Judas Priest are readying their latest album Invincible Shield on March 8th, 2024. To celebrate that and talk about the album, Richie Faulkner sat down with Ulitmate Guitar. During their chat he went into plenty about the making-of the album and the guitar tones he wanted for the record. Here’s what he had to say about the guitar work on the album.

“You sit down with the guitar, and the guitar is kind of like a conduit. The guitar brings riffs and stuff out of you. Pretty organically really, you just sit down, sometimes you might be in the living room or the kitchen and you get this idea. Other times, you sit down with a guitar and you’re jamming around and things jump out of it. You find these little riffs and stuff that you embellish and, ‘That sounds like an intro’ or ‘That sounds like a chorus.’ And then you get melodies that go on top of that.”

Judas Priest are bringing back synthesizers for the album for the first time since Turbo, but this time around it’s not guitar synths (like those on Somewhere In Time by Iron Maiden), but actual keyboard synths.

“It’s actually not a guitar synth. It’s an actual synth, like a keyboard. You’re right though, the flavor of a synth, with things like ‘Turbo‘, when that idea came up, it was valid because of the groundwork that Priest laid down in the past. I came up with that intro and did a synth version of it, and it grew from there. You put an idea down and things grow. I just thought it was appropriate. It sounded right as a synth and it fit in with the history of things. So, we went with it.”

When asked about which track he was most proud of, Richie had plenty to say, but picked out the title track.

“I think the title track has got a lot of stuff in it. It’s got a lot of riffage in it. So, I’m proud of that one in that sense. It’s got a lot of stuff going on, a lot of interesting guitar parts, and the solo section is its own little section. I was going for a Randy Rhoads-style flavor. But all of them for different reasons. You put a lot of work into each song, both individually and as a writing team, to get them as good as they can be.”

Finally, Richie made sure to let fans know that Judas Priest aren’t putting anything out, unless they’re invested in it, and think it’s the best material they can do.

“You’ve got to be proud of them, otherwise there’s no point in releasing songs or a record.’ ‘Firepower’ was a well-received record, and if we’re not 1,000% behind what we’re doing as a band and as musicians on this, there’s no point in releasing it.”

Invincible Shield releases on March 8th, 2024. You can get it wherever you get your music, and there are special edition vinyl and physical editions available!

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Source: Ultimate Guitar

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