ROB HALFORD Has Finished Recording Vocals For New JUDAS PRIEST Album: 'It's Sounding Fantastic'

Richie Faulkner has confirmed to Planet Rock that JUDAS PRIEST has finished recording the follow-up to 2018's "Firepower" album.

After previously stating that Rob Halford had yet to complete the vocals for PRIEST's new LP, the guitarist has now told "My Planet Rocks" host Ian Danter that the singer has now laid down his parts and the album is set to move on to the mixing and mastering stage.

"I think, if I'm not mistaken, I think we've finished tracking," Faulkner said. "We've got to mix it, we've got to master it and then we've got to manufacture the thing. It's actually got to physically be made. I think everything's been recorded. The vocals were the last thing we needed to do and I think Rob's done them."

Faulkner added: "It's sounding fantastic. It's sounding great. Obviously, I'm gonna say that, but if it didn't sound great, we wouldn't be bothering. You've gotta do something that we think is better than the last one ['Firepower'] so to speak. And if it wasn't, PRIEST don't need to do that."

Earlier this month, Richie told Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", that the songwriting process within the band doesn't necessarily get easier with each successive album release. "Easier in some sense — you know kind of what to expect. But on the other side of things, it becomes harder," he explained. "You've gotta match what you did before. You've gotta make another record that's better songs, better production. So it raises the bar. Especially the last record seemed to connect with a lot of people around the world; it was well received by a lot of people. So how can we make a record that's better than that one? That's the goal going in. So it's harder in some senses as well."

In March, Faulkner told Canada's The Metal Voice about the musical direction of the new PRIEST material: "I've said this before, and the Internet — the sharks got hold of it… I would definitely say, and Rob said it as well, I said the word 'progressive', and the Internet tore me apart. But they haven't heard it. When I said 'progressive', I'd say it's a little bit… instead of, let's say, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus, finish, it might do verse, musical part, musical section, bridge, chorus, musical section, back into the verse. It doesn't stay on the path; sometimes it goes off and plays it a little… Like the old '70s PRIEST used to, like the 'Sinner' and stuff like that; it used to go on a bit more of a musical journey. Which I think is great — it's interesting.

"So that's what I can say. I've said it before: it's a little bit more progressive; it's a little bit more musically, not experimental, but it's got a few more riffs in there," he explained. "[There's more] intricacies, there's more solos, there's more riffs, which, I don't think that's a bad thing, as a guitar player."

In February, Halford spoke to the SiriusXM's Ozzy's Boneyard host Mark Strigl about PRIEST's musical evolution on the band's upcoming album. He said: "That's what we love about PRIEST, isn't it? I've always said we're the band that can kind of rip the skin off your face with 'Painkiller', and then the next second we can be your 'turbo lover', or we can go and 'break the law' or we can become 'the sentinel'.

"We've always had so much fun and adventure with not only the albums, but the songs within the albums," he continued. "It's part of who we are. And making these little microcosms of our personalities within the songs especially, all those names that I've referenced just, they've each got like a little mini-movie going on in your head when you think of the lyrics and the message, and then it's all supported by incredible music working together.

"That 'Firepower' record was a real pure effort on our part to do a little bit of reflection and reinforce a lot of the things that we've loved about PRIEST from day one," Halford explained. "That's not to say we went, 'Okay, let's get a bit of a vibe from 'Rocka Rolla' here.' And then, 'How about some 'Sad Wings Of Destiny'?' And 'Don't forget 'Point Of Entry'.' It was none of that. It was just really this overall umbrella of things that we've achieved in metal, and just using that in the back of our minds as we went through from song to song to song. And I wanna say it made it a little bit easier. And what I mean by that is when you have a focus and a direction and a template on which to work from, then you can keep going back to that and going, 'Okay, this is where we're focusing the ideas and the creativity,' and so on and so forth. So that's how 'Firepower' came together like it did. That album, to me, as a PRIEST fan, is as important as, say, 'Painkiller' was in reaffirming this band, and also what 'British Steel' was in reaffirming this band. And what I mean by reaffirmation is that it's like a football team or a basketball team. That team has been there forever, but you're bringing these ideas, you're bringing these moves, and then you go, 'Yeah, these are the things that make that band great.' 'These are the things that make this team great.' And because I overthink everything, that was my thought philosophy behind 'Firepower'. So you've got that in the back of your mind when you're trying to write this current album. And it can be a mind game."

Rob added: "You always wanna do better when you're in a band. Every band goes, 'This is the greatest record we've ever made,' as you should say, because that should be your logic behind whatever you're doing at that given moment in time, giving it a thousand percent so you stand by that statement: 'This is the best thing we've ever done, as of right now.'

"So what's what we're trying to do with this next one. And the substance of it is great, man. I mean, again, you've got all the things that you need from this band. And it's so difficult to talk about music, isn't it? All I can say is — you can tell by the way I'm expressing myself — there's a tremendous amount of belief and love and thought and power and riffs and crazy drums and screams. Man, it's just roaring again. But it's also got those familiar elements of some of the previous material. That's not to say that we're doing 'Firepower' Mark 2 — we're not. But we're in the home stretch. It feels wonderful. I listen to it every day. I've still got a lot of work to do myself, but the foundations of all the instrumentation are so thrilling to listen to. And it feels good.

"We wrote so many songs, like we always do — we overwrite, overwrite, overwrite — and then we curate the best things that we need to work with. So we have an album-plus worth of material, and it's roaring; it's roaring, man. It's on fire."

Halford previously about what fans can expect to hear on the band's upcoming LP in January in an interview with Metal Express Radio. At the time he said: "When you're in a band, you're always trying to better yourself; you're always trying to say, 'This is the best album we've ever made.' It's just a natural thing to do. And I'm aware of the great success and love that was given to 'Firepower'. And so how do you deal with that? Well, firstly, you have to let that go. You have to let that go, because it's like you're chasing after something that's elusive. What's the point of trying to emulate something that you've already done? We've just gotta do like we've always done with PRIEST, the way that every album has its own concept, every album has its own thing. 'British Steel' isn't 'Painkiller'; 'Painkiller' isn't 'Point Of Entry'; 'Point Of Entry' isn't 'Nostradamus'. So this album is shaping up to be its own thing."

He added: "It's great. It's a really good album, and I know our fans are gonna love it."

Last November, Faulkner told Robert Cavuoto of Metal Rules about the musical direction of PRIEST's upcoming LP: "You know what? The Internet seems to know everything these days about what the new album's going to sound like based on a couple of words that [we've] put out there [in previous interviews]. I think we've used the word 'progressive', and everyone thinks it's gonna become 'Nostradamus' [PRIEST's controversial 2008 symphonic heavy metal concept double album about Nostradamus], or RUSH, which is two different things. I've definitely used the word 'progressive' [to describe the new PRIEST material in previous interviews], purely because it's got a few musical turnarounds that 'Firepower' doesn't have. But that doesn't make it a RUSH record. It just makes it — instead of, like, a verse into a bridge into a chorus, there might be a couple of more musical passages in there to make it a bit more… interesting; might be the wrong word. I don't know. You've gotta be careful with the words you use these days. So it's not 'Firepower 2', but it's the same band a few years later, so there's obvious connections to the last record. But it's not 'Firepower 2' by any means."

Richie continued: "No PRIEST records have sounded the same, but it's got a common DNA. And you always try and make the next one sound a bit better — or whatever 'better' may be; 'better' is subjective. So, is it better written? Are the lyrics better? Does it sound better? And 'better' is always subjective. So it's hard to pinpoint, really. But it's a bit more of a musical adventure than the last one, I'd say. But then again someone might listen to it, when it does come out, and have a totally different interpretation of what it is. So it's always tough to sum up your own music without sounding up your own butt."

In October, Halford told AXS TV's Katie Daryl about what PRIEST fans can expect from the upcoming LP: "The same energy, the same vitality, the same determination, and it really is, again, another affirmation of what you love about JUDAS PRIEST. If you listen to any album from PRIEST from 'Rocka Rolla' in the '70s up to the 2000s with 'Firepower' and everything that went on between there, whether it was 'Turbo Lover' or whether it was the 'Painkiller' or '[You've Got] Another Thing Comin'', all of these pinpoints connect the dots of this great 50 years of metal, this journey that we're on. And it ain't over yet, folks, because that means another album and another tour. And we can't wait to keep pouring out the metal, 'cause that turbo power isn't gonna get turned off anytime soon."

In February 2022, Halford was asked by Remy Maxwell of Audacy Check In if he agreed with Faulkner's comment that the band's upcoming album will be more musically "progressive" than "Firepower". He responded: "Yeah, the metal is there. But here's the thing: we've tried our best not to replicate anything that we've done. From 'Rocka Rolla' all the way through to 'Firepower', each record has had a distinctive character. And it's tough because fans go, 'We want another 'Painkiller',' 'We want another 'British Steel'.' And [it's, like], 'Dude, we've already done that.'

"Fans know that we're a band that is always full of adventure and trying new stuff," he continued. "And so, yeah, this has got probably some more progressive elements that we've never really delved into before. And that's exciting, because, again, it gives us and our fans another opportunity to see a different side of PRIEST. But it's still metal. There's just more of it. There are more notes than there were before."

Also in February 2022, Faulkner told Canada's The Metal Voice about the overall sound of the new PRIEST music: "Whenever you start a record, you never know how it's gonna turn out. So you might start with an idea of what it's gonna be, and as it kind of rolls on, it comes out something different. So you don't quite know. And also it's really hard to sum up your own music, I find, without sounding really pretentious. But I think this one — it's not 'Firepower 2', I don't think. It's its own thing, it's its own animal. If anything, I would say it's a bit more progressive in places, and in places it's got a bit more of that 'Killing Machine' swagger."

Faulkner added: "I know everyone says, 'Oh, is it the next 'Painkiller'?' or 'Is it the next…?' whatever… I don't know if they'd ever done it, but I know we've never done it when I've been in the band; we've never tried to recreate an album. It's always we try to create an album that stands on its own legs. So I think it's definitely a little bit more progressive than 'Firepower' and, as I said, in places it's got a little bit of that 'Killing Machine' angry swagger attitude going on."

Two years ago, Halford confirmed that PRIEST's next album would see the band reuniting with the "Firepower" production team consisting of Sneap, longtime collaborator Tom Allom and engineer Mike Exeter (BLACK SABBATH).

Bassist Ian Hill is the sole remaining original member of PRIEST, which formed in 1969. Halford joined the group in 1973 and Glenn Tipton signed on in 1974. Rob left PRIEST in the early 1990s to form his own band, then came back to PRIEST in 2003. K.K. Downing parted ways with the band in 2011, and was replaced by Faulkner.