JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner says the band have a new studio album on the way

In a new talk with The Entertainment Outlet, Richie spoke about the progress of JUDAS PRIEST‘s follow-up to 2018’s “Firepower” album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We’re getting there. We’ve been trying to get it done. The first obstacle was the pandemic, because we couldn’t get together and do it as a group. And then when the pandemic restrictions were lifted, then we could go out on tour. So the next obstacle, if you wanna call it that, was the tour. So we had to go out and tour and record bits and pieces in between the tour legs. So we’ve got drums done, we’ve got guitars done, we’ve got the bass done. I think the main thing we have to do now is vocals. So we’ve got the U.S. leg of the tour coming up, so Rob’s [Halford, vocals] gotta protect his voice and use his voice sparingly before that. So maybe after that. I mean, we’ve got [dates in] the U.S. and we’ve got South America, which takes us into December. So maybe in the New Year we can start working on vocals.”

Regarding when fans can expect to see the next JUDAS PRIEST record released, Richie said: “It’s always tough to talk about timeframes, because, as we know, things change. But Rob always says, ‘It’s done when it’s done.’ There’s no point in rushing anything at this point in the band’s career. But it’s getting there — we’re working on it and it’s getting there. And we’re using the time we’ve got. These days as well, we don’t need 18 months in a 10,000-square-foot studio in Fiji to do a record. The way things are these days, we can do it in a lot more economical way. So we’re making technology work and we’re making all that work for us so we can get it done in the best way we can so we can get it out when we can. But it’ll be done when it’s done.”

Discussing what the new JUDAS PRIEST material sounds like, Faulkner said: “[Producer and touring guitarist] Andy Sneap was texting me this morning, and he was saying it sounded really solid, really confident. He was saying… I know people love this stuff on the socials, but it’s not ‘Firepower 2’; it’s its own thing. Some people might like that; some people might hate that. When you read the socials, people read comments like that and they know what the album sounds like straight away. I don’t know how they do that. But it’s all good. It means they’re invested in PRIEST and they’re invested in the new music. But as he said, it sounds confident, it’s sounding great and solid. It’s always good as well when you’ve got something like this and no one’s heard it. So you’re excited to release it to the world — you want the world to hear it, but they haven’t heard it yet. So it’ll be great for the world to hear it. They might hate it. But it’s still exciting.”

Well over a year ago, Rob Halford confirmed that JUDAS PRIEST‘s next album would see the band once again working with the “Firepower” production team consisting of Andy Sneap, collaborator Tom Allom and engineer Mike Exeter (BLACK SABBATH).