Video: JUDAS PRIEST Singer Talks About His Collaboration With FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH

Rob Halford of JUDAS PRIEST recently spoke to Artisan News about his collaboration with Las Vegas metallers FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH on the first single from their upcoming album, called "Lift Me Up". Check out the clip below.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH introduced "Lift Me Up", via a live appearance at the Revolver Golden Gods on May 2 in Los Angeles. The performance featured a special surprise guest appearance by Halford, who also appears on the studio version of the track.

The studio version of the song premiered on May 13 on U.S. radio stations and the official lyric video for the track can now be seen below.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's fourth studio effort will be a double album that the band will release in two installments. The first volume, "The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell Volume 1", will arrive on July 23, with the second half, "The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell Volume 2", to surface sometime later this fall.

Comments FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH singer Ivan Moody: "First and foremost, just to work alongside an icon like Rob Halford, THE Metal God, was absolutely surreal.

"The song itself was originally written about overcoming everyday obstacles and less-than-perfect situations.

"Most of us weren't born with a silver spoon in our mouth, but if life dealt you all the wrong cards, you still have to play.

"The song's intent is to inspire; if you play that hand right, you might just come out on top anyway."

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH guitarist Zoltan Bathory said, "We came off the road after a couple of great years of touring and were really amped up to write the fourth record . . . (we) found ourselves 12-13 songs deep fairly quick but were still coming up with better and better material so we looked at each other and said, 'OK, why stop there? Let's keep going.' Once we passed the 24th song, we knew we're going to have to do a double album."

Bathory added, "We had this massive amount of music that's very dear to us, possibly the best material this band has ever created. At that point there was no way to decide which songs to leave off the album. So we made the decision to release them all."

The guitarist told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that everyone in FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH is capable of coming up with music. "You know, it's important to write songs," he said. "There was a time when people couldn't be in a band if they couldn't write songs or they couldn't play their instruments. In this band, that's how this band was kind of assembled, like everybody's a top shelf musician. Everybody can really kick ass, and we have a singer who can sing. And then we write songs."

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH will co-headline the 2013 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival this summer alongside ROB ZOMBIE, with the tour kicking off in San Bernardino, California on June 29.

The new double disc follows up 2011's "American Capitalist", the group's third studio album and its third consecutive release to reach gold status for sales of half a million copies or more.

"Lift Me Up" (studio version) lyric video:

"Lift Me Up" performance at Revolver Golden Gods: