Greece's Rockpages sat down with JUDAS PRIEST's bassist Ian Hill right before the band's appearance in Athens last Wednesday. Hill reavealed that the band has already prepared songs for their new album, and of course he talked about K.K. Downing's recent departure. An excerpt follows:

Q: Well, Ian, here you are for the Epitaph World Tour but this is not the end for Judas Priest as you have stated.

A: "No, it’s not the end of Judas Priest… we’ve never intended to “kill” the band. We just need to slow down a little bit as we’ve touring and doing albums almost constantly for 40 years now. It really takes a large chunk of your life; so, we have to be… well… not choosey of where we will play in the future but how many shows we can do in a specific time. The European Festivals will always be a good option but we can’t do anymore the big touring thing… leave here, go to South America, then straight to USA, Japan, Australia… you know. Not that we don’t enjoy it; we love it! We love to travel, we love to visit places and do a little bit of sightseeing, especially when we have a day off. Bear in mind that we’ve been doing this for 40 years. After 6 months not being on the road, you get a little bit itchy because you need to be on stage again (laughs)! But, unfortunately, you don’t get any younger. Of course, we will continue to record as well… we have already written an album’s worth of material. Three songs are properly recorded and roughly mixed. I think that the record company might put out something, just a bit of something so as to let the fans know of what’s coming along. It’s gonna be a great album and it’s gonna carry on from where Angel Of Retribution left off. We got Nostradamus out of our system and now we are heading towards classic Priest metal… the screams, the fast, the slow and the heavy! A little bit of everything. A big thank you for all that we are doing goes out to the fans."

Read the complete interview at this location.