Judas Priest performing during the Firepower at the ACL Live Moody Theater in Austin, Texas on May 29, 2019, with Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, Richie Faulkner, Ian Hill, and Scott Travis.
There are few heavy metal bands that have managed to scale the heights that Judas Priest have during their nearly 50-year career. Their presence and influence remains at an all-time high as evidenced by 2018’s ‘Firepower’ being the highest charting album of their career, a 2010 Grammy Award win for ‘Best Metal Performance’, plus being a 2006 VH1 Rock Honors recipient and a 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination.Setlist for the show at the ACL Live Moody Theater
Judas Priest originally formed in 1969 in Birmingham, England (an area that many feel birthed heavy metal). Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing and Ian Hill would be the nucleus of musicians (along with several different drummers over the years) that would go on to change the face of heavy metal.
It could be said that Priest simply owned the ’80s as they were second to none as far as pure metal goes, releasing such all-time classic albums as 1980’s ‘British Steel’, 1981’s ‘Point of Entry’, 1982’s ‘Screaming for Vengeance’, and 1984’s ‘Defenders of the Faith’. Once more, these titles spawned countless enduring metal anthems including ‘Breaking the Law’, ‘Living After Midnight’, ‘Heading Out to the Highway’, and ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Coming’. The ’80s were also a decade where Priest became a global arena headliner, offering show-stopping sets at some of the world’s biggest festivals, including the first-ever Monsters of Rock Festival at Donington Park (1980) in the United Kingdom, the US Festival (1983) in the United States and Live Aid (1985) in the United States.
In 2017, Priest received a nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the following year, issuing their latest studio album, Firepower. Co-produced by Tom Allom and Andy Sneap, the 14-track album has become one of the most successful of the band’s entire career, landing in the top 5 of 17 countries (including their highest chart placement ever in the United States at #5), and scoring their highest charting commercial rock radio single in decades with “Lightning Strike.”
- Necromancer
- Heading Out to the Highway
- The Sentinel
- Spectre
- (Take These) Chains
- Judas Rising
- Out in the Cold
- Traitors Gate
- Starbreaker
- Steeler
- Halls of Valhalla
- Tyrant
- No Surrender
- Victim of Changes
- All Guns Blazing
- Hell Bent for Leather
- Breaking the Law
- Living After Midnight
Judas Priest was the main act at the ACL Live Moody Theater with guests Uraiah Heep. The band continues across the United States, Canada, and Europe with the last stop at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland on March 16, 2020.
Judas Priest
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Photos by Ralph Arvesen
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