Judas Priest Unveil First Single From Invincible Shield

Heavy Metal legends Judas Priest have released Panic Attack, the first single from their upcoming album Invincible Shield. The album, a follow-up to 2018’s Firepower, was announced on Saturday, 7 October, during their performance at the Power Trip festival in Indio, California, in front of 100,000 excited fans. 

It’s sounding great,” Richie Faulkner told Audio Ink Radio in June talking about the new album. “I was in Phoenix with Andy Sneap and Rob [Halford] a few weeks ago, putting the vocals down. It’s always exciting to hear new Priest tracks because they become Priest tracks when Rob sings them. 

“It’s like the world hasn’t heard them yet, but there’s new Priest tracks that we’re hearing for the first time. It’s really exciting hearing that characteristic voice that we’ve heard for decades signing new stuff.

“That’s an incredibly exciting thing, so I can’t wait for the world to hear it all.”

Faulkner had described the music as progressive before but went on to explain his comments. “There are definitely a few more twists and turns on this record,” he said. “There are a few more musical parts. As I said, there are twists and turns. I’ve used the word progressive before, and the Internet ripped me a new asshole.”

“But it is progressive in the sense that it’s not like verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus-finish. It’s musical-part-verse-musical-part. It might do a few twists and turns musically. It veers from the path of it, a bit like Sinner or Tyrant or something like that. 

“So, it’s a bit more ’70s Priest, which I welcome as a guitar player. It’s ’70s Priest, but it’s not a retro album by any means. It’s the influence of ’70s Priest in the progressive sense, but it sounds like Priest in 2023.”

Invincible Shield will be released on 8 March 2024 via Sony Music. Pre-orders are available from here.