JUDAS PRIEST Announces 'Invincible Shield' Global Album Listening Parties

There will be a global album listening party for JUDAS PRIEST's latest metal masterpiece, "Invincible Shield", on Thursday, March 7 at various metal bars in 30 cities around the world. See list below and check your local metal bar for exact time and details, many of which will also be offering giveaways and custom JUDAS PRIEST-themed cocktails for their event.

If you live near Daytona Beach, you will be able to experience a special JUDAS PRIEST pop-up shop on Saturday, March 9 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Atlantic Sounds, which will be operating out of a custom JUDAS PRIEST military combat truck — "an invincible shield on wheels" — playing the album to the more than 500,000 attendees at Daytona Bike Week. Harley-Davidson will be leading a 100-biker brigade from Orlando to Daytona at 9 a.m. ET.

Fans can also find the truck and brigade at the Daytona International Speedway for a special parade lap at 12 p.m. ET before the Daytona 200. Come celebrate the release of "Invincible Shield" with your fellow headbangers!

"Invincible Shield" listening parties will be happening at these fine metal bars:

Aachen, GE - Schlüsselloch
Atlanta, GA - Boggs Social
Augsburg, GE - Spectrum
Austin, TX - The Lost Well
Bangor, ME - Geno’s Rock Club
Berlin, GE – Halford
Brooklyn, NY - Rocka Rolla
Buenos Aires, AR – Strummer Bar
Chicago, IL - Liar’s Club
Denver, CO – Trve Brewing
Houston, TX - Brash Brewing
Indianapolis, IN - Black Circle
London, UK - The Black Heart
Los Angeles, CA - Rainbow Bar & Grill
Magdeburg, GE - Flowerpower
Mepen, GE - Alte Wäscherei
Milan, IT - Headbanger’s Pub
Montreal, CA - Mutoïde Microbrasserie
Nersingen, GE - Rocks
Orlando, FL - Dirty Laundry
Paris, FR - Dr. Feelgood’s
Providence, RI - The Scurvy Dog
Richmond, VA - Cobra Cabana
San Antonio, TX - Bonds 007
St. Louis, MO - Headless Bat
Stockholm, SE - Garlic & Shots
Toronto, CA - Bovine Sex Club
Uetze, GE (Hanover) - Farmer’s Inn
Vienna, AT - U4 Club
Washington, DC - Slash Run

"Invincible Shield" will arrive on March 8 via Sony Music.

In a recent interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner spoke about "Invincible Shield". Asked about his previous comment that the follow-up to 2018's "Firepower" would be "a little bit more progressive", he clarified: "I think 'progressive' means different things to different people, so it's not super, super complex DREAM THEATER magic, but I think it's complex and progressive in the way that there's some twists and turns and it doesn't really follow any scripts if it doesn't have to. There's two solos in [the LP's first single, 'Panic Attack']. There's a part in it that's 7/8 time [signature]. There's two kind of bridges. So it just goes out of the box a little bit, without being unaccessible, that's what I mean. So I think compared with 'Firepower', it's a little bit more progressive, a few more twists and turns along the journey of the song."

Asked what the inspiration was to make the music a bit more progressive this time around, Richie said: "That was the stuff we were coming up with. When I come up with music, it's usually the riffs first. I sit down with the guitar and the guitar kind of pulls it out of me, really, wherever it comes from. And it just so happened that some of those parts were a bit more unorthodox, time-changey stuff or different time signatures. And the record takes on its own character by itself. As you write a record, you might have an idea of where you wanna go, but the record takes on its own flavor by itself, and you go with that — you recognize where it's going and go with that. So, that's what we were coming up with, and sort of went with that mindset, really."

Regarding his own personal contributions to the songwriting process on "Invincible Shield", Faulkner said: "Well, it's a fairly shared thing. I'm not a lyricist, and obviously Rob [Halford, PRIEST singer] is, for example. Me and Glenn [Tipton, PRIEST guitarist] write a lot of the guitar parts and musical parts and Rob writes a lot of the vocals and vocal melodies. And Rob's got a great sense of phrasing as well. He might come in one day with an idea for a song and it's got some melody and it's got some timing and you can attach yourself to that timing and come out with a riff. So it's kind of — we get in a room, like me and you put a band together, and 'what have you got?' and 'what have I got?' and we put them together and come up with new songs. And it's fairly organic like that."

Richie also addressed the fact that the main "Invincible Shield" album contains 11 songs, with three additional tracks being made available on various versions of the album. He said: "We wanted to keep it around 10, 11 tracks on the main record. But the bonus tracks, we didn't wanna put them on the shelf never to see the light of day. We wanted to get them out. We wanted people to hear those as well without being part of the standard release. So we released everything we had in different formats."

Faulkner then elaborated on the musical direction of "Invincible Shield", saying: "It's a pretty intense record. There's no real moment where there's a ballad or something like that. It stays up there.

"When you release a record, it's exciting," he explained. "It's also scary at the same time, 'cause is it gonna be well received or not? You never quite know when you let it out in the world. So it's an exciting time, for sure."

Bassist Ian Hill is the sole remaining original member of PRIEST, which formed in 1969. Halford joined the group in 1973 and Tipton signed on in 1974. Rob left PRIEST in the early 1990s to form his own band, then came back to PRIEST in 2003. Original guitarist K.K. Downing parted ways with the band in 2011, and was replaced by Faulkner.