 We are live on the Metal Voice talking about Judas Priest. Alan, what's going on? Yeah. The new album. Finally. What do you think, Jim? I think Invincible Shield is the 19th studio album by Judas Priest. It will be released on March the 8th on Epic Records. It was produced by touring guitarist Andy Sneep, who also produced the band's last album, Firepower in 2018. This my friend is the COVID album. If everybody remembers, Firepower, it seems like it just happened, but no. It was 2018. This album was created in the chaotic times of COVID. They had a lot of time, a lot of time to sit on it, think, rewrite, write, and this is what they got. The COVID album, which is called The Invincible Shield. I was looking for a shield, by the way. I couldn't find one. 14 tracks. Yeah. Yeah, some bonus. The priest is back. What? Overall thoughts. Not KK's Priest. Judas Priest. That's right. That's right. Alan, opening statement. Just give me your opening statement on this. Or like it a lot. Okay. I'm not gonna get it. How's that? All right. It's good. You want to hear my opening statement? Go ahead. 2024 album of the year. You just did this yesterday. Alan, I'm keeping everybody in suspense. I don't know. It's like sort of like I got a quarter here and I'm flipping it. Judas Priest. No, no. Bruce Dickinson. Wait a second. Judas Priest. I don't know. That's part of the suspense of this show, Alan. That is part of the line. I wanted to ask you, because I know you're a big fan of Firepower. Is it just me or is this album seem to have a lot more energy than Redeemer of Souls or Firepower? Yeah. You nailed it. You nailed it. This album has more energy, a better production, and it stands on its own. Or is Rich G. Faulkner said in your great interview with him, it's 2024 Priest. Yeah. As simple as that. You know, this is Firepower plus plus. You got a little bit of defenders in there. You got a little bit of screaming for vengeance in there. You got a little bit of Firepower in there. You got the fury of painkiller in there and Rob's vocals. You know what he locks up here. He makes up down here. That's where I like to say. Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, yeah, we'll get to it. All right. Any other statement you want to make right at the beginning? No, I mean, you know, we did, uh, you did a review of panic attack. We did the review of trial by fire. When that was released, uh, you know, I'm kind of glad they did that and gave us a little tasters before the big event. Seems to be a popular thing. It always was. And it's, uh, we're coming back again to that's the way they want to promote things. So it makes a lot of sense. Creates, uh, Energy creates, uh, interest and then they want to hit the charts on the day it's released. They want to, they want to build up this momentum so that they got some, uh, got some action on the day of the release. You know what everybody, I put the link for pre-order of Judas Priest, the deluxe version in the, in the description of this video. So if you're a huge priest fan, you will not be disappointed. Make sure to pre-order it as well. Judas Priest is going on tour. Uh, they're in Europe and then they're coming to, uh, North America. So just check out all those dates and, you know, make sure to buy yourself a ticket worth, worth every penny. This is my sentence. We'll get into the tracks. This is the sentence I wrote right before we started here. A step up from firepower in terms of production and vocals. Musically goes off on multiple progressive tangents. Like defenders and painkiller. Musically, it has the fury and speed of painkiller, but it also at times it's a little glossy, a little sunset strip. 80s. What do you think? I will, I agree with everything you said except the word progressive. Just because there's like two time changes, you know, it doesn't mean it's progressive. All right. Rich, everything else you said. I agree. All right. Let's start things off, Alan. Panic attack, panic attack, panic attack. Great opener, right? Great opener for the album. Whether I think the first single that was released. And, you know, the bridge is very reminiscent of painkiller. Everything works. It's cooking, man. You know, Rob's Roku's cooking. The guitars are cooking. It's got that classic kind of Judas Priest guitar. Driving the song along. The first panic attack, panic, you know, like you said, it's a little, you know, everybody, you know, again, fits the mood of the song. Look, everybody knows it. There's not much we can say about it, right? Everybody's reviewed it by now, but Richie did say here's a little tidbit in the interview. He said that there was actually more sections that they removed from the song because they didn't want to lose that dynamic. So there's a little bit of a tidbit for everybody out there. I mean, you know, we review this, the intro is different, right? You know, and again, like you said, I think there's hats. There's a little hat salute to the past. And they know definitely, I think with this album, they're firmly in the present. They're not trying to re-duplicate anything. I think this is, you know, and Richie is a huge part of the band now. I think this album shows that. Yeah, yeah. Alan, I'm going to read the comments as well, because we always ignore them. So, Sigmund says, Thank you for your support. Alberto says, Which is your favorite song of the album? We're going to get to that. Eric says, Never thought I'd hear talk about Rob's inability to hit the high notes. Okay, let's clear something up here. You get older. You hit seven years old. You might not be able to sustain yourself in that high register, but what he loses a bit up there, he makes up down here in this section here, the sort of the mid-range. And man, he does a phenomenal job at that. True singer, a true great vocalist. Guys, I want to ask everybody out there, is our audio okay? Is Alan and I balanced? Are we loud enough? Is Alan too loud for me? Or am I too loud for you? Goodest priest. All right. Invisible shield. Complete album review here on the metal voice. My check. One, two, three. All right. What are we going to do? The serpent and the king. Okay. Tomorrow they're releasing this video, Alan. Okay. So here's a teaser right now. We're going to tell us about the serpent and the king. You know what? It's got that driving beat again. Yeah. I don't think it would have been out of place on Defenders of the Faith this song. I have another, another strong track. It's really, you know, it's hardest, you know, back to back songs like this. Hard to sit still. I mean, it's, it's, it's really, you know, driving. Like I said, that beat is keeps you going, man. Here's what I wrote, Alan. Okay, Jim. I'll lie. Head voice, painkiller vocals. Wailing. Banshee vocals. It could have been a cousin of free will burning. All guns blazing and ram it down. Or a distant cousin. A song, the song strengths lies in the quick chimp changing multi-tempos and trade-off solos. And apparently as per Richie, this song was sitting around a while until they sort of got it all together. Lots of trade-off solos on this. This to me, this, this is might be one of my favorite tracks. And that's the answer via question by Eric, I believe this might be my favorite track on the album. Okay. Wow. Yeah. It's a good track for sure. I don't know if it's my favorite. But it's a good track. When we get to your favorite, just pick up your hand like this. I'll let you know. Okay. Devil in disguise. You, yes, you, yes, you go ahead. Hey. You know, it's, I think it's the best solo on the whole album. I love this song. It's got, what I describe as a sexy groove, you know. Um, the guitars, you know, it's got the dual guitar sound, the break coming out of the chorus is, is, is classic J, J, J, P. Um, you know, and it's a really good song. I really enjoy this song. Yeah. It might be one of my favorites on the album. You know what? We missed the song, but we're going to go back to it. I thought you were going to do invisible shield, but that's it. I screwed up. I just went to jump it all over the place. So those, okay. Where a devil in disguise and there's my take on it. Might not be my favorite song. It might sound a little more on the generic side, but I really love the, the drum. It has a nice high hat drum pattern by Scott Travis that should be recognized. The guitar solo by a Richie Faulkner, the electric guitar solo was amazing. Then he does. No, no, that, sorry, wrong song. It, he does this amazing musical section with the rhythm guitar playing and then it sort of like breaks out and trade off solos. I don't know. The music makes up for the sort of more of the generic melody. That's what I want to say. It's not bad. You liked it. I'm so sorry. I agree with you. The solo was for me really stood out. I really liked that section of the song. So. All right. Now let's go back up to invisible shield. All right. Go ahead. You go ahead. No. You picked up your hand. That's why. I said, let's look your hands when you got your favorite song in the album. Invincible shield for those who have not heard it. It's a fast chugging anthem. Would you agree? Yeah. Chug it. Chug it. Chug it. Chug it. Chug it. Chug it. And I put in the vein of jawbreaker. Again, free will burnings ferocious sort of musical section. How for singing the song like a sermon. A lot of musical passages. A Randy Rhodes guitar solo ish. Just just this track is another. It's probably tied for. The serpent and the king invincible shield. It's an anthem. It's, you know, it's, it's the metal world. Right. What'd you think? Ditto. All right. Good stuff. All right. Let's get on. It's a bell. Let's go. God. It's a bell. What'd you think? And this is everything glorious about Judas Priest is right here. In this song. Classic JP and. Another great solo. You know, the guitar work, like you said, there's a question there. How much Glenn Tipton it's hard to tell if we don't have those inserts anymore to say, okay, first solo KK second solo Glenn bridge, both of them outro solo Glenn. You know, that was very important. You had to indicate who was playing what, but. I just put a style of playing. I'm going to lean towards Richie. And I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's got that classic JP Judas Priest sound, but. Man, the soul is. It's, it's, it's, I think probably the second best solo. Yeah. It's interesting that you said defenders and I've said defender so many times I put on defenders of the faith. It doesn't. I'm trying to figure out what parts of defenders it sounds like. I think melody wise, it sounds like defenders. It doesn't sound production wise, but melody wise. There's a strong defender's melody that's running through a lot of the album, not the whole album, but a lot of it. To me, this is an 80s radio friendly song. Defend Defender Vi 80s flashing guitar work in a great groove. That's what I wrote. Sound good. Yeah. I get, I get, yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I put this like a nine out of 10 as a song. So it's, it's another killer track for me. Another killer track. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I really agree. These, the devil in disguise gains some hell. Can we go to the next one? Crown of thorns. Crown of horns. Sorry. Crown of thorns. Yeah. Crown of thorns. No, it is crown of horns. Crown of horns. Crown of horns. Crown of thorns is Jesus. Yeah. Crown of horns. Yeah. Those three, I mean, there's 14 tracks, right? It's a CD. So the days that you're getting, you know, nine, that may be a little bit more quality. They had this expand. But this is the core of this album for me as these three side devil disguise gains a lot of crown of horns. And even the next song. It's there all, you know, there's no filler, man. There's no filler on this album. Crown of horns is another strong track. You can easily fit onto angel retribution in my opinion. I love the intro, the overall feel of the song. It's got that slower chorus. And another great solo. I wrote anthemic. Great solo. The intro is similar to heavy metal on Ram it down. Cause there's a little guitar bit there at the beginning. But the song itself, yeah, it's just very mid-paced. Hammer on solo. You've got to love hammer on solos, right? Maybe a bit of a doom riff. Very contagious melody. That's what I wrote. Yeah, I really, again, just, man, this is now we're getting to the body, the core of the album. And these are super strong songs. God as my witness. Love it. Another, you know, super fast intro. This track for me has the most eighties feel to it. And I'm not saying Judas Priest eighties. I'm saying sunset strip eighties. Agreed. And finally, you know, I'm listening to it and it's like, you know, Scott Travis, man, he's a drummer. And up until this point, a little subdued. But he comes alive on this track as God as my witness. It's for me, it's the hidden gem on the album. The riff. I was trying to figure out where does this riff come from? It sounds like bark at the moon, right? Of course in the eighties, right? It sounds like bark at the moon on steroids. The riffing is relentless. It definitely has a Randy Rhodes, a sort of a solo. A lot of hammer-ons. This is like speed, metal and thrash. And it kind of reminds me, I put on rebel leather. Rebel leather, sorry. Off of painkiller. And it has that sort of fury and speed. I don't know, man, killer track. Like you said, it's just. Yeah, for me, it's the hidden gem. Again, you know, no filler, man. This is another strong track. And for me, it's probably the one that's the most underrated on the album. So BFJS, which is Michael, in your opinion, how much gland do you hear on the album? So this is what Richie said. Richie said that he was doing the guitar work. Glenn was sort of like helping. And when he could do a solo, he would, but he was always there bringing song ideas and being a huge part of the creation of this album. So it's good to hear that Glenn is still involved. Did he do a lot of the playing? Probably not because of his condition, but he was there. We'll call it overseeing, right? Which is great. Yeah, we reviewed this song when it came out. Yeah, man. Another great track. Love everything. I love everything about this song. The lyrics, the storytelling, the vocals, the break, the chorus, the intro. Yeah. And by the way, it's leather rebel. Thank you, Michael. It's leather rebel, not rebel leather on a painkiller. That was from before. All right. Yeah. Alan, it's got that sort of waltzy tone. It's like that. And that three, four time signature kind of gives it a quirky little melody, but the chorus, it's soaring that it's soaring. Everybody's heard this. We don't really need to describe this song. Everybody. I find that a lot of fans are very polarized on this song. The real hardcore painkiller fans cannot adjust to this, but I love it. I'm like you, Alan. I just love the song. Yeah. Yeah. I love this song when it came out. It was a great follow up to the sequencing of how they released the singles was well done. And this was, you know, one of the stronger tracks to fit that mold and kind of give us a taste there. But it's so much, you know, very, yeah, like you said, variation, I wouldn't call it progressive, but you know, there's, you know, you're listening to it and say, well, no, that's different than the last song. And that one's a bit different from the last song. This is a thoroughly, a thoroughly enjoyable listen. So, you know, I tried to, I said this before at the beginning, does this album sound like any other Judas Priest album? And I'll ask you that question. When you put this on, this album on, do you find that it, it fits in a certain era of Judas Priest? No, it's, it's, it's kind of like I said, a tip of the cap to everything they've done before. Some stuff. And then again, like you said, for me, the one that as God, as my witness, like I said, that, that takes you back to 80 sounding metal, but not Judas Priest necessarily. It's more or less the bands that were playing at that time. That's kind of the feel I got away from, I got on this album, on this song, I should say, or that song. But you know, there's got a bit of everything. So you can hear a little bit of painkiller and the panic attack. And, you know, panic attack, panic attack. Yeah. All right. Escape for reality. From reality? From reality. Sorry. Yeah. I mean, this is, you know, Rob Halford's fight versus, or combined with Redeemer of Souls sounding album. So really different. I mean, this one and the next track for me, they sound really different sound and style for Judas Priest, which just goes back to, hey, that's great, man. More variation, the better. That's my takeaway from this song. I wrote Doom Riffs, Battle Cry Chorus, Spooky Sabbath Midsection, whiny vocal phrasing on the bridge that sounds very similar to Ozzie in the 90s. And this for everybody is a Glenn song. This is a song that Glenn brought to the table. So when you hear this for the first time, Escape from Reality, it's a Glenn tune. Yeah, you know what I mentioned? Because the way that Rob sings it, I had it kind of going back to his solo career fight. But musically, you're right. I had a few Baptism of Fire was a Glenn tipped and solo album that I had. And that music would not be out of place on that album. For this song, I should say. Didn't David Reese write Baptism of Fire? No? Wasn't that his album? Pardon? Baptism of Fire, David Reese. Oh, there you go. Glenn tipped and done it decades before, so. All right. That was a bad joke. Sons of Thunder. Sons of Thunder. It reminds me, it could have been called Days of Thunder, because man, you listen to that song, you feel like you're in a stock car going around a NASCAR track doing, you know, whatever fast kilometers that they're doing. If you're driving listening to a song, your foot's going down on the gas right down to the floor. It's got a little bit of accept like backing vocals to it. Yeah, just another driving really fast song that you can't sit still. I mean, feels like you're in a race car. I agree. I agree. I agree. Anthemic hair metal sunset strip with gang vocals. A distant cousin once removed of Hellbent for leather. And this is a Glenn song as well. Yeah. Everybody out there. It's definitely a different sound and style for those two. And those two are kind of coupled together. They escape from reality of Sons of Thunder. I mean, for me, those two really are kind of different on the album compared to some of the others. And they should bring like a, you know, a race car right on stage this time around. And they should play Sons of Thunder. Giants in the Sky. Giants in the Sky. I think this album would not be misplaced if it was on Nostradamus. It's got that kind of atmospheric grandiose feel. And for some reason, you got a great ending vocals. Rob's, they're talking about not hitting the high notes. Listen to the end of this song. The classic priest ending and Rob starts here and then he finishes up here. But for some reason I listened to the song and I just want to, I just want to roll. I just want to roll. I just feel like a roll. Which I guess is something that's happening at metal concerts now. I was at the Sabaton show and all of a sudden everybody sat down and they're all rolling. They all started rolling. It was quite impressive. And that's a feeling. That's what I wanted to do listening to this song, Giants in the Sky. You know, you said Nostradamus. That sort of big, epic, sort of mid-pace kind of song. Yeah, I hear it. Downtuned. This is what I wrote. Downtuned, groovy, thumpy and heavy, hooky. The legions still live on and has a beautiful acoustic solo at the end and a great electric guitar solo in the middle. And this is a testament or this is a tribute to the metal gods who have fallen. That's what the lyrics are about. Oh. Yeah. Ew. All right. Now we're going on the bonus tracks. There's three bonus tracks. I guess the question becomes on these guys. What did you think of the songs? We'll go one by one. And do you think it should have remained on the album as a track track or should have stayed as a bonus track? For the next three? Yeah. Fight of your life. What did you think? I, uh, I'm listening to it. And the pre-chorus has got there. Immortal soul. Riot flavored era. Riot from the mortal soul there. It's got that Tony Moore kind of feel when he's singing. The pre-chorus and the chorus, the melody going into the pre-chorus. And again, more great guitar leads. I mean, this could have been, this could have been a song on the album. I wouldn't have kept it for a bonus track. Yeah, me too. I agree. I wrote anthemic song with a great uplifting inspirational chorus. And I wrote, I have no idea why this song is a bonus track. Yeah, yeah. We can argue about the next two, but that song, that song, I mean, it could have fit anywhere on the album. Somebody says, play a snippet. I double dare you. I double dare you. Tomorrow you'll hear it. I triple dare you. Go ahead, Jim. Vicious circle, the second bonus track. Yeah, again, this one is, it's got more, more of that driving beat. So yeah, that this was a bonus track. You can say, okay, we've heard something similar to it earlier on the album. But it says, it's a driving beat that again, it's just breezy, really like relentless and much more. I wouldn't say kind of dark and thrashy. It's very high energy this album. I know you love firepower. I was, I was a little less impressed. But man, this album just seems to have a feel to it that you're smiling the whole time you're listening to it. It must be the energy and great guitar work again. This is an album like when I reviewed a 10,000 volts by ace, I'm going to say the same thing. It's kind of you look forward to hearing this, this promo, right? I go, wow, I'm really looking forward to hearing this album again and you keep always looking forward to it. That's a good thing, right? Instead of, oh man, I got to listen to this promo again. Because we got to review the album. It's, it's sort of you want to listen to it. And that's a big difference. This song to me should have stayed as a bonus track. And it's, it's a good thing. It is a bonus track, a little more generic. Still a good song. A little more on the chuggy chuggy side. Maybe part of Redeemer of Souls, that sort of era we'll call it. But not a bad song, but I'm happy it's a bonus track. No filler, man. No filler on this album. No filler. All right. The Laja. Vengeance is mine. You know, I was a little surprised. Like I didn't know these are bonus tracks. I just got the 14 tracks. So I was a little surprised because, you know, they're pretty much priests on their last song of an album. They tend to be grandiose, right? Like, the Fenders of Faith heavy duty or you got Loch Ness off of Angel or Retribution, you know they kind of do something. You know, out of blow it, they blow it up at the end. And this one's not that type of song for me. So it was a little bit of a surprise that it ended the album, but if it's a bonus track, is it really ending the album? know is it okay so you think it should a larger so it should have stayed a bonus track you're saying it's good it stayed a bonus track like it is yeah i put in the right place they i'm trying to say they put in the right place again something different something different i'm not saying it's a bad track at all just a little surprise because they they go out on a high priest tends to go out on a high at a lot of their albums so and this one's not again it's if it's a bonus track it we can argue if that's really ends the album or not but it's not it's not up to the standards of their usually strong last tracks here's a note from Richie from the interview he said this was written by bob halligan jr oh okay who wrote take some heads are gonna roll some heads are gonna roll also give me an r give me an o yeah rock you he likes cute and i asked him was this like a cover a song he had in the past because no it was written for judas priest oh really well so that was cool that sounds a lot yeah yeah themed after jack the ripper in the alfred hitchcock 1927 movie the lodger okay london fog i agree with you alan this is like a sort of metal opera broadway ish type a song kind of lockness in a way right it's got that sort of vibe i could have put it on the album or i could have left it as a bonus track i would have been happy either way sure all right all right let's get to the end here what are your final thoughts there alan uh yeah definitely everybody should pick this up uh again priests will be touring that's always pleasant always fun rob's the heavy metal liberace always anxious to see what costumes he comes out with still delivering the goods right delivering the goods you get it judas priest delivering the good they're still doing it jim right and every falconer is amazing let's just there's no other word to describe the guitar work on this album i mean it's i don't know it just seems to me it's gone to another level maybe they had more time to record it i don't know i just think it's it's a super strong album one of my favorites from judas priest and in in quite a while so everything you said i agree with you know they they let it sit and they examined it they went back to it they reworked it right during their downtime during covid and it shows because there's a lot of musical sections there's a lot of breakaway riffage there's a lot and that's why i call it progressive because they're breaking away from firepower was like this verse chorus verse chorus solo verse chorus fade you know yeah it seems like yeah that was very straightforward this one is sort of like it starts off with the verse it goes to a bridge then it goes to the solo then it slows down and moves up again then it has like a two-minute sort of galloping rhythm guitar chugging along and richie like you said he's the new guy he's coming into his own now he's really spreading those wings he's really showing the true top that he is well i just thought of something you know that's what we loved about elegant weapons right we've interviewed him it was every song was really different and nothing to do with with priests uh like priest classic sound priest and this album is kind of like it's still priest yes but he's able to do stuff that he you know he was doing on elegant west he's not pigeoned hold into the priest formula on this album i think that's what it boils down to and that's what i liked about elegant weapons right we let him's got to see richie do all kinds of stuff that he's he's probably out of the box and priest he's not allowed to get out of that box and in this album is a nice hybrid between the two like you said between a firepower redeemer of souls and elegant weapons i think this fits right in the middle there you know what the reality is an artist takes time to grow and spread his wings and to truly show his talent you can't just do it on one album or two albums unless you've been with the band five years prior before your first album right he's taken time he's played the shows he's got to get in sync with the rest of the band he knows what they're like he knows what rob likes he i don't know there's a certain there's an artist grow and they get better as they grow that's what i'm trying to say and i think richie he is leading the pack but i don't want to dismiss rob i think rob is doing a sensational sensational uh sensational job on the vocals he is working in the areas where there's strength in his voice and he's singing so well and he's so melodic and the melodies just carry the songs and the rest of the band of course they do a great job too i don't want to i don't want to say they don't yeah i mean but you know i'm just saying the true the true superstars is richie and rob on this album that's what yeah rob rob always does a good job the way he interprets the songs the way he layers the vocals and harmonizes with himself i mean that that's that's a given we don't even you know like you said we didn't even talk about that because really is there a need to a rob to helford is rob helford man but incredible for me what makes this album so interesting and maybe a notch uh above the previous albums it's definitely richie's guitar work so that would for me is a highlight on this on this album all right on that note everybody i will say it again invincible shield 19 studio album this will be released on march the 8th on epic rep records the pre-order link is in the youtube description check out the concert shows the gigs that are coming up in europe as well as north america go buy yourself a ticket this is going to be very very exciting it's going to be exciting to hear these songs played live so i'm looking really looking forward to yeah yeah that's a good point i'd like to see that and and hey you know let's let's remember that uh everybody's getting up during age let's enjoy this while we still have it right yeah yeah yeah all right thank you everybody for watching thank you they're on the metal voice you're just