 and see how quickly we can turn this around. It won’t be a rush job, because we treasure everything we do, but I think that the mindset is there to make this record efficiently and hopefully have it out there for our Priest family as soon as we can.”
The positive reaction to Redeemer Of Souls was also a big driving factor in making the band want to record again as soon as possible.
Halford adds, “That really motivated us to crack the whip and get on with making the next record pretty quickly. The clock is ticking. We can’t afford to wait three years, or five years now, to make the record.
Who wants to go home and sit down for a year? And especially while the band is buzzing and the energy’s there creatively. We had so much stuff happening in the studio we had to put blocks on because we were on a time schedule with the label. So we do have some stuff kind of left over from Redeemer Of Souls.”
Judas Priest tour dates:
Jul 11: Biloxi Hard Rock Live, MS, US
Jul 13: Grand Prairie Verizon Theatre, TX, US
Jul 15: Sterling Heights Freedom Hill Amphitheatre, MI, US
Jul 16: Oshkosh Rock, WI, US
Jul 18: Cadott Rock Fest, WI, US
Jul 25: Barcelona Rock Fest, Spain
Jul 26: Madrid Auditorio Miguel Rios De Rivas, Spain
Jul 29: Szekesfehervar Fezen Festival, Hungary
Jul 30: Graz See Rock Festival, Austria
Aug 01: Wacken Festival, Germany
Oct 24: San Bernardino, Knotfest, CA
Nov 23: Bradford St Georges, UK
Nov 24: Glasgow Barrowlands, UK
Nov 26: Wolverhampton Civic, UK
Nov 28: Manchester Apollo, UK
Nov 30: Portsmouth Guildhall, UK
Dec 01: London O2 Brixton Academy, UK
Dec 04: Karlstad Lofbergs Arena, Sweden
Dec 05: Stockholm Ericsson Globe, Sweden
Dec 07: Tallin Saku Arena, Estonia
Dec 08: Vilnius Siemens Arena, Lithuania
Dec 10: Gdasnk Ergo Arena, Poland
Dec 12: Brno Rondo Arena, Czech Republic
Dec 16: Brussels Vorst Nationaal, Belgium
additional source: classicrock.teamrock.com
5 Responses
More new music from Priest? Bring it on! ROS was/is a great album, can’t wait to hear what the Metal God & JP still have left up their sleeves! 😉
I have my ticket for next week to go see the mighty Judas Priest! I can’t wait! It’s gonna be awesome!
My favorite band of all time!
Enjoy the F’N show James, you know it’s gonna be awesome! It’s the mighty Priest!!
I can’t tell you how freakin’ pumped I am hearing the band talk about the future. I honestly thought “this is it” the last time I saw them in October (I also thought the same 3 years ago….). I’m blown away at what they’ve been able to pull off, too, this tour. At first, it was what they said. And the album blew up around the world and they have this new energy. I love it!! As much as I love KK, and really didn’t like Richie during the last tour, Richie seems to have saved the greatest metal band in history from a premature retirement. He won me over, big time.
I’m still concerned about Glenn, though. He’s still shaky, although it doesn’t appear to be as prominent as it was during the fall portion of the tour. I realize these guys are now in their 60s, but it’s very hard for me to watch him play now. He’s been my guitar hero since day one (I picked up the guitar back in 83 as soon as I saw YGATC video on eMpTyV). To see him struggle kills me.
If we can get one more album from them, I’ll be thrilled.
Well, I’m cautiously optimistic about this. I really liked most of RoS, though I’d like the next one to have a different sound (production wise) to it – I felt the sound/mix/whatever on RoS could have been bigger, fuller, punchier – particularly the guitars. Having said that, I still enjoy listening to it. I think most of the songs have some real depth and conviction to them, and as much as I wish KK were still there Mr. Faulkner is a ripping guitarist and I can’t deny he’s added some fire to the band. I don’t expect, or even necessarily want Rob Halford to be screaming his head off, but I would like to hear just a little bit more power and range from the Metal God on a new record. Especially if it is likely to be the last one, just give it whatever they’ve got left in the tank. Even if it’s something that would be too taxing to play on tour, the record is forever so just get it on tape (or hard drive, as it is today).
I was unable to attend a show on the last tour, but I’ve watched several video clips. Glenn did look like he was struggling, and I mean no disrespect whatsoever by that. I could be mistaken but I think he’s 67? My father is just a few years older and he’s had two knee replacements, hand surgeries, and a few other things to deal with and he doesn’t have anywhere near the mileage on him that Glenn Tipton does. Hell I’m only 41and some days I’m sore getting up in the morning! I’m not quite trying to equate performing music with playing sports, but there IS a level of physical performance that has to be maintained that generally recedes as we get older, and they aren’t playing gentle easy listening music after all. When and if Glenn decides he can’t continue, I would have to think that will be the final curtain for Judas Priest. I think the fans have mostly accepted Ritchie, but it can’t be Priest without either KK OR Glenn. No disrespect either to Rob or Ian Hill, but I don’t think the fans would accept “Judas Priest” with only those two original members.