Judas Priest have started recording their next studio album.
The veteran Birmingham heavy metal band were in the studio for a month in February, working on the follow-up to 2024’s Invincible Shield, guitarist Richie Faulkner says in a new interview with The Metal Voice. He offers few details, but reveals that the band were “laying the foundation” for album number 20.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that,” he says (via Blabbermouth), “but I’ve said it.”
As well as making new music, Judas Priest are busy promoting their new film, The Ballad Of Judas Priest, which was produced by Banger Films and co-directed by Sam Dunn and Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello. It received its world premiere at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in February and will have its North American premiere at the Hot Docs documentary festival in Toronto, which will run from April 23 to May 3.
Faulkner says that the film “goes through the story, obviously, of where they started and what they went through and everything like that and talks to different people about Priest’s influence on them”.
He reveals that one scene revisits where the band played their first show in Aston, and then jumps forward to the building in the present day. “It’s still there!” he says. “And [Ian Hill, bassist] is in the club, and you can see the stage where they performed and everything. It’s still there, man. And it’s great, as a fan, to see that stuff. I haven’t seen that stuff before.”
Morello and Dunn have commented that The Ballad Of Judas Priest will trace Priest’s “incredible 50-year journey” and “capture how Judas Priest both defined the sound and look of metal [and] made it a more inclusive place along the way”.
The band say: “We have lived and breathed metal for over five decades, and finally in this documentary we are summoning our congregation to officially witness our lives uncensored, in a never-before-seen way… the cassock comes off, revealing Priest in all its metal glory!”
2026 is shaping up to be the year of the heavy metal movie. As well as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden are releasing a documentary of their own, Burning Ambition, to cinemas on May 7. German thrash band Kreator have produced a documentary, Hate & Hope, and will give it its UK premiere tonight (March 26) at the Ritzy Picturehouse in Brixton, London.
Priest formed in 1969 and became cornerstones of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal with a host of lauded and commercially successful albums in the late 70s and early 80s, including Stained Class, Killing Machine (both 1978), British Steel (1980), Screaming For Vengeance (1982) and Defenders Of The Faith (1984).
The band weathered mixed fortunes from the mid-80s onwards, especially following the departure of vocalist Rob Halford in 1992, but enjoyed a renaissance following the singer’s return in 2003. Invincible Shield was their highest-charting album ever in the UK, reaching number two, and topped the charts in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.
Priest will return to the road from June to September, playing a number of festivals before headlining a European tour. Head to their website to see the full list of dates and get tickets.
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