Judas Priest’s “INVINCIBLE SHIELD” Album Review — Legends Never Die
From the very moment we get introduced to the first cut, “Panic Attack,” opening for a few seconds of synthesizer reminiscent of the years of their ’86 album Turbo, followed by the rhythmic guitar leads that build to the crunchy, pulse-pounding opening verse, there’s only one thing that pops into your mind: ‘Man, The Metal Gods are Back.’
After the success of 2018’s Firepower, Judas Priest officially announced in a tweet on February 6, 2020, that writing sessions for a nineteenth album have begun. However, there was this belief in me that Judas Priest should’ve just called it a career with Firepower, given both the age of the band members and the medical news of original member Glenn Tipton, being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (having seen two live shows in Austin, TX, one of which had Tipton himself perform in a surprise encore appearance, he still has some fight in him to play once more), and in a September 2022 concert, Richie Faulkner suffered a cardiac arrest and made a remarkable recovery after having heart surgery. One would think to themselves, ‘How can a band at this point in their career that has dealt with so much continue to play live or make another album, especially one that can live up to the fire-breathing intensity of Firepower?’ With the release of 2024’s Invincible Shield, legendary vocalist Rob Halford and his metal disciples, with all of the musical prowess they can muster, have cranked out a towering, battering ram of an album that says, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not finished yet.”
Invincible Shield is a near-impenetrable piece of heavy metal might, and serves as a statement to the metal community at large that the genre is still alive and the metal gods will not go quietly into the night. I’m astounded that a band that has existed for this long, with legends this old, can still perform music this catchy, ruthless, and empowering, effectively telling the fans that age doesn’t mean anything when crafting metal.
One of the biggest strengths of Judas Priest as a band is their capacity to be diverse musically and production-wise; every single album feels like a unique experience while sticking to their roots and continuing the same heavy metal formula. For example, 1990’s Painkiller, with its blazing 90s arena-thrash metal production and apocalyptic atmosphere, feels like you are in the midst of world-ending Armageddon, and 2008’s power-metal concept album Nostradamus, inhabits the tone of a seer’s life during the Renaissance era and his premonitions infused with rock-opera theatrics and synthesizers. While Invincible Shield’s sound mixing and mastering by Andy Sneap is fairly similar to Firepower, it’s the songwriting and musical inspiration from the 70s and 80s that make this album stand out as a celebration of the bygone eras of heavy metal.
Examples can be made perfectly abundant with the Sabbath-inspired, psychedelic, “Escape From Reality,” with Halford’s cybernetic, industrial distortion and rhythm capturing the feeling of someone reminiscing over past mistakes, the spiritual, lovestruck power-ballad “Crown of Horns,” and the Accept-sounding “Sons of Thunder,” accompanied with blitzkrieg riffs and backing vocals that give the vibe of riding with the one-percent bikers. The final song of the standard edition, the blues-metal fist-pumper “Giants in the Sky,” pays tribute to metal legends Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, and Ronnie James Dio, remembering the legacy that they and other icons have left behind.
The majority of this album scorches the stratosphere. You have your relentless Painkiller-era thrasher “The Serpent and the King” that plants you into a war between God and Satan as Rob Halford, in his 70s, screams like a banshee, and the melodic, grim “Gates of Hell” that encapsulates everything terrific about traditional heavy metal. However, the best tracks are twofold: the thunderous, hellspawn-slaying speed-metal badassery of “As God Is My Witness” and the powerful “Trial By Fire,” with some of the most motivational chorus and guitar work in the new era of Judas Priest.
Though I acknowledge how incredible this album is, I don’t believe it’s without some issues. One of the album’s weaknesses would have to be the title track itself. There isn’t anything inherently bad with the title track, it’s just that it could’ve been much better. Similar to the “Redeemer of Souls” title track, it tries to carry the same anthemic, rapid-fire glory of title tracks like “Screaming for Vengeance,” “Nostradamus,” “Painkiller,” and power metal stagecraft like Firepower’s “Traitors Gate,” except the riffs sound a bit standard and the lyrics are a tiny bit generic. However, the saving grace of it would have to be the key shift, guitar solos and harmonies that transform it from a pretty by-the-numbers metal tune into a solid listen.
The deluxe edition comes with three additional tracks. “Fight of Your Life,” while being “Eye of the Tiger”-levels of cheesy, has an adequate chorus to have fun with and lift weights to; “Vicious Circle” delivers the goods in just three minutes; and then you are caught completely by surprise by “The Lodger,” a sinister track that tells the story about a serial killer who murders his mother and sister. Written by Bob Halligan Jr., who wrote tracks for Priest in the past like 1982’s “(Take These) Chains” and 1984’s “Some Heads Are Gonna Roll”, you have a song that would sit perfectly with dark albums like 1978’s Stained Class with its atmosphere and creepy lyrics.
Defying all odds, Judas Priest have tuned their weapons to the absolute extreme and have given the fans (including myself) an album they didn’t expect to be this marvelous. Unleashing hellfire with songs that’ll snap your neck, while being diverse in its own unique direction and paying respect to its fan base and the heavy metal legends of long ago, Invincible Shield, despite a chip or two, still remains tall.
RATING: 9/10
