Judas Priest Score Highest U.S. Chart Debut Of Their Career With ‘Firepower’
Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at 08:18AM From my inbox - this is pretty amazing when you think about it.
Next year will mark 50 years since Judas Priest’s formation, and incredibly, they are more popular than ever. Case in point, the announcement that their 18th studio album, ‘Firepower,’ has debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 Chart - their highest chart placement ever in the States (yes, that includes such all-time classics as ‘British Steel,’ ‘Screaming for Vengeance,’ ‘Painkiller,’ etc.). And Priest’s members are just as excited as the fans - “This is incredible news, that our band Judas Priest - of nearly fifty years standing, can stay popular and relevant enough to gain our highest first week Billboard Top 200 chart position ever! Good news for us, and good news for Metal in general!”
‘Firepower’ is also receiving stellar reviews across the board, including the Metal Temple website declaring “‘Firepower’ is a fine proof of a pioneer that still has a lot to say, unlike many bands that live off their glorious past. JUDAS PRIEST is, so hear their sermon, because this is one of the greatest albums of this year, if it isn’t the best one.”
Additionally, ‘Firepower’ has drawn rave reviews from such popular metal sites as Blabbermouth (“JUDAS PRIEST has every reason to be proud of itself. The corpulent swagger of the retro rock-heavy ‘No Surrender’ is so good it can choke you up, and it says everything about this album and its constituents.”), Loudwire (“‘Firepower,’ and its fourteen tracks which span fifty-eight minutes, is Judas Priest’s finest work since reclaiming their sound on the sonic wrecking ball that was ‘Painkiller’.”), and BraveWords (“With all sincerity, ‘Firepower,’ ‘Lightning Strike,’ ‘Evil Never Dies,’ ‘Necromancer,’ ‘Traitors Gate,’ and ‘No Surrender’ are sure to find themselves - next to all the classics - on any ‘Best of Judas Priest’ playlist you’ll put together on your streaming service of choice”), and the album is receiving strong coverage via mainstream media outlets - including Rolling Stone.
Released on March 9 via Epic Records - ‘Firepower’ is comprised of fourteen tracks of pure and highly inspired metal. And to mark the occasion Priest (singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis) reunited with producer Tom Allom (the man behind the board for all of the band’s releases from 1979-1988, including such stellar classics as ‘Unleashed in the East,’ ‘British Steel,’ ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ and 'Defenders of the Faith') and with Grammy Award-winning producer Andy Sneap also helping to raise the sonic bar even higher.
“Tom Allom has got this classic metal thing,” explains Halford. “And Andy is a bit more of a ‘modern metal producer’ but his thinking is a little bit different to Tom’s. And I think to get this balance between that classic old school metal to what Andy’s world is was just a remarkable coalescence.” “Tom Allom has been with us since 1979, so his knowledge of ourselves and our music in general is immense,” adds Hill. And according to Travis Priest returned back to a recording method that worked incredibly well on the band’s earlier classics - “We went back to the organic way of recording where it’s all of us in a room and we got to play together.”
Currently touring the U.S. to adoring and large crowds on a bill that is shaping up to be the metal bill of the year (Judas Priest, Saxon, and Black Star Riders), metalheads will be receiving plenty of ‘Firepower’ throughout 2018.
‘FIREPOWER’ TRACKLISTING:
1. Firepower
2. Lightning Strike
3. Evil Never Dies
4. Never the Heroes
5. Necromancer
6. Children of the Sun
7. Guardians
8. Rising from Ruins
9. Flame Thrower
10. Spectre
11. Traitors Gate
12. No Surrender
13. Lone Wolf
14. Sea of Red
Reader Comments (11)
Need to listen more to pick my favorites, but this is a great effort all round.
And yes, they still churn out great material, unlike many bands who haven't put out anything worthwhile in a couple of decades.
Tipton was at show in NJ last night!!! Love it!!
http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/judas-priest-rejoined-by-guitarist-glenn-tipton-at-newark-new-jersey-concert-video-photos/
The Golden God himself sums it up perfectly, beyond the playing and singing l, there was a perfect “confluence” of the producers that really added to this album’s level of quality (think Mutt Lange’s perfectionism in Def Leppard albums).
Also, Priest has brilliant marketing going on here ... Look at how well written and loaded with info the Press Release is, as well as the clever “Name Generator” microsite and YouTube lyric video that were created to promote the album. Plus, ya gotta love the album cover itself. Can you say, “T-Shirt”?
Most importantly, it really does come through that this album is not just solely about the love of the band but the love of Metal. Additionally, it seems quite evident it’s about more than just the money.
If it was only about that, excellence would not have been the primary goal of all the key players - the band, those in their inner circle, even their record label, Epic, for putting forth first rate ideas to propel the album to #5.
In the end, it’s all about Metal and Priest coming out, guns ablazing with FIREPOWER to spare!
p.s. That’s great news Tipton was able to make the Jersey show, KixChix! Thanks for the link!
p.s.s.t. Rita, don’t think I haven’t forgotten my “Heavy Metal Love”! 🤘😘🤘
(1) How does the overall decline in sales since, say, the 80s or 90s, temper this recognition?
(2) How, also, does the change in Billboard's tracking influence this chart placement?
I think that (2) was a result of (1). Let me explain by reference to a quote from NPR when Billboard announced the shift a few years ago:
"The Billboard 200 will still derive the bulk of its data from sales of albums, both on physical media — CD, vinyl, even cassette — and full-album digital downloads. What's new to the chart is the inclusion of digital album cuts that are both streamed and downloaded."
I suspect that change helped to offset some of the overall sales losses. But it also means that the charting is now a bit more variable and fluid. Which isn't a problem per se. It is simply an adjustment meant to (partially) reflect modern listening preferences.
Don't get me wrong. Recognition is recognition. And metal needs it. But note that the number of units shipped/sold is absent from this release. So going to the original PR released by Billboard itself provides a bit of context (and it is also a bit damp when one thinks of the glory days of Tower Records and rushing to search the bins for your favorite band):
"The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new March 24-dated chart (where Judas Priest debuts at No. 5 and Logic’s Bobby Tarantino II starts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on Tuesday, March 20.
Firepower — the act’s 18th studio effort — bows with 49,000 units earned in the week ending March 15, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 48,000 were in traditional album sales — the act's best sales frame since 2005's Angel of Retribution bowed with 54,000 copies sold. Judas Priest's bow was bolstered by sales generated from a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer in association with the band's tour that began on March 13."
To me the most important metric listed is 49,000 (a combined total). And that is just, obviously, a fact of life today. Still, I think it helps to provide context when awesome news--and it is awesome news--is released.
Long live Priest! And so nice to see Tipton on stage recently.