 Mike check one, two, three, Mike check one, two, three, going live right now. We are live, right on Meta Boys. I'm on vacation. You're on vacation. Yeah, look at this. Wow, that's nice. Trees are blowing. The sound of the water. Yeah, it's nice. Very calm. Yeah. Good news, everyone. Today or actually today and tomorrow, depending where you live, the new song, Trial by Fire by Judas Priest is being released. So I guess some parts of the world, it's already the 17th of November. And other parts of the world, still the 16th. And or it's gonna be becoming the 17th. Invincible Shield, The New Wild by Judas Priest is gonna be released on March 8th, 2024 on Sony Music. And this is the second single that we'll be talking about, Alan. Yeah, there we go. They follow up to Panic Attack, which was the first single. Yep, yep, yep, yep. I thought, yeah, you know, Panic Attack compared to Trial by Fire, I think deserves to be the first single. But this is a good follow up. Wait a second, hold on. You're saying Panic Attack should have been this first single. Yeah, which it was. Okay, okay, gotcha. It makes sense that it was because I think it's a stronger track than Trial by Fire, but this is a great follow up to Panic Attack. Another teaser for the album. It's all I'm gonna do, Alan, I'm just gonna break it up this song and you just interject, okay? How's that? Go ahead, go ahead, go crazy, Joe. I took a lot of notes down, Alan. Took a lot of notes. All right, so as everybody knows, because it was a teaser, right? It was a snippet of this song and it was sort of like a little bit of a guitar harmony. Sounded a little bit like the song, the ripper, the beginning of the ripper, but maybe slowed down a bit. You hear a gong and you hear maybe a little bit of vocal harmony. Thoughts? The intro? I like the intro. Same thing with the Panic Attack. I mean, you listen to it, oh, wow, this is a bit different for Judas Priest. You know, is this? And that's, I think, with our interview we had with Richie Faulkner. You know, he's trying to, Jim always wants to know what to sound like. What's the theme of the album? He said, well, we're trying to do some stuff different. But so that's it. I like the intro. We're talking about the intro. It builds slowly and then before it gets to the major groove. It sets it up. You're saying it sets it up properly. That's what you're saying. Yeah. It's just something different. Something different, that's all. All right, so then you get the verse, right? It's chugging along. You know, you hear the... Chugging is the same word I have in my head, Jim. I agree 100%. I find, and tell me if I'm wrong about this, it seems like the bass, the guitars, and the drums are sort of like in sync together. They're kind of grooving together all at once. They're not really doing things differently. They're just kind of grooving as one's chugging along. Chugging is the word, Jim. All right, mid-paced, mid-paced, chugging along, locked in. The vocals come in. What'd you think? Halford's on the first. It's Rob Halford. You can hear the words he's saying. He's telling a story. And you know, it's, it's, it's prized. All right, so Halford, singing in his chest voice, is not doing, you know, the song Spoon for Vengeance here. No, no, you're gonna sing that to the end. That's, that's good stuff. And he jumps into the chorus. Very melodic, very catchy. Yeah, it's kind of a laid-back chorus, now that you mention it, you know? It's not the painkiller or, you know, that's good. It's kind of a laid-back chorus. This song, I don't think it would have been out of place on Angel of Retribution quite well. All right, I agree. Right? You've got that feel, you know, it's kind of, you know, for me, it's like, well, we'll continue, continue building it up. All right, I'm building it up. So we're up, we're up. We've gone, we've gone from the verse to the chorus. And like, I like that. I like how you said laid-back chorus. A very melodic laid-back chorus, right? I like that. I like that in his chest voice. It's not screaming. It's kind of like Jawbreaker or... Yeah, it's kind of, you know, it builds, it builds slow. It's kind of like when I look and back at you. Yeah. It's a laid-back. It's like, you could be on that beach right now and you could be singing the chorus. Or here on the beach relaxing. Alan, Alan. Yeah, my sunscreen on. Here it is. Yeah. Here it is, here it is. Here it is. I can't wait to do it. I'm not saying nothing. I'm not saying nothing. Hey man, I'm Geddy Lee. All right. So, the relaxed chorus, where we were, we were at the relaxed chorus. I like the chorus a lot. I find it's super melodic. It's got a nice feel to it. And he's not repeating the words. He's not like breaking the law, breaking the law, breaking the law, right? He's actually singing the chorus and there's a change of phrasing, right? Or a change of words, we'll say. All right, back to the verse again. Again, the same old chuggy-chuggy. Back to the chorus again, right? The lyrics are A-B, A-B, right? The rhyming schemes. Yes, yes, exactly. And again, like I said, I think you said it earlier. It builds slowly, telling a story, and it's building its way up to the solo, right? And it's got a little bridge. There's a little bridge as well. And the bridge is the big note, right? The raw power, you know, he comes to the bridge like you've got another thing coming and then he just blasts out that big note right at the end of the bridge, right? That's kind of what he does. So yeah, it's got a bridge and then we get into the solo. Maybe you want to say something about Richie Faulkner and the soloing. I love it, I love it. I think it's a great solo. Yeah, me too. I think it's one of the highlights of the song, actually. You know, Richie and Rob, they're killing it. Richie, he's getting into, he's really finding his way. He's really finding his sound in Judas Priest and Rob is just at his age. He's just, he puts all the other vocalists in the world to shame. That's a great job. You know, it's still at the end of the screams and that. It's not going through like that part of screaming with vengeance. Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. You know, it's not all high like that, but it's well rounded. It's all there, all the vocal tricks that we love from Rob, they're all in the song. But just a more mellow application. This is not, we wouldn't consider this a painkiller. Anything super fast, this is a very slow grooving song. It's not a ballad, but a slow grooving song. Then we get the solo, and then after the solo, we go back to the beginning of the song, if you noticed. It's back to the intro. We hear the gong. We hear the harmonies of Rob Halford. We hear that sort of the ripper song, you know, that little, the two guitar harmonies. And then we go back into the chorus, and then that big finale with that big note, that big falsetto scream and the drums, yeah. All right, so that's kind of the breakdown of the song. Short and sweet, maybe what, four minutes and something seconds? Yeah, no, that's good, yeah. I like how you said storytelling, because I looked up Trawl by Fire and actually it was a movie. I'm not sure if it applies to this song. Hey, it's a Journey album too, title. Yeah, it's a lot of, it's a very popular phrase. Very popular. Yeah, yeah, but this movie was in 2018 and actually I did see this movie. It's a man being accused, going on death row, went off, well, allegedly innocent, and this lady finds it in his heart. That's the only person that's fighting for him, his innocence, and I guess he's on death row and they, that was that, right? What about the lyrics? I like the lyrics, tells a story, A-B-A-B. The bridge is interesting. Yeah. Alan, burden of guilt, branded a liar, falsely accused Trawl by Fire. Yeah, I've committed no crime in my innocence. I've got, you know, Trawl by Fire. Endured Trawl by Fire. So I mean, committed no crime, I'm innocence, in my innocence. So branded a liar kind of summarizes the story of this, this short little song. In my innocence, yeah. So what about the production, overall production? Okay, I know a- You're asking the wrong guy. All right. Well, I would say it's very, it's firepower part two. Okay. That is where it goes. What about the drums? The drums are the, Scott Travis does a great job. I mean, you know, they, if it's a song, it's not the Dave Holland style, it's still Scott Travis, right? But it's not the type of song where he's gonna go absolutely wacko, right? Yeah. What about, do you think KK would have fit good well in this track? Do you think he would have put something that that is missing? Do you have to ask KK? Okay, look, look, I'll tell you my overview, okay? Hey, I'm Getty Lee. Go give me a review. Go, go. You know how Martin Popov, his favorite band is Judas Priest, but they lost him at what he called, you know, the dummy years, right? The Screamy for Vengeance and the British deal and trying to get the Americans. He loved the variations that you saw on earlier albums like Sad Wings of Destiny and Sin After Sin. And I said, oh man, that makes Martin feel old because we're like Screamy for Vengeance guys, right? That album was unbelievable. Then the Defenders of the Faith tour and just that whole album, I still think it's one of their best albums personally. So now I'm feeling that way. I'm like, okay, this is the chugga chugga chugga of the Judas Priest sound. And you know, if you compare it to a panic attack, you know, okay, that's the Judas Priest sound. So I respect that. But are we getting the variations that we've seen even in Defenders of the Faith? You had stuff like when the night comes down and heavy duty and eat me alive and love bites. You know, you had that variation. You had the super speed of... Fast and furious, if I, yeah, free while burning. But I'm not seeing that much variation on the recent Priest album. So it's a fine line, right? You're trying different things. And I agree that the two songs I've heard, they're trying different things, but they go into that classic chugga chugga Judas Priest sound which is okay because when we were at the concert the last time go around, there's a whole generation that are discovering them. Much younger and that's great to see. That's a brand new fan base and that'll carry them through, right? But I'm looking more for the variations and getting away from that chugga chugga. But it's a good song. Don't get me wrong. I think what you're trying to say is, and I feel the same way you do, it's not Defenders of the Faith. It's not Screaming for Vengeance. It's a new Priest. It's like a current Priest, right? And it's a different sound. I don't know, that's how I find it. I don't know if it's a different sound. I don't think it's a different sound. That's my point is it's not a different sound. Again, it's the same dilemma with legacy bands like Judas Priest, right? How do you remain Judas Priest and do something different but without the alienating people that love Judas Priest? I mean every band goes that way. They stay true to themselves. And that's why I liked Richie Faulkner what he did with Elegant Weapons, right? There's a lot more variations going on there. A lot more different guitar styles and not blocked into what we would call the Judas Priest sound. So again, it's all right. I'm not complaining. It's just, you know, looking back at the back catalog, you're listening to them for over 40 years. You're saying, okay, this is what the Priest is now. And then there's a whole generation that is loving him because that's what they've come to grow and love. Like probably a whole generation of Iron Maiden fans have grown to accept those, you know, six minutes, seven minute songs where rap, there's nothing wrong with rap child at three minutes or run to the hills at three minutes, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's just a different perspective based on the legacy of the band and the history of their catalogs. And that's all I'm saying. So to, you know, you can see moments along with Panic Attack and this song, moments of things less with this song I find than compared to Panic Attack, that, you know, you're trying to do something different but you can't get away too far from that chug a chug a chug a chug a chug a chug a Judas Priest, you know, which takes you right back to, and you've got another thing coming, right? So perhaps even before. I hear what you're saying and I agree with that. I just think that where else can they go? Staying as Judas Priest, right? Staying as Judas Priest. And I've read recently that people have gone back and saw the intelligence and the effort put into the album Nostradamus, I mean, that for me, that's their cashmere. I mean, you know, did it have the success? No, not far from it, but they went out on a limb. They tried something completely different. And I said, hey, well, there, that's the priest that we, you know, in the 70s, they were all about doing something different. So we're talking about the song Trial by Fire, but I mean, it just goes to a larger discussion is all I'm saying. So I love Constance Bammers taking, you know, in his book, even wrote, they should have gone out and performed that the whole album live. I mean, I won't disagree. It would have been a nice change from just getting the greatest hits package each and every core. So I think Maiden's buried it up. Now we got the distant, what is it, past the future lives or future past lives. So they're trying to, you know, two albums put it together and that's why you know you're going in and what you're going to get. So, but no, I said that was a great effort. You know, did they achieve it to the extent that the public wanted or the critics wanted? Probably not, but hey, they gave it a gallon try. And that's, I'd rather listen to that than the kind of the same old same old is all I'm saying. No, you're not saying. It's bad, the priest that's coming out now. Far from it. It's just that I think there's more room for variation. So I'm anxious to hear what the rest of the album sounds like. Maybe the rest of the album is varied. We don't know. That's what we're talking about this one song and probably panic attack prior to based off of this new album. You know what's interesting? A lot of people love firepower and they believe that that's the big return to the priest. Yeah, that's right. You're one of them. Yeah, well, I mean, I am one of them. My only sort of hesitation of that firepower era, we'll call it. And I group it with Angel of Retribution. That's sort of like these three albums are going to be the same for me. I think it's time to change and get a new producer. That's what I think. Or it's time to sort of change that sound. There's this production sound I'm not digging. It sounds kind of like compressed. You know, but I think I'm going to like this album more than I liked firepower. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I agree with you that I'd like to see more variation because I like you. The few love Nostradamus and I love Nostradamus because it's challenging. You know, there's just it's a it's a challenging album from from a local perspective and, you know, a musical perspective. It's like a very heavy meal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not for everybody. It's not for everybody. You got to get up, walk away from the table, do a little exercise, come back, have the second course, third course, fourth course, it is a double album. But again, it's anytime I go back and listen to that I find something, discover something new. I think it's a great album. I'm really hopeful for this album. I think because it takes a while for Richie to get into the groove of the band, right? You know, he's like the new guy still. And I can see that you could see with Angel. Okay, he's the new guy. He's he's getting used to, you know, playing with the band, writing with the band. Then you got firepower. He's he's on fire. And I think this album will prove once again that even though they are losing Glenn, Richie is picking up the ball and he's running with it. But what I'm curious is how much more how much input is Glenn having on each and every album and how much is Richie? Yeah, because it's probably going like this. I think it's more Glenn's influence that's keeping this type of sound. Okay. And if, you know, I mean, I'm sure Ripper wanted to break out and do different things and said, that's not priesthood. We don't do that. This is our sound. And I mean, that's, you know, so I again, I don't have nothing to base this on and just my feeling that the more Glenn influencer is, the more this type of classic classic or recent sound we have. Whereas if there was a more of a Richie influence, we might see more variations, but will it still be priest? I guess, and that's why that's the question, right? That's what I said earlier. If you want to be Judas Priest, you can vary too away too much away from Judas Priest, right? We have many bands have tried that and they lost their fan base and then it was pretty much over. To me, it just amazes me that Rob Halford can still kick asses of all those. Yeah, that's it. I mean, that's, you know, and the way it builds nice and calm, mellow or, you know, relating to the story and then you get the screams in at the end, you get where it's not over the top. It's just very well done. I mean, you can't, you listen to the vocals and you can't say, Ah, starting to sound like a 70 year old man. No, he's as powerful as, you know, victims screams are coming out of victims of the change. No, but that's not to be expected either. So I think Rob still got a fantastic voice and he's still one of the leading frontmen in all of heavy metal. So, yeah. I'm going to read some comments here, Alan. Okay. Sigmund says, love these two songs will become another masterpiece. Okay, there you go, see? Jonathan says, a lot of people jumped on the bad wagon with firepower, that sucks. Mainly the Halford haters on certain reaction channels. So I guess he's trying to say a lot of people are jumping on the firepower sucks. Mike is saying, Richie's new band, Elegant Weapons seems more metal than this Judas Priest. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but is it more metal? It's different. Again, we're only talking about two songs so far, right? I know you love firepower. For me, it was like, you know, hopefully this, I just want to say, I hope this album doesn't follow the firepower. I think I hope it goes in- More varied, you're saying. More varied, something a little bit different, something new. Firepower is what you were expecting from Judas Priest and at this era, but it's nothing wrong with variation, right? All right, David's saying Richie is a guitar. God, Thomas is saying love it, seems a lot of peeps are acting like the metal haters. People who, if they release Master of Puppets tomorrow, they would bitch and moan about they are so much better in the olden days. Okay, I gotcha. Jonathan, a lot of people, I know we said that. Mike says firepower was no painkiller, but this is a question to you, Alan. Do you want painkiller too? Do you want painkiller too? No, no, no, I mean, there's no sense. I mean, not no sense. If that's the benchmark for this particular individual, that painkiller is the benchmark and everything has to match that, that's his prerogative, that's probably hard to do. I don't think any bank and, you know, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying, there's, you know, what's the next? You know, Judas Priest has always varied. They've always, you go back to the early albums, not one album sounded like the other until they got to maybe the mid-80s. And then so it's like, okay, what's the next step? They've always progressed, so what's the next progression? And that's what I guess I'm saying, that I'm not hearing based on the first two singles. I've heard variations and attempts, but I'm not hearing the overall, you know, and that's why I loved about Notre Dame. There was some stuff there that was really, really... But maybe that's the proggy guy in you too, right? You know, the sort of... I'm not a big prog guy. You're the prog guy. I mean, I'm the prog guy, but, you know, that's why I love it. Donald's saying, Halford sounds great. The bounce sounds great. I'd understand the sore grapes guys. Well, not from us, but from the rest of the world, maybe I like this song. Sour grapes. These are sore grapes. He wrote sore, S-O-R-E, so it's sore grapes. Guys, he meant sour grapes. He meant sour, he spells a guy do. I really tried with Nostradamus as Dave. Madam X says, I'm a few that love Nostradamus. So there's three people today that love Nostradamus right here. The Metal Block, I love the Nostradamus album. It's good when you give it a deep listen. So there's four of us now. David's saying, Firepower is awesome. Donald's saying, Halford's voice sounds amazing. He hasn't sounded this good in years. And Dave is also saying Nostradamus is horrible. Jonathan's saying it's priest and it is awesome. Yeah, that's right. No, I'm not taking anything away from that. That's true. That's very true. Yeah. All right, on that note, guys. I can't wait to hear the rest of the album. I'm excited too. You know, I like Panic Attack, Panic Attack, Panic Attack. I think being the first lead-off single, I think that was the right choice. If you're comparing it to Troll by Fire, I think it's a little bit of a stronger... Makes more of a statement about the new album, I think more of an impact. And Rob is also saying Nostradamus was a great album. So I think we're at six. Six people here today think it's a great album. I think it merits another listen. And what I read recently in an article, people are going back and revisiting it and enjoying it much more than probably their first listen. Here, Phil's got the final comment. I love the fact that band is still putting out quality music. And I think that's what it comes down to. We're just being nitpicky here because the bar is set with Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith for Us, right? That's our bar. And you know, for a band to top the bar, it's just not the easiest thing. So they're getting close, right? But it'll... No, but I enjoyed Angel Retribution. I enjoyed Notre Dame. But the bar is Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith. I can't say it stopped at the Defenders of the Faith. I mean, I got all the... I got rammed down even. I even went to see the Turbo Tour. Because you're a turbo lover. Yeah, turbo lover, yeah. Which they still play to the day. I love it, I love turbo. It's a great song, turbo love. All right, on that note, over all thoughts, I think it's a pretty cool track. I think it's very melodic and I dig it. And I'm like... Cool track. I love it. I love the storytelling, it's great. Yeah, and Rob does a great job at that. All right guys, thank you for tuning in. And leave your comments, tell us what you thought of the song depending on where you live in the world. All right. Bye everyone. Can't wait for the album.