Judas Priest: Invincible Shield (2LP)

Invincible Shield is the upcoming nineteenth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, scheduled to be released globally on 8 March 2024 through Epic Records, and 6 March 2024 by Sony in Japan. It was produced by the band’s touring guitarist Andy Sneap, who also produced 2018’s Firepower.

In February 2020, the band officially began writing sessions for their 19th album, but as guitarist Richie Faulkner stated later, they “faced some challenges with schedules due to the pandemic” and had not been able to get together and work on new music: “We wanted to keep it the same dynamic as Firepower – as we all got together, played the songs in pre-production before recording them”.

In September 2021, after the pandemic restrictions were lifted the band started their 50 Heavy Metal Years world tour. “So the next obstacle, if you wanna call it that, was the tour. We had to go out and tour and record bits and pieces in between the tour legs.”

In March 2022, Faulkner revealed that the drums for the new record had already been recorded and emphasized that the songs “are a bit more progressive in places” having a few twists and turns musically that Firepower does not have.[12] To avoid misunderstandings Faulkner stated later that the album will not be a musical continuation of the experimental Nostradamus or progressive in a Rush-like interpretation, but “instead of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus, finish, sometimes it goes off and plays it a little… like the old ’70s Judas Priest used to, like the ‘Sinner’ and stuff like that”.

In May 2023, after Rob Halford laid down his parts in the studio in Phoenix, Arizona with producer and touring guitarist Andy Sneap, the band stated they had finished tracking and the album had moved on to the mixing and mastering stage. The songs Sons of Thunder and Escape from Reality were written by Glenn Tipton.The bonus track The Lodger was written by Bob Halligan Jr., who has written other songs for the band, most notably Some Heads Are Gonna Roll.

The album was announced on 7 October, 2023 before the band’s performance at the first Power Trip festival in Indio, California.[16] The album trailer was then uploaded on the band’s YouTube channel containing the intro of “Panic Attack”.