Judas Priest Considering Retro Approach To Next Album

Rock Radio is reporting that Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest says the band have had such a great time playing British Steel live in full to celebrate its 30th anniversary, their next project might be to write an album inspired by their early sound.

Rob Halford and co reached new heights of indulgence with their well-received concept album Nostradamus earlier this year, but decided not to tour it because they wanted to give fans time to absorb the ideas contained in its three discs.

Instead, the band credited with bringing leather and studs to the metal fraternity went for another first and hit to road to perform their 1980 classic LP, British Steel, in full.

"It's been received so very, very well - better than we ever expected." guitarist Tipton tells Ground Control. "We've never played an album in its entirety before this tour, but it's just fantastic. It's a really great way to celebrate 30 years of British Steel.

"The set is comprised of British Steel and other songs of the time in keeping - numbers like The Ripper and Victim of Changes and others from that era. It's all retro types of songs and it's quite nostalgic.

"The mix of fans is incredibly wide too - we've got a lot of the stalwart fans there and a surprising number of younger kids who got turned onto Priest by their parents, or discovered us their own way. It's always great to se young faces in the audience - it means that, through the years, we've done something right."

Tipton recalls the making of British Steel, in early 1980, was a very smooth process. It was recorded in John Lennon's Tittenhurst Park, the place he recorded Imagine. Since the project came together smoothly and organically, it's proved very easy to transfer onto the stage.

He explains: "We wrote at least 50% of it while we were recording, which is very unusual for us.. It was very spontaneous and was very straightforward. Songs like Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight just clicked and fell into place."

The band will finish their current tour in Japan, and while they'd already publicly discussed taking Nostradamus on tour, Tipton's more vague about what comes next.

He says: "I'm not sure what the next step is - but we never do. We've got various options open to us and we haven't made those decisions - but we will when the time comes.

"We've had such great fun on this tour, I wonder if a sort of retro-sounding album of new material might be on the cards. That could be the case. We're enjoying playing so much and the crowd's loving it, so that may be the formula for the next album."