Guitarist Richie Faulkner (L) and singer Rob Halford of Judas Priest
Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesJudas Priest have announced a career-spanning box set for the band’s 50th anniversary, featuring every official live and studio album to date plus 13 unreleased discs.
Restored and mixed by Tom Allom at La Cucina W8, and mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios, Judas Priest: 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music is available for preorder now, and will be released on October 15th via Sony Music.
“Judas Priest’s curated box set representing 50 heavy metal years is the ultimate treasure trove defining the band’s unwavering commitment to keeping and defending the heavy metal faith,” lead singer Rob Halford said in a statement.
Glenn Tipton added: “If there’s one box set you should have in your heavy metal collection it should be this one — it’s immortal — proclaiming and truly representing metal for over 50 years — flying the flag and proudly leading the way inspiring many bands throughout the years — this 42-CD selection says it all — it’s a big part of metal history and as such will live forever…..”
To coincide with the release, Judas Priest will be kicking off their rescheduled 50th-anniversary tour this fall, playing North America from September 8th through November 5th. The band has also stated that a new studio album is in the works.
NEWS
Supergrass are teasing an upcoming announcement with fans, according to a new post.
The British band, fronted by Gaz Coombes, shared a cryptic new post across their social media channels this morning (September 13), suggesting to fans that a new announcement is on the way.
Posted at 9am BST, the post simply shared artwork of the band’s logo in red, alongside next Monday’s date, September 16. In the caption, the band simply wrote: “Sign up now”, alongside a link to their website’s homepage.
Upon clicking the link, the page prompts fans to sign up for future updates, and asks them to input both their email address and the country they live in. Check out the post below.
While details on the announcement remain sparse, the post has already caught fans’ attention, with some speculating that the news could be around the upcoming 30th anniversary of their debut album, ‘I Should Coco’.
Released in May 1995, the release marked the record that first put the band on the map, and contained singles ‘Mansize Rooster’, ‘Caught By The Fuzz, ‘Lose It’ and ‘Lenny’. It also saw Coombes and Co. nominated at the 1995 Mercury Prize, and contained what would soon become their biggest track to date, the Ivor-Novello winning ‘Alright’.
At time of writing, the band haven’t shared any further indication as to whether the announcement is related to the huge upcoming milestone – whether it be an anniversary tour or reissue – nor whether it has anything to do with new music that could be on the way.
The band’s last studio album was ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’, which arrived in 2008. Since then, they have shared remastered versions of both their 1999 self-titled album and their 2003 record ‘Life On Other Planets’.
In other news around the band, last year it was reported that the band’s frontman joined Johnny Marr onstage last month to perform The Smiths‘ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ at Lakefest 2023.
Before then, Coombes opened up about how “nervous” he was about reuniting Supergrass following the success of his solo albums.
Supergrass split up in 2010 but reunited for a series of live shows in 2019. They released a live album in 2020, Live On Other Planets, to celebrate their 25th anniversary and raise money for grassroots venues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having got into a flow and the last two albums having done so well, it seemed a bit odd, like a backward step,” he said. “But then I was confident that I could operate both things together and it seems that I did, because I was obviously writing this record mainly during the reunion so I feel like I made best use of both things.”
Coombes’ fourth solo album, ‘Turn The Car Around’, came out in January of last year.
