Judas Priest
Wembley Arena, London
21st March 2024
Judas Priest celebrate their vital new album and five decades of metal classics with a show big on theatre, power, and hits.
An engine rumbles over the PA. Smoke billows across the stage. Rob Halford rides out on a motorbike, wearing a leather cap and brandishing a riding crop. Like Alice Cooper’s guillotine routine, Eddie’s inevitable appearance during every Iron Maiden gig, or Gene Simmons’ tongue at a Kiss show, Hell Bent For Leather’s opening is vintage rock theatre.
But then old-school theatrics are an essential part of the Judas Priest live experience. The show opens with a banner drop to reveal the band in formation around a drum kit on the centre-stage steps. The two guitarists are no strangers to classic bedroom mirror posing, from synchronised headbanging to Richie Faulkner’s enviable kneel-splits. Halford, in his impressive array of coats and jackets (sparkly gold, glistening silver, studded, tassled), created half the rock god gestures and has a black belt in the rest. Even the articulated lighting rig, which comes down to stand in for the frontman during an extended instrumental section, is in the shape of the band’s logo.
And it’s all backed up by a catalogue 50 years deep. Tonight they go all the way from 1977’s Sinner, which has only grown in ferocity over the decades, to a choice selection from this year’s vital Invincible Shield: the urgent Panic Attack, majestic Crown Of Horns, and seismic title track. Love Bites still stomps, Turbo Lover (minus the ’80s production) is more hard-driving than ever, You’ve Got Another Thing Coming remains the epitome of blacktop cruising anthems (eat your heart out ZZ Top and Steppenwolf), and, arriving very early in the set, Breaking The Law is the first chance for the Wembley Arena crowd, already warmed up by Uriah Heep and Saxon, to sing along with Halford.
The singer, who physically leans into his vocals, later leads the masses through a call and response of “yeah yeah yeah”s that fold into a fluid The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown), one of two songs that add a hint of prog to proceedings. The other is the epic Sword Of Damocles, from 2014’s Redeemer Of Souls, its steady march enhanced by moments of intensity and tranquillity that show off the full capabilities of the five men on stage. But it’s the back-to-back Painkiller (introduced by Scott Travis’ double kick drum attack) and Electric Eye that really show off Judas Priest’s enduring power. On both, Halford’s growl and falsetto are cranked up to 11, Travis and bassist Ian Hill sound like they’re auditioning for a Swedish death metal band with an unpronounceable name, and the guitarists are locked in an ongoing duel. As the front man stomps across the stage like Godzilla, it’s clear Judas Priest are still unstoppable.
As if to ram it down, they walk off to Queen’s We Are The Champions but not before Glenn Tipton comes out for the night’s last hurrah. An integral member for the past five decades, the guitarist’s been kept off the road since 2018 by Parkinson’s disease. So there’s an obvious outpouring of love from the stage and the audience as he plays on two genre-defining classics: Metal Gods and Living After Midnight, complete with a quiet section for the metal maniacs to chant: “Living after midnight/ Rocking to the dawn/ Loving ’til the morning/ Then I’m gone, I’m gone”.
You can find Judas Priest on their website as well as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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Words by Nils van der Linden. You can visit his author profile for Louder Than War here. He tweets as @nilsvdlinden and his website is www.nilsvanderlinden.com.
All photos © Paul Grace. For more of Paul’s writing and photos go to his archive. Paul is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and his websites are www.paulgrace-eventphotos.co.uk & www.pgrace.co.uk.
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