THE ORIGINAL LINEUP OF JUDAS PRIEST HEAD TO AUSTRALIA FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER FOR THE PRIEST FEAST 2008 TOUR: Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing, Ian Hill & Scott Travis.
One of the world’s definitive heavy metal bands, who have sold more than 35 million albums world wide, will bring their mammoth PRIEST FEAST 2008 tour to Australian fans in September.
Judas Priest are a seminal and vital part of rock history. Since 1974, they have been one of heavy metal’s most successful bands, issuing such all-time classic albums as 1980’s British Steel, 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance, and 1990’s Painkiller, and such arena-rocking anthems as Breaking the Law, Living After Midnight, and You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’. However, Priest’s influence goes far beyond their music - they were the first metal band to embrace the ‘leather biker look,’ a fashion that has since become synonymous with the musical genre. Additionally, Halford’s powerful four-and-a-half octave vocal range and the twin guitar harmonies of Downing and Tipton have been ‘studied’ by countless metal bands in Priest’s wake.
The Priest Feast tour will showcase their hugely impressive legacy as well as new tracks from their forthcoming album Nostradamus, which will be released by Sony BMG on 14 June, 2008.
The new album is a metal opera based on the life and predictions of Nostradamus. Long in the works, Nostradamus takes epic storytelling to a whole new level, as it recounts the life of this mysterious, world-known 16th Century French prophet. Some of the events that Nostradamus experts have interpreted as his predictions include the great fire of London in 1666, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and most recently, 9-11, among countless other renowned events.
Lead vocalist Rob Halford left Judas Priest in 1993 and after almost 12 years apart and ever-growing demand for a reunion, Judas Priest and Halford announced they would reunite in 2003. They did a live concert tour in Europe in 2004 and were special guests at the 2004 Ozzfest, being named as the ‘premier act’ by almost all US media coverage of the event. In 2006 they were the inaugural inductees into the VH1 Rock Honors and MTV.com named Judas Priest the second most important band in heavy metal.