Watch Metallica's James Hetfield and Judas Priest's Rob Halford rocking out together while watching Turnstile at Norway's Tons Of Rock Festival this past weekend

Turnstile play live and James Hetfield and Rob Halford watch on

(Image credit: Turnstile: Getty Images / Hetfield and Halford: Turnstile)

When it comes to metal legends willing to support younger artists, you won't find many as passionate about the next generation of heavy as Judas Priest singer and living Metal God Rob Halford and Metallica frontman James Hetfield. Halford is always quick to pay tribute to modern metal artists that he's a big fan of, recently voicing his support for Sleep Token, while Hetfield has famously got behind everyone from Ghost to Kvelertak.

Now, it turns out both men are fans of riotous, boundary-pushing Baltimore hardcore punks Turnstile, judging by some recent footage shared by Turnstile themselves. In the video, the Metal God and Papa Het can be seen watching Turnstile from the side of stage at Norway's Tons Of Rock Festival, which took place this past weekend (June 26-29) in the Norwegian capital of Oslo and featured all three bands performing alongside the likes of Parkway Drive, Europe, Tool, ZZ Top, Saxon and many more.

Watch Halford and Hetfield enjoying themselves some Turnstile below.

Just Two Old Dudes Rocking Out to Turnstile from r/Hardcore

Heaping praise on Sleep Token earlier this year, Rob Halford - whose band Judas Priest recently put out another incredible new album in Invincible Shield - said: "They're a really curious band in what they're putting out in terms of all of these different textures. They're very difficult to pin down. That's what I find intriguing as a musician listening to their music. It's going to a lot of different places, and I think that there isn't any other band out there right now that's able to do that."

James Hetfield, meanwhile, recently named a new band he's enjoying, albeit one with some members he's very familiar with. "I guess the newest thing that I was surprised by and really made me smile was Category 7, a band that's kind of a collaboration of few people," he told the official Metallica podcast, The Metallica Report. "I was listening to it, I'm going, 'That voice is awesome. And it sounds very familiar,'" he continues. "It was fricking John Bush, our singer that we never got. And so John Bush is in a band with a few other well-known people out there, Phil Demmel from Machine Head, Exodus, a few other people in this band, kind of a, I don't know if it's a, whatever, supergroup of metal guys, but they all wanted to form a band and start playing. And [Metal Blade Records mogul] Brian Slagel has signed him. So I heard one song on the radio, and that's it. And it was great. It was really good. And I'm glad that John has kind of gone out on his own and done his own thing. And he was so, so, so tied to Armored Saint and then the Anthrax thing. Yeah, it's exciting."

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Merlin was promoted to Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has written for Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.