Judas Priest – Redeemer of Souls!
There are few heavy metal bands that have managed to scale the heights that Judas Priest have during their nearly 40 year career. Their presence and influence remains at an all-time high as evidenced by 2008’s ‘Nostradamus’ being the highest-charting album of their career, a 2010 Grammy Award win for ‘Best Metal Performance’, being a VH1 Rock Honors recipient, and playing to capacity crowds throughout 2011 and 2012 on their Epitaph Tour.
Their 17th studio album ‘Redeemer of Souls‘ is available July 8th.
Ever since announcing the album release, their legion of fans have been wondering if the band would be launching a supporting tour. The answer is a resounding YES…. Priest will be touring the US in the fall. The tour will be running October though November. Steel Panther will be “special guests” for all the dates.
Check here for a list of dates
Already, ‘Redeemer of Souls‘ is creating a deafening prerelease buzz, largely due to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Says Loudwire, “The word ‘epic’ is thrown around too often in the world of music, but Judas Priest’s new album ‘Redeemer of Souls’ is, in fact, truly epic. From Rob Halford’s powerful vocals to Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner’s monster riffs and soaring guitar solos, ‘Redeemer of Souls’ takes listeners on a fantastical metal journey from beginning to end.”
“Galloping riffs, dueling solos and Rob Halford’s battle shrieks make it classic Priest at its metal core.” Rolling Stone Magazine [review of “Redeemer of Souls” single]
According to a new study published in the medical journal Lancet, headbanging (the violent and repetitive shaking of the head) can sometimes cause brain damage. WHAAAAT? In the study, a 50-year-old German metalhead experienced bleeding in his brain after headbanging at a Motörhead gig. He had suffered a two-week headache before heading in for a CT scan that revealed a subdural hematoma on the right side of his brain. He admitted to headbanging often throughout the years.
Said one of his doctors, “We are not against headbanging. The risk of injury is very, very low. But I think if [the Motörhead concert-goer] had (gone) to a classical concert, this would not have happened.” Added a neurosurgeon, “There are probably other higher risk events going on at rock concerts than headbanging. Most people who go to music festivals and jump up and down while shaking their heads don’t end up in the hands of a neurosurgeon.” Bands themselves aren’t immune: Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine experienced spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spinal column) from repeated headbanging, and Slayer frontman Tom Araya had acute back problems. Both Mustaine and Araya underwent fusion surgery to alleviate their symptoms in 2011 and 2010, respectively.
Speaking of Motörhead, their CD Aftershock is being reissued as a live “tour edition” on August 26.
In celebration of the upcoming release, the band has released a live video of “Lost Woman Blues” filmed live at San Francisco’s The Warfield this past April.
Wait till you get a look at the tricked out revolving drum set Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee put together for the band’s current “Final Tour”. This time around, it’s even bigger than before, a spinning roller coaster-like setup that extends well into the crowd. Don’t count on seeing it at every date on the band’s schedule, though; as Tommy recently tweeted, some venues can’t handle his rig’s massive size. That’s probably not the first time Tommy’s heard that.
Congrats to Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell on his 4th of July marriage to longtime girlfriend Caitlin Phaneuf. Wrote Vivian on Facebook, “We had a great ceremony featuring family and friends and the Leppard band and crew. So happy!” Vivian is currently being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma and will undergo a stem cell transplant in September. He says of his ongoing treatment, “I have to buzz cut my hair as I’m leaving most of it on my pillow due to the new chemo I just started.
Heavy platinum! High fives to Black Sabbath on selling over one million copies of 13, the reunited band’s first studio album together in 35 years.
Great White guitarist Mark Kendall was recently interviewed by Myglobalmind.com, and was asked about the February 2003 tragedy at The Station nightclub, in West Warwick, RI, where 100 people died (and hundreds more were injured) when the band’s pyrotechnics caught the club on fire. “Rhode Island was just pure unadulterated torture,” he said. “We had all taken a break from Great White…Jack [Russell, singer] went out and was doing a solo tour. It wasn’t going so well so the manager called me and I went out with his band, and that’s when that accident happened. It was just unbearable. It was very tough to deal with being a witness to something like that. You know, Great White have never used pyro. It wasn’t truly Great White that was there [playing on stage]…I just went out to try to help with [Jack’s] ticket sales. When I came out, they started calling it ‘Jack Russell’s Great White.’ But on the posters, they just said ‘Great White,’ and CNN and the press were reporting that, so everybody decided that it was just the classic Great White lineup, but really it was just me just filling in with Jack’s solo band.”
He continued, “As far as the accident itself, it’s the most horrific thing I’ve ever been through, and these days, I’m still on a daily basis in touch with a lot of people from Rhode Island. We’re very, very close with the people that started the Station Family Fund. It’s an ongoing healing process and we all stay really close. When we see each other, it’s just hugs and love and that’s the way we get through it. You never forget about the people that were lost. You just don’t want to relive the accident itself every day. The people that were lost are in our memories.”
Alice Cooper slid into the White Castle “Cravers Hall of Fame” at the burger company’s headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, this week. Turns out that the rock icon loved White Castle’s famous small burgers (aka sliders) as a kid, and told stories of sharing them with his dad. Alice is pictured after the ceremony with his wife, Sheryl (brunette at his right), and various White Castle executives.
Ted Nugent’s new album, Shut Up & Jam, came out this week; have a listen to the song, “I Love My BBQ”.
Just for fun: Steve‘n’Seagulls, a bluegrass/folk band from Finland, has recently taken on a couple of heavy metal classics: Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” and Dio’s “Holy Diver”.