Back to Basics
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fter a sometimes tumultuous fivedecades long career, British heavy metal pioneers Judas Priest show no signs of slowing down after the release of their explosive 18th full-length studio album Firepower. On 14 tracks, Priest delivers their indisputable, classic heavy metal sound that hearkens back to the band’ s heyday. The first single“ Lightning Strike” dropped in January and created quite a buzz in the heavy metal community, reassuring the band’ s hardcore fan base that the Priest was back and better than ever. Led by pioneering vocalist Rob Halford, original bassist Ian Hill, drummer Scott Travis, guitarist Ritchie Faulkner, and guitarist Andy Sneap— who is filling in for original guitarist Glenn Tipton on the current Firepower tour— the band seems ready to conquer the world all over again.
With the music world( and the world in general) in a perpetual state of flux, the endless barrage of social media hot takes, internet spoilers, and perceived fake news, there’ s a multitude of things that can get you down. However, a brand new Priest album is guaranteed to lift one ' s spirits, and the anticipation from Priest fans before the release of Firepower was palpable. The expectations for the band are just as exhilarating.“ All of that is going on through our minds while we’ re together in the writing stages,” Rob Halford told IE ' s Kelley Simms ahead of their North American tour.“ We think about our fans so much. We have a # Priest family, that’ s what we feel. So many of our friends have been with us since day one, especially in your part of the world around Chicago, Illinois. That part of the nation has been solid for Priest for as long as I can remember. There is just something about the personality of Chicago and the hardcore attachment to
22 illinoisentertainer. com april 2018 heavy metal music that we see and feel each time we go back. I think if we were not getting that buzz or not getting that excitement or that same anticipation or expectation like our fans get, then there’ s something sorely wrong.”
Priest makes area stops at The Riverside Theater in Milwaukee on April 3rd and the Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington on April 8th, but plans for a proper Chicago date are already in motion according to Halford. Opening for the band on the first leg of the North American tour will be fellow countrymen Saxon, and the Thin Lizzy-inspired Black Star Riders.
The new album opens with the title track and is arguably one of the band’ s most explosive songs ever written.“ We’ re offering the term Firepower to be about the fire and the power of heavy metal music,” Halford explains.“[ We wanted ] to focus on all of the great moments that we’ ve all shared and loved with Judas Priest music over the decades, and really fine tune it into this specific area of the classic elements of Judas Priest.” The lyrical template for most of the tracks on Firepower is the act of striking out against evil, whether it’ s a destructive administration, an organization, a leader, etc. It’ s that classic Priest good vs. evil scenario that has served the band well throughout its illustrious career. A similar motif continues with“ Evil Never Dies,” which decorates with an ear-shattering chorus and a haunting interlude recalling the chilling breakdown during“ Night Crawler” off the band’ s 1990 Painkiller album. In fact, there’ s a little bit of every kind of Priest metal style embedded in the songwriting on Firepower.“ We’ re just reestablishing all of the great core quality values of Priest metal,” Halford states.“ You’ re going to the ballad experience of a
By Kelley Simms
song like“ Sea of Red,” which has all the great components of a classic Priest ballad seal. Then you ' ve got the intensity of the other songs, so collectively these 14 tracks make a statement with that direction.” Plus, the stellar production on Firepower was achieved by two accomplished producers with two different styles— which ultimately created one fantastic result.
The band reunited with producer Tom Allom( the knob-twirler for the band’ s releases from 1979-1988, including iconic albums British Steel, Point of Entry, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith), who was accompanied by Grammywinning producer Andy Sneap( Killswitch Engage and Megadeth). Allom brings a familiar Priest metal vibe, while Sneap( who is also a touring guitarist with the band) is well-versed in modern day recording techniques.
With the combined duo, Priest was able to receive the best of both worlds on Firepower.“ From the beginning with the idea of the production team alone, there was just a sense of belief that something very special was going to happen,” Halford admits.“ Tom knows me inside out as a heavy metal singer, and he was able to work with Andy to get some of my best performances. The studio can be a bit of a mind game if you don’ t really know where your emotions can take you. If your emotions are in the wrong place when you try to track, you may be completely off course. But if you have a production team like Tom and Andy, they can create the correct emotion to get the best performance out of you.”
The band also went back to a more organic recording process compared to its last few releases, where everyone played together in the same room in the studio.“ It photo by Justin Borucki
was kind of different for us in that respect, because we hadn’ t done that for a long time,” says Halford.“ They really pushed that, Tom and Andy did. And it was a great thing to do because there’ s an amazing sense of feel in all these songs. You can feel the slight push and pull of each track which we can only get when the band is playing together. There were a lot of different things— some of them subtle, some of them quite strong— but all of them combined, made this record very special for us.”
The contribution of Faulkner as a core Priest songwriter after replacing original guitarist KK Downing in 2011 was immeasurable.“ He cut his teeth in Priest on the Epitaph tour,” Halford states.“ That kind of got him in the right mind for writing for the first time with Glenn and myself. So having that one experience under his belt, he was raring to go. He was already an accomplished writer and guitar player before he joined Priest, and he’ s always been a Priest fan. I think he had to get his place in his headspace to be able to find where he really wanted to put his centered ideas in the musical sense for Firepower, all based on the prior couple of years after working from Epitaph to here forward.”
Plus, the rest of the band— including Tipton, Hill, and Travis— delivered the goods as well.“ I can’ t really explain, other than we were coached so effectively by Tom and Andy,” Halford admits.“ They know we got it in us; it’ s how to extract it. It’ s how you get the best out of a sports individual’ s performance. The coach can see that you’ ve got it, but the coach gets it out of you. And that’ s exactly what Tom and Andy did for Firepower.”
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