Judas Priest has been working on writing and recording the follow-up to their 2018 album Firepower all throughout the pandemic, and it seems like they're almost done! In an interview with The Entertainment Outlet, Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner reveals the band is done recording most of the instrumental bits for the new album and will move on to the vocal portion in 2023.
"We're getting there. We've been trying to get it done. The first obstacle was the pandemic, because we couldn't get together and do it as a group. And then when the pandemic restrictions were lifted, then we could go out on tour. So the next obstacle, if you wanna call it that, was the tour. So we had to go out and tour and record bits and pieces in between the tour legs. So we've got drums done, we've got guitars done, we've got the bass done.
"I think the main thing we have to do now is vocals. So we've got the U.S. leg of the tour coming up, so Rob [Halford]'s gotta protect his voice and use his voice sparingly before that. So maybe after that. I mean, we've got [dates in] the U.S. and we've got South America, which takes us into December. So maybe in the New Year we can start working on vocals."
When asked about a potential release date, Faulkner gave the reply that Judas Priest has largely given about the new album every time they're asked – whenever it's finished. "It's always tough to talk about timeframes, because, as we know, things change," he said. "But Rob always says, 'It's done when it's done.' There's no point in rushing anything at this point in the band's career."
Judas Priest will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this year via the Musical Excellence Award, as opposed to the standard Performers Award. Rob Halford isn't thrilled about it.
