THE Judas Priest thread - v. new album and tour in 2024

[El Barto]

Damn, after reading up a bit more on the whole thing it's pretty sad. I bag on Dave Holland a lot because I'm a huge Les Binks fan, but he's gotten a really raw deal over the years. At this point he's known as a child molester and ex-Priest drummer, and that's not really fair, and only half accurate. Because of the genre of music he made his bones in, and the assumptions people made about the alleged crime, he becomes highly despised when it's honestly not warranted.

About the only good thing from all of this is that he seemed to have the resources to run out the clock in Northern Spain, out of the limelight, which is presumably what he wanted.

[Zydar]

Statement from Judas Priest:

"It is with regret that we hear of the passing of Dave Holland. Despite his actions since working with the band, his time with us was amongst the most productive and successful in the band's career and for that alone he shall be missed."

And from K.K. Downing:

"It is with deep regret that I have to accept the sudden and unexpected news that Dave Holland has passed away. Dave was a solid friend in life and solid musician both on the stage and in the studio; I will cherish the many gigs we played together and the albums that we made and I will always be grateful to the indelible contribution that Dave gave to Judas Priest. My sincere condolences to all of Dave's loved ones family and friends and to all of the fans that so much appreciated Dave's musical ability and his life's work. R.I.P. Dave."

[MirrorMask]

Well, nice to see that they simply didn't pretend he was never there and acknowledged the good memories and music he left behind.

[wolfking]

Yeah, I statement from the band was pretty nice considering they pretended he didn't exist anymore.

[MirrorMask]

Onward to more positive things.

This year marks one of the probably most unnoticed and minor anniversaries for the band: it's ten years since their epic double concept album, Nostradamus!

Now that it's in the past, what's the general opinion of this album? I loved it back then and I love it now. Sure, I can concede that the second disc is far weaker than the first, but just like DT with The Astonishing, they showed huge courage in their desire to break off the beaten path (and Priest were even more daring, 'cause they never ever attempted something even remotely close to this, while DT are prog and they already made Scenes, and they were just into their second album after the reunion), and the result was ranging from good to excellent, with the occasional little cheese here and there.

The title track is among their best anthemic and fast paced songs, and Prophecy is an addictive opener as any. Revelations, Pestilence and Plague, Conquest are solid pieces that would have elevated the other recent albums, and Lost Love is such an atmospheric and poetic songs in the vein of early soft pieces such as Before the Dawn.

At least DT actually went out to play the album in full. To go from "Priest will record a douple concept album about Nostradamus to be performed in its entirety" to play only two songs live - the opener and, head scratchingly, a slow and half boring middle tempo song, Death, while the wonderful title track, even more WTFingly, was played only as outro tape, was a bit sad.

[Mladen]

That was around the time I started to await for my favorite bands to release new albums. I just became a Priest fan in early 2007, so Nostradamus was the big thing. I remember buying it the day it was released during my vacation in Greece and spending the entire holiday listening to almost nothing but Nostradamus. Songs like Prophecy, Lost love, Future of manking, Alone and the title track stuck immediately. I also like Conquest, Visions, New beginnings and Pestilence and plague quite a bit.

The rest is mostly underwhelming and I have to say that the shorter songs somewhat kill the mood for me. It's still a solid album overall, one that I haven't returned to in a long time but might as well give it a spin in anticipation of the forthcoming release. Anyway, happy anniversary to a brave and forgotten album. 

Also, I find the second disc GREATLY supperior to the first one.

[Evermind]

Nostradamus is actually my favourite Priest album, with Sad Wings of Destiny being close second. I don't think any of discs drag, there's just a lot of great material, ballads and rockers alike. I'm baffled by all the hate this record gets.

I'm also baffled by their choice of songs to play live. I would've picked something along the lines of title track, Persecution, Exiled, Pestilence and Plague/Revelations and perhaps Alone for a somewhat-ballady song.

[wolfking]

It's aged okay over time, but I disliked it when it came out.  The shortened version I made which cuts all the bloat and filler makes it much better and quite enjoyable.

[MirrorMask]

It's aged okay over time, but I disliked it when it came out.  The shortened version I made which cuts all the bloat and filler makes it much better and quite enjoyable.

I too did an abridged version, I kept all the songs but made some long cuts to the lesser ones, to get over them quickly so to speak. It runs for 74 minutes if I remember correctly, one day I should bring it out again.

[wolfking]

It's aged okay over time, but I disliked it when it came out.  The shortened version I made which cuts all the bloat and filler makes it much better and quite enjoyable.

I too did an abridged version, I kept all the songs but made some long cuts to the lesser ones, to get over them quickly so to speak. It runs for 74 minutes if I remember correctly, one day I should bring it out again.

Mine was;

Dawn of Creation
Prophecy
Awakening
Revelations
Pestilence and Plague
Conquest
Persecution
Exiled
Alone
Shadows in the Flame
Visions
Nostradamus
Future of Manking

Goes for approx 68 minutes.

[jjrock88]

Prophecy is a kick ass tune.  It was a great opener to the show when they were touring Nostradamus.

[Mladen]

I always consider it a heresy to cut down double conceptual albums, but I'll give this one a go just for the sake of making a playlist, NOT a short version of the album:

Dawn of creation
Prophecy
Pestilance and plague
Conquest
Lost love
Alone
Visions
Hope
A New beginning
Nostradamus
Future of manking

That's one fine playlist. 

[Zydar]

I haven't really come to grips fully with this album yet, but I'm revisiting it right now. There's some fine songs here, if you trim away some stuff.  I'm using Wolfking's tracklist.

I'd forgotten how great Pestilence And Plague is

[Dream Team]

Dunno, a lot of times Glenn will play more intricate stuff stuff on the album and then not be able to replicate it live. I figured they were already pushing themselves to their musical limits.

Perhaps he means other aspects of their music, but yeah, with his leads, he does some really tricky shit a lot of the time.  From a technical point of view he's a really underrated guitarist and some of his solos are mind blowing. 

I also think that Priest play quite close to their limits.  Maybe from a guitar rhythm point perhaps not, but not by much.

Well, I don't know.  My first band, first show, we played six songs and two were Living After Midnight and United.  Look, I'm not bagging on the music - KISS FAN FOR GOD'S SAKE - I'm just saying that there was always something... I don't know... calculated about Priest that I never got from Maiden or Sabbath or even early Kiss. 

Like when they did their remasters, and each album had two bonus tracks and the live ones were credited to being recorded "somewhere across the world on one of our many world tours" or some nonsense like that, when most of the live songs were from two or three well known and later released-in-full shows.   

I don't know; I don't have a lot invested in this argument, as I love them and still listen to albums like Point of Entry and Defenders of the Faith to this day (actually more than some other bands that I probably "like" better).

So have you ever heard Sad Wings or Stained Class? That’s the real Priest, dead serious and not cartoonish at all. They deliberately dumbed down their sound with Holland for commercial appeal.

[Stadler]

I did a Kiss thing not long ago, where I talked about all the albums and rated them, and I threatened to do that for Priest.   I'm actually a big fan of all Priest, from Rocka Rolla (I LOVE that record; the only part that doesn't work for me is the quasi-Hendrixian noise of "Deep Freeze").  Side two of that album is as good as any album side in the catalogue.   

I'll agree with you that it's a phenomenon that came about later, but there's just a whiff of "pandering" that, say, Maiden never had. 

[Mosh]

I don’t know much about the details of Priest’s history in terms of how they settled on their early sound, but it definitely seemed like there was a certain level of a calculated image to sell their music. They went from hippie wannabes to leather clad rockers in the span of a few years, total change in direction.

[MirrorMask]

Well, when they started there wasn't much else of an image to adopt, I believe they were the first anyway to introduce that image in metal... Didn't the very early version of Black Sabbath adopt a more "hippie" look before donning the crosses and the black dresses?

[Stadler]

yes.  Geezer has long said that Sabbath was really a bunch of hippies that sort of looked at the world a little darker than most other hippies. 

The pictures on the back of the early Priest albums have Rob in a flowing white shirt - if you're a Seinfeld fan, you'd call it a "puffy shirt". 

[El Barto]

Around Killing Machine they started chasing after the popular sound and didn't really stop until the reunited with Rob, at which point they focused on going back to their own roots. I certainly preferred them when they were original and just being Priest, with Stained Class pretty much being the high water mark. It just seemed like they traded in their originality for some added popularity. The sequence of Screaming-Defenders-Turbo-Ram-Painkiller is a textbook example of rolling with the popular style at the time. Occasionally they did great with it, Defenders, and occasionally they sucked with it, Turbo.

[Zydar]

K.K Downing is releasing a memoir about his years in Judas Priest, September 18.

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/former-judas-priest-guitarist-k-k-downing-to-release-heavy-duty-days-and-nights-in-judas-priest-memoir/

[wolfking]

New song;

https://youtu.be/6QtjdDiMLVg

I don't know, not bad, but sounds pretty generic and a lot like ROS.

[jjrock88]

You're right Wolf.

But generic Judas Priest is still kick ass metal.

At this point I'll take any Priest that I can get and be happy with it lol

[Art]

I like it! Some Painkiller vibes... 

[wolfking]

You're right Wolf.

But generic Judas Priest is still kick ass metal.

At this point I'll take any Priest that I can get and be happy with it lol

True bro.

[Mladen]

Firepower might be better than any of the songs released on the previous album. The verses are as great as the chorus, there are some fantastic guitar harmonies, and the drums are pretty menacing. 

We'll see how the rest of the album will come out.

[Lowdz]

Just seen from Priests Facebook that Glenn Tipton won’t be playing much on the tour. He has Parkinson’s and can’t play most of the material. Andy Sneap will deputise.

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialJudasPriest/posts/10156029516983965

[Zydar]

Wow! I just read it 

[Mister Gold]

Just seen from Priests Facebook that Glenn Tipton won’t be playing much on the tour. He has Parkinson’s and can’t play most of the material. Andy Sneap will deputise.

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialJudasPriest/posts/10156029516983965

Holy cow, Glenn's been dealing with Parkinson's for the past decade?! Did he ever come out and talk about that before now? The man is a total champ considering how many tours he's done with the band over the past decade in the meantime.

Andy Sneap will definitely play Glenn's parts right, I'm sure of it.

[MirrorMask]

Damn, that hurt.

No Downing and no Tipton? maybe it's time to hang it up, as much as Rob is THE image of Priest and of the entire scene, the whole thing was about the dual guitar attack as well.

[Zydar]

Yeah I don't see them continuing on past the new album and the following tour for it, if Glenn can't do it anymore.

[wolfking]

My heart is breaking.  I always thought it was weird that Richie handled most of the solos on ROS and I always had some suspicion and thought it was just Glenn slowing down a little but never thought this.  One of my top 5 guitar players, so sad and hopefully he can keep fighting as long as he can.  Andy Sneap has some big shoes to fill.

[ozzy554]

I knew something was wrong with him. He looked fine on the Epitaph tour ( which now that I think about it his diagnoses may have been one of the reasons for the tour) but I noticed when they were touring for ROS he looked far more frail on stage than he did just a couple years prior. For a while I was thinking he might've had a mild stroke that he was keeping secret. I never thought it would be something like this though.

If glenn wants the band to continue I will continue to support priest in whatever they do. Whether it be one last hurrah or continue as a band with Glenn helping out on the sideline and occasionally making an appearance if he feels up to it.

[jjrock88]

Firepower will be extra special now, I'm assuming this will be the last Priest album for sure.  For Glenn to be dealing with this for a decade and still touring and playing as much as Priest did, that's an amazing feat.

Total respect for Glenn 

[Stadler]

Wow, what a shock.   Hmm.   I wonder if KK's decision was in any way related to this? 

[Mladen]

I remember him looking really frail when I saw the band on Redeemer of souls tour, but I just though he was old, simple as that.

It's coming to me that some friends of mine mentioned he might have Parkinsons judging from what we saw of him in that concert. Needless to say, I didn't even stop to think what that might mean. That's some bad news right there.