IAN HILL Says 'It's Up In The Air At The Moment' Whether JUDAS PRIEST Will Start Working On New Album Early Next Year

JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill says that the band hasn't decided yet whether it will continue touring in support of its 2014 album "Redeemer Of Souls" through 2016 or if it will return to the studio to make a follow-up record.

"We've got a few more territories to cover — or re-cover, [since] people wanted us to come back — and then we'll take a little time over Christmas and into the New Year and see where we stand: if we're gonna continue to tour or if we wanted to get some new material together and get a new record done," Hill told "That Metal Show" co-host Eddie Trunk. "It's up in the air at the moment. We like to finish one project before we start another one. So we'll have more of an idea where we are probably February, something like that."

According to Hill, there is no shortage of ideas for new JUDAS PRIEST material, especially from the band's latest addition, guitarist Richie Faulkner, who joined PRIEST in 2011 as the replacement for K.K. Downing.

"Richie's nearly always got a guitar in his hands and I'm sure some ideas for new material will come out of that," he said. "Rob [Halford, vocals], I think, he's coming up with lyrics all the time as well, and I'm sure Glenn [Tipton, guitar] has his ideas too. The writing process has always been the three songwriters, really — I mean, I don't do any anymore. But Rob, Glenn and Richie, they go off and get their ideas together, and then the three of those will get together and kick around the ideas and make songs out of those various bits, and then Scott [Travis, drums] and I will get a copy of that, and then we'll add our parts to that."

Halford recently told the Q104 radio station in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada about JUDAS PRIEST's plans to record the follow-up album to "Redeemer Of Souls": "Well, you know, in rock and roll, you've gotta kind of strike while the iron is hot, and that iron has been burning hot for decades for PRIEST now. It doesn't show any sign of cooling off, I can tell you that. The cool thing about where we're at right now is, of course, having Richie [Faulkner, new PRIEST guitarist] with us and having gone through that first writing experience together [on 'Redeemer Of Souls']. We were so motivated to keep writing as we were going along, but our label had a time schedule for us to keep, so we had to put the brakes on and start recording the songs that we'd written. And with that in mind, we're raring to go again, and I'm sure there'll be another PRIEST record in the not-too-distant metal future."

Asked whether he feels that "the clock is ticking" on JUDAS PRIEST's recording and touring career, Rob said: "Yeah, the clock is ticking, [but] we’re trying to hold it back. [Laughs] But it's great, man. I've gotta tell you, this band is having the time of its life, and we're very excited to be back out on the road after a short break from our last show, in Wacken in Germany at the big heavy metal festival there in front of eighty thousand heavy metal maniacs. So we're still bringing the fire and the metal with us wherever we go."

"Redeemer Of Souls" was released in July 2014. The follow-up to 2008's double-disc concept album "Nostradamus" was billed as a return to JUDAS PRIEST's heavy-metal roots.

"Redeemer Of Souls" sold around 32,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 6 on The Billboard 200 chart.