Among the heavy metal genre’s most enduring and impactful outfits, Judas Priest rose to prominence at the outset of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal by merging unadorned rock & roll drive with a dramatically heightened stage persona. Their singular approach gained further distinction through Rob Halford’s piercing, banshee-like vocals and the razor-sharp twin-guitar assault mounted by Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. Between 1975 and 1985 the group issued enduring metal anthems such as “Breaking the Law,” “Living After Midnight,” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” while shaping the genre’s trajectory via landmark LPs including British Steel (1980), Screaming for Vengeance (1982), and Defenders of the Faith (1984) and thereby planting seeds for the speed- and death-metal movements that followed. After Halford’s exit in the early ’90s the band’s fortunes dipped, yet his return in the 2000s restored them to the forefront through a succession of widely praised releases—Angel of Retribution (2005), Nostradamus (2010), Redeemer of Souls (2014), and the U.S. and U.K. Top Five-charting Firepower (2018)—that deftly fused melody, theatricality, and power. In 2022 Judas Priest received induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, two years prior to the arrival of their nineteenth studio album, Invincible Shield.
The Birmingham, England, outfit formed in 1970 around core members guitarist K.K. Downing and bassist Ian Hill. With Alan Atkins and drummer John Ellis on board, they played their debut show in 1971. Because Atkins had previously fronted a band of the same name, the members retained Judas Priest as the moniker for the new ensemble. Throughout 1971 they maintained a busy U.K. gig schedule; Ellis gave way to Alan Moore mid-year, and by December Chris Campbell had supplanted Moore. After another full year of British dates, Atkins and Campbell departed in 1973, whereupon vocalist Rob Halford and drummer John Hinch joined. The refreshed lineup continued touring, venturing into Germany and the Netherlands in 1974. Upon completing that trek they landed a deal with the independent U.K. label Gull, and guitarist Glenn Tipton came aboard just before they entered the studio.
September 1974 saw the release of Rocka Rolla, which attracted scant notice. The following year brought a warmly received Reading Festival appearance, after which Hinch exited and Alan Moore returned on drums. Later in 1975 the band issued Sad Wings of Destiny, garnering favorable critical notices yet still facing dire finances that an international CBS contract ultimately resolved. Sin After Sin (1977) marked their first CBS outing; Simon Phillips handled drums in place of Moore, and the album drew strong reviews before the group embarked on its inaugural American tour, now with Les Binks behind the kit.
Upon returning home they cut 1978’s Stained Class, the recording that cemented their status as an international metal force. Together with 1979’s Hell Bent for Leather (issued in the U.K. as Killing Machine), Stained Class crystallized the emerging New Wave of British Heavy Metal aesthetic; countless acts soon adopted Priest’s leather-and-studs look and accelerated, amplified sound. After Hell Bent for Leather they captured the live set Unleashed in the East (1979) in Japan, their first U.S. platinum album. Binks departed later that year and former Trapeze drummer Dave Holland stepped in. British Steel (1980) entered the U.K. charts at number three, spawned the hit singles “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight,” and earned a second American platinum certification; the following year’s Point of Entry proved nearly as successful.
By the dawn of the ’80s Judas Priest ranked among the world’s premier live draws and best-selling recording acts. Featuring the hit single “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance represented their commercial peak, reaching number 17 in the United States and moving more than a million copies. Two years later Defenders of the Faith nearly duplicated that performance, yet shifting tastes were evident as Metallica and other speed/thrash outfits gained traction. The change registered on 1986’s Turbo, which found the band seemingly disconnected from prevailing currents; nevertheless, name recognition alone carried it past the million-sales mark in America. Priest…Live! (1987) became their first non-gold album since Stained Class. Ram It Down (1988) reaffirmed their raw-metal roots and restored gold status, after which Holland exited and Scott Travis joined for 1990’s Painkiller—widely regarded as their heaviest collection to date. Like its predecessor, Painkiller resonated chiefly with core fans, though the band remained a potent concert attraction.
In the early ’90s Rob Halford launched his own thrash project, Fight, and soon left Judas Priest. Following Glenn Tipton’s solo album, the group resurfaced in 1996 with young vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, formerly of a Priest tribute band and of Winter’s Bane. They spent the ensuing year tracking Jugulator amid considerable publicity touting a return to roots; upon its late-1997 release the album debuted at number 82 on the Billboard chart. By then Halford had disbanded Fight and signed with Trent Reznor’s Nothing label for the new project Two. The remaining Priest members pressed ahead with ’98 Live Meltdown, a live document of their first tour featuring Ripper. Concurrently a film based on Owens’s story of rising from tribute-band singer to frontman was in development; although the band initially participated, they ultimately withdrew, yet production continued and the movie Rock Star reached theaters in summer 2001 with Mark Wahlberg in the lead. Halford, meanwhile, dissolved Two after its lone album, 1997’s Voyeurs, and formed the quintet Halford, which issued Resurrection in 2000 and supported Iron Maiden’s Brave New World U.S. dates before releasing the live set Live Insurrection the following year.
The Ripper-era Priest delivered Demolition in 2001, while their entire Columbia catalog received remastered reissues with bonus tracks. In 2003 the band—including Halford—collaborated on the career-spanning box set Metalogy, an undertaking that paved the way for Halford’s full return. Owens departed amicably that same year, freeing the reunited legends to mount a global tour in 2004 (including Ozzfest dates alongside Black Sabbath) ahead of their sixteenth studio album, Angel of Retribution, issued the next year. Nostradamus, a sprawling two-disc conceptual work chronicling the French seer’s life, appeared in 2008 and reached the Top 30 throughout Europe as well as number 11 in the United States and number 17 in Australia. Touch of Evil: Live (2009) featured a live rendition of their 1977 track “Dissident Aggressor” that earned the Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Before the subsequent tour, founding guitarist Downing exited over creative and managerial differences and was replaced by Richie Faulkner.
The band continued refining material for their next album throughout a tour that extended into 2012. Multiple delays pushed the release to July 2014; titled Redeemer of Souls and positioned by the group as a straightforward, fan-focused return to form, it became their first U.S. Top Ten album, peaking at number six on the Billboard 200. An extensive tour ensued, yielding the 2016 concert album Battle Cry, drawn from their August 1, 2015, performance at Germany’s Wacken Festival.
Judas Priest began informal demo sessions for their eighteenth studio album in 2016, entering the studio together a year later to recapture their early organic approach of tracking live as a unit. They enlisted longtime producer Tom Allom—who had helmed all their records from 1979 to 1988—alongside Grammy-winning engineer Andy Sneap. In February 2018 Tipton, diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a decade earlier, announced that the condition had advanced sufficiently to end his touring career; Sneap assumed his onstage role. Firepower arrived that March, climbing to number five in the U.K. and marking their first Top Ten album there since British Steel. Supporting tours included a North American co-headlining run with Deep Purple. The COVID-19 pandemic halted live work in 2020, and Faulkner’s health issues caused further postponements in 2021, yet the band launched its delayed 50th-anniversary U.S. trek in early 2022 before extending dates worldwide. That November the lineup of Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill, and Scott Travis was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The group maintained an active touring schedule into 2023, highlighted by a co-headlining appearance with AC/DC at California’s PowerTrip Music Festival. In October they unveiled “Panic Attack,” the first single from their nineteenth studio album, Invincible Shield, again produced by guitarist Sneap and released in March 2024.
