Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford recently spoke with Revolver about the band's upcoming Firepower album.

During the chat, Halford is asked if he's concerned about who will carry the flag for rock & roll, as this was something late Motörhead frontman Lemmy sometimes worried about.

"There'll always be a rock & roll band of some nature," says Halford. "It doesn't have to be a band that plays Madison Square Garden. It could just be a great band that plays a club. I think the legacy of what Lemmy's left is huge - Motörhead and what three guys can do, the simple experience of three guys making that kind of sound in rock & roll, in metal. There will always be something of that nature. I mean, Royal Blood is two guys, right? And before that was Jack White, the White Stripes. The good thing about the turmoil that's going on in the world today is that it does reverberate in music. Through the Sixties the important core bands, like the Doors or the Jefferson Airplane - those really early experiences of pushing back against what was going on around you went into the music. With Lemmy it was like "Eat the Rich," you know, "Ace of Spades." It's a different world, but I don't think there's anything to worry about. Rock & roll will never die. This is as true now as it ever was."

Read more at revolvermag.com

The buzz surrounding Judas Priest’s forthcoming album, Firepower, is undeniably growing louder - on the strength of the video clip for the track “Lightning Strike”, as well as many of the attractive/limited edition purchasing options made available for fans via PledgeMusic already being sold out. And it will soon reach a fever pitch with the unveiling of another new killer track, plus another limited edition of the forthcoming album being made available for purchase.

Fans can now hear the title track from Firepower below, and can purchase a metallic silver-colored cassette version of the album via PledgeMusic, limited to only 300 copies. And if judging from how quickly some of the previous limited edition bundles sold out via the site (such as signed guitars from Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, various colors of autographed vinyl, etc.), this rare cassette version will be an instant rarity and collector’s item. You can also pre-order the album here.

Set for release on Friday, March 9th via Epic Records - the album 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) has 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.”

Firepower tracklisting:

"Firepower"
"Lightning Strike"
"Evil Never Dies"
"Never The Heroes"
"Necromancer"
"Children Of The Sun"
"Guardians"
"Rising From Ruins"
"Flame Thrower"
"Spectre"
"Traitors Gate"
"No Surrender"
"Lone Wolf"
"Sea Of Red"

"Firepower":

"Lightning Strike" video:

Confirmed tour dates:

March
13 - Wilkes Barre, PA - Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza
15 - Youngstown, OH - Covelli Centre
17 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Coliseum
18 - Washington, DC - The Anthem
20 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
22 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
25 - Ottawa, ON - The Arena at TD Place
27 - London, ON - Budweiser Gardens
28 - Oshawa, ON - Tribute Communities Centre
30 - Orillia, ON - Casino Rama
31 - Detroit, MI - Detroit Masonic Temple

April
3 - Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
5 - Green Bay, WI - Resch Center
8 - Bloomington, IL - Grossinger Motors Arena
10 - Casper, WY - Casper Events Center
11 - Loveland, CO - Budweiser Events Center
15 - Kent, WA - ShoWare Center
17 - Portland, OR - Veterans Memorial Coliseum
19 - San Francisco - The Warfield
22 - Los Angeles, CA - Microsoft Theater
24 - Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
26 - Tulsa, OK - BOK Center
28 - Dallas, TX - The Bomb Factory
29 - Sugarland, TX - Smart Financial Centre

May
1 - San Antonio, TX - Freeman Coliseum

(Rob Halford photo - Mark Weiss, band photo - Justin Borucki)