Halford: Judas Priest are roaring

Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford says the band are playing some of the best metal of their career.

The band are currently on the road across Europe ahead of a series of US dates and a return to the continent – and the Metal God is raving about the live experience.

Halford tells Full Metal Jackie: “I think the point that we’re at now with this band is, it seems like every show is an event, to some extent. The fact that this is the umpteenth double-digits studio album, hundreds of songs later, these are just moments that we cherish more than ever, I think. And there’s a little bit of that now each time we walk on stage. This show, the next show… they’re all vital to the band in a lot of different ways.

“We’re roaring right now. Any band will tell you when you’ve been on the road for a while, you know internally what you’ve gotta do. All your bandmates are thinking it. You don’t have to talk about it. You know instinctively what you’ve gotta do when you get dressed and you walk to that stage.

“So I think that what we’re doing right now is some of our best metal, quite frankly. And we’re all really, really proud of what we’re pouring out through the speakers.”

Guitarist Richie Faulkner recently declared his Judas Priest bandmates as brothers, four years after he joined the metal veterans following the retirement of co-founder KK Downing.

Priest performed at Download last month and will return to the UK for a 6-show run in November with special guests Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock.

JUDAS PRIEST TOUR DATES

Jul 01: Bucharest Romexpo, Romania

Jul 04: Athens Rockwave Festival, Greece

Jul 11: Biloxi Hard Rock Live, MS, US

Jul 13: Grand Prairie Verizon Theatre, TX, US

Jul 15: Sterling Heights Freedom Hill Amphitheatre, MI, US

Jul 16: Oshkosh Rock, WI, US

Jul 18: Cadott Rock Fest, WI, US

Jul 23: Barcelona Rock Fest, Spain

Jul 24: Barcelona Rock Fest, Spain

Jul 25: Barcelona Rock Fest, Spain

Jul 26: Madrid Auditorio Miguel Rios De Rivas, Spain

Jul 29: Szekesfehervar Fezen Festival, Hungary

Jul 30: Graz See Rock Festival, Austria

Aug 01: Wacken Festival, Germany

Oct 24: San Bernardino, Knotfest, CA

Nov 23: Bradford St Georges, UK

Nov 24: Glasgow Barrowlands, UK

Nov 26: Wolverhampton Civic, UK

Nov 28: Manchester Apollo, UK

Nov 30: Portsmouth Guildhall, UK

Dec 01: London O2 Brixton Academy, UK

Dec 04: Karlstad Lofbergs Arena, Sweden

Dec 05: Stockholm Ericsson Globe, Sweden

Dec 07: Tallin Saku Arena, Estonia

Dec 08: Vilnius Siemens Arena, Lithuania

Dec 10: Gdasnk Ergo Arena, Poland

Dec 12: Brno Rondo Arena, Czech Republic

Dec 16: Brussels Vorst Nationaal, Belgium