THE BEAST

The official video for "Lightning Strike", a brand new song from JUDAS PRIEST can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's new album, "Firepower", which will be released on March 9 via Epic.

Singer Rob Halford stated about "Lightning Strike": "To me, the overall concept of this song is to use the element of a lightning strike to pull away and tear apart at an individual, at a body of people, maybe an organization, maybe an administration, that is kind of leading you, or leading us, into potentially a destructive place. You're kind of spinning that effect round, and you have the right to react and to do something about it. So that, in essence, is what this song is all about."

"You're sowing the seeds of a nightmare from hell, your friends and your demons are tolling the bell," Halford sings on the track. "Walking through fire, fate's in my hands, waiting for lightning to strike.

The British heavy metal legends spent much of 2017 in the studio recording the follow-up to 2014's "Redeemer Of Souls" with the band's longtime collaborator Tom Allom, acclaimed British knob-twiddler Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, EXODUS, TESTAMENT, ACCEPT) and engineer Mike Exeter (BLACK SABBATH).

The cover artwork for "Firepower" was created by the Chilean/Italian digital artist and photographer Claudio Bergamin.

"Firepower" track listing:

01. Firepower
02. Lightning Strike
03. Evil Never Dies
04. Never The Heroes
05. Necromancer
06. Children of the Sun
07. Guardians
08. Rising From Ruins
09. Flame Thrower
10. Spectre
11. Traitors Gate
12. No Surrender
13. Lone Wolf
14. Sea Of Red

Halford told VintageRock.com about the making of "Firepower": "We came off the 'Redeemer Of Souls' tour, had a little bit of a break, like we've always done, and then we dove straight back into the second record with Richie [Faulkner, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist]. And it's Richie's moment, really, because when we did 'Redeemer Of Souls' with Richie, obviously it was his first time with PRIEST as a writer, so I think it was great how Richie coming into the band at that point, and then going through the writing experience and the world tour together really put Richie in a better place for when we went in to do 'Firepower' — just because you learn so much in a band."

Halford added: "Richie's playing is fucking unbelievable on this album. And just the contribution, I think, as the writing team of Richie and Glenn [Tipton, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist] and myself. This is some of our best work — without a doubt."

Rob told "Trunk Nation" that collaborating again with Allom, who produced every PRIEST release from "Unleashed In The East" (1979) through "Ram It Down" (1988), along with several live records since then, has been "brilliant" and "absolutely fantastic." "Tom has a rich history with PRIEST, particularly those great moments with 'Screaming For Vengeance', 'Defenders Of The Faith' [and] 'British Steel'," he said. "My God — he's the man in that respect. So I thought it was really great for Andy Sneap and Mike Exeter to accept that this was gonna be like a three-man job, with Andy mostly holding the reins, but with Tom by his side and Mike there [as well]."

Sneap, who plays guitar in the reactivated British occult metal act HELL, told Serbia's Hardwired magazine that PRIEST's new album will contain "a really good energy and some real classic moments." He said "Rob did great" during the album's final recording sessions. "I'll tell you what: for someone who's got that much experience, there's no ego there at all," he said. "We'd do, like, six or seven passes, and I'd ask him to try something a bit [different] on this part, and he was, like, 'No problem.' And he'd give me another four takes with a slightly different vibe. And then me and Tom Allom would sit there and we'd comp it, and we pretty much agreed on everything."

The North American leg of the "Firepower" tour will kick off on March 13 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and will wrap on May 1 in San Antonio, Texas. Support on the trek will come from SAXON and BLACK STAR RIDERS.

Faulkner joined PRIEST in 2011 as the replacement for founding guitarist K.K. Downing.

Prior to hooking up with PRIEST, Faulkner was the guitarist in the backing band for Lauren Harris, daughter of IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris.