Album & Vienna concert

Judas Priest: “Metal is a catalyst for peace”

55 years of heavy metal history through all the crises and highlights: Judas Priest are still going strong.(Bild: Sony Music, James Hodges, Krone KREATIV)

50 years after their debut album, Judas Priest are making a strong return to the scene these days with "Invincible Shield". On April 1, they will be playing with Saxon and Uriah Heep at the Stadthalle in Vienna. Frontman and "Metal God" Rob Halford took the time to talk to us about the new album, his open autobiography and heavy metal as a peacemaker.

Heart attacks, emergency operations and Parkinson's - heavy metal flagship Judas Priest, who have been on the electric guitar circuit for a proud 55 years, have had to put up with a lot in recent years. The steel forge from industrial Birmingham stands like no other band for honest, handmade and down-to-earth music, which has thrilled a considerable audience of millions worldwide and made the combo the most important for the entire genre alongside their eternal national rivals Iron Maiden. With the brilliant work "Firepower" in 2018, the band once again created a fiery manifesto in the late fall of their career, which some fans even compared to the band's opus magnum, the 1990s gem "Painkiller". The pandemic then inevitably put the brakes on the wind of the umpteenth spring. It took a full six years before "Invincible Shield" finally saw the light of day again.