Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
The iconic heavy metal legend Judas Priest is preparing to release their eighteenth studio album, ‘Firepower‘, this March. The release will be accompanied that same month by the band’s full North American tour supported by Saxon and Black Star Riders.
Today we get the first full blast of new Judas Priest music, via the band’s official video premiere for “Lightning Strike“! The song is a driving, forceful number in the vein of classic material from the band.
The monumentally significant band spent much of 2017 in the studio recording the follow-up to 2014’s ‘Redeemer Of Souls‘ with the band’s longtime collaborator Tom Allom, acclaimed British knob-twiddler Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Exodus, Testament, Accept), and engineer Mike Exeter (Black Sabbath).
Sneap shared the following about frontman and Metal God Rob Halford, saying:
“[He had] a really good energy and some real classic moments. I’ll tell you what: for someone who’s got that much experience, there’s no ego there at all… we’d do, like, six or seven passes, and I’d ask him to try something a bit [different] on this part, and he was, like, ‘No problem.’ And he’d give me another four takes with a slightly different vibe. And then me and Tom Allom would sit there and we’d comp it, and we pretty much agreed on everything.”
‘Firepower‘ is available for pre-order now at this location.
The North American leg of the “Firepower” tour will kick off on March 13 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, and will wrap on May 1 in San Antonio, Texas.
