Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford celebrated 32 years of sobriety over the weekend, posting the following message via his Facebook page:

"Maniacs, today is my 32nd year of being clean and sober. One day at a time. Each one of you are in my life and your love and support encourages and helps me to live in the moment and try to do my best for you. Thank you all."Judas Priest could easily rest on their laurels at this stage of their highly successful and influential career. However, the legendary metal band - singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis - refuse to do so as evidenced by the arrival of their eighteenth studio album overall, Firepower, which can be pre-ordered 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 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.”

The album’s first single, "Lightning Strike", is available worldwide now, and a music video can be seen below. A PledgeMusic pre-order includes exclusive limited autographed colored vinyl, autographed vinyl test pressings, an exclusive Judas Priest t-shirt and an extremely limited number of Judas Priest autographed guitars. More details here.

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"

"Lightning Strike" video:

"Firepower" sample:

The Judas Priest: Firepower 2018 Tour will kick off on March 13th in Pennsylvania, and wrap up on May 1st in Texas and will feature the lineup of singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. Support comes from Saxon and Black Star Riders.

There are few heavy metal bands that have managed to scale the heights that Judas Priest have during their 40 year career - originally formed during the early '70s in Birmingham, England, Judas Priest is responsible for some of the genre's most influential and landmark albums (1980's British Steel, 1982's Screaming For Vengeance, 1990's Painkiller, etc.) and for decades have been one of the greatest live bands in the entire heavy metal genre including an iconic performance at Live Aid in 1985 - they also brought metal to the masses by their appearance on American Idol in 2011 - plus Judas Priest were one of the first metal bands to exclusively wear leather and studs - a look that began during this era and was eventually embraced by metal fans throughout the world! And in 2017, the band was nominated for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

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

(Photo - Justin Borucki)