Line-up

Venue

Ostravar Arena

Ruská 3077/135, 700 30, Ostrava, Czech Republic

www.arena-vitkovice.cz

Capacity: 12,500

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Additional details

Doors open: 20:00

Concert in your area for Metal and Rock.

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Judas Priest biography

Judas Priest (formed in 1969) are a heavy metal band hailing from Birmingham, England, who were part of the original New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

It took several years of line up changes and poorly received album releases before Judas Priest developed their signature sound, with the 1977 album "Sin After Sin" establishing the band internationally through their dual lead guitar attack, punishing pace and driving riffs which went on to define the evolving sound of metal.

The classic line up consists of vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton and bassist Ian Hill. The 1980 album "British Steel" featured the hits "Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight" which garnered Judas Priest mainstream success. Their penchant for wearing leather and chains popularised this fashion statement in metal, influencing acts for years to come.

"Screaming for Vengeance (1982)" peaked at number 17 in the American charts, selling over a million copies, with the band being at the peek of their popularity, achieving great success with the renowned hit "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." The musical style is full of aggressive, fast paced guitar riffs and they also popularised the use of double bass drums, making for rapid rhythms. Their music helped influence the development of thrash metal, which was the next big sub-genre of metal to grow, with bands like Metallica and Megadeath pushing the speed and ferocity of their music to new extreme levels.

Judas Priest's career was hit by controversy, following an incident involving two American teenagers who, having been listening to Judas Priest and drinking beers, decided to make a suicide pact. Judas Priest were deemed responsible for their self-inflicted gunshot wounds due to supposed subliminal messaging that was featured in their song "Better By You, Better Than Me." This incident resulted in a civil action suit that lasted for a month before eventually being dismissed by the judge. The trial became the subject of a 1991 documentary titled "Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs Judas Priest."

After an eleven year break, Judas Priest reunited in 2003 and have continued touring and releasing albums since. They were inducted into the VH1 Rock Honors in 2006, as well as being awarded with the title of the second "greatest metal band of all time," with Black Sabbath taking the number one spot. More recently, the band have released their album "Redeemer of Souls," which has spurred an international tour in support of its release, achieving the band's first top 10 album in the US.

Live reviews

After all these years Judas Priest is still melting the faces off their audience, pounding out their heavy metal music that will rock your world. The members of Judas Priest are all well accomplished musicians each having perfected their craft to a science. Rob Halford can still hit all the high notes pitch perfect with his singing and screaming, Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner act as a symbiotic duo with their dueling guitar shredding, Ian Hill’s bass appropriately lays down the rhythmic foundation, and Scott Travis’ drumming bellows like bullets out of a machine gun.
A live performance of Judas Priest will show why they are one of the most respected and influential heavy metal bands touring today. They have sold over 50 million records and MTV has listed them as the second greatest metal band of all time. Their live performances are a huge spectacle consisting of a grand displays of light and fog, large depictions of tapestry conveying unique presentations of artwork relating to their music, and stage antics by Rob Halford, which usually consists of Halford driving a motorcycle onto stage. Judas Priest is also known for their stage presence, which they helped establish through their fashion. They are notable for sporting heavy metal fashion on stage, which conveys a macho-biker like personality that compliments their style of performance very accurately.
Judas Priest represents the true essence of how a heavy metal band should perform, from the music to the lights to the stage presence. If given the occasion to see these guys live one should jump on the opportunity that will further verify why these guys are one of the most respected heavy metal bands around.

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