Title track sounds alright. I am actually looking forward to this album.

Glenn won't be touring the new album. Turns out he was diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease ten years ago and he's just not well enough to play now.
Andy Sneap will be filling in.

That's not good news. My mother has Parkinson's Disease & I can assure you that it's not very fun.

Thankfully, I've never known anyone with it.

I imagine this will mean the end for Priest though. Going on without KK and Glenn just won't be the same.
Time for a Fight reunion...

I'd prefer it if he reunited Halford and continued where he left off with Resurrection or Crucible rather than Made of Metal.

Not sure how serious you were being, but I can't see Halford reforming Fight.

Yeah I agree that Halford's "Resurrection" was comfortably the best of Rob's post-Priest material Stat. I quite liked Fight's "War Of Words" too though.

I can see the argument that War of Words is the superior album, and I certainly spent more time listening to it in 93/94 than I did Resurrection in 2000, but Resurrection is the one that held up better for me over time. i.e less skippable songs etc.

I really like both Fight albums actually and probably listen to the second one more than the first one when the mood takes me, which isn't often, but I just can't see Halford getting that band back together again, especially given how indifferent people were to them in the mid 90's.

Hell of a shame about Glen, this will be the last tour then.

Currently writing a review for Firepower.
Can't really say much other than it's fucking ace.




Oh, and I was joking about Fight.
Although WOW is brilliant, obvs.

I've warmed to the title track. Lightning Strike is still shite, though. And WOW is brilliant.

Lightning Strike is most definitely not shit.

Not into it. Priest by numbers.

It doesn't sound like Priest by numbers to me. I had to listen to it a few times just to get the feel for the structure etc.

I've liked every song I've heard from this new album.

I dunno. I'll have to hear the full album. It'd be good to see them go out on a high note, as this is more than likely their last album.

We definitely agree on that then!

I'm hoping they bow out respectably.

According to Halford, Priest aren't quite done yet:

http://teamrock.com/news/2018-03-07/judas-priest-cant-see-themselves-retiring-any-time-soon

With all due respect to Halford, with no KK around and no Tipton (in a live context) the band is done. I was very surprised that they made Redeemer and this album at all TBH, expected they'd have retired in about 2009-11.

Same with AC/DC - I was rather surprised that Rock Or Bust came out at all, and as Angus is the only one left the band really should have called it quits by now.

I was a massive Priest fan for years, but I got very disillusioned with them during the 'Ripper' years (although they were fucking brilliant live) and the subsequent return of Halford. None of those records made any impact on me at all, so, Firepower is a mixed bag for me. I'm tending to not like the more 'anthemic' tracks so much at the moment. I just feel they're trying too hard and didn't bother coming up with a decent vocal line in many cases. My fave tracks at the moment are Firepower and Flame Thrower. Make of that what you may...
The album sounds fucking colossal, mind you...

First spin of the new record and it seems better than I'd expected. I think it's better than Redeemer, and it's certainly better than Rocka Rolla/POE/Turbo/Ram It Down. Probably on the same level as HBFL/KM (3.5 fists basically).

It does seem to feel rather more like a Halford solo record than a JP one at times. Still, it's got some great songs on it.

That's not hard, Turbo was a bag of wet sick.