Reviews list for Judas Priest - Invincible Shield (2024)

Six years later, right?  Seems a bit long to wait for another Judas Priest album after they've had a SECOND comeback.  But maybe that length was taken for the band to really hone their skills again and try to improve.  If that's the case, they succeeded, because their new album is some purified metal with a nostalgic feel that also acts as a step forward from the overly-80's Firepower, being its own thing and having been seen as the next essential in the Priest catalog.

I was totally taken by surprise with those totally-synthed up Def Leppard drums and guitar sounds for the intro, which eventually becomes a flat-out power metal song on par with the works of Gamma Ray.  Halford's voice and the backing voices work together with a pure and shining harmony that to me is like a metal version of Simon and Garfunkel.  Halford's gotten a stronger hold on his voice, which can be clearly heard on this album, even while the production assaults you with a wild range of metal noises and effects.  Two songs in and this is already a huge improvement over Firepower.  Of course, by the time the title-track came along, I was afraid the album was going to be quite samey, which is something that Firepower largely avoided until the last third, as it was too long of an album not to fall victim to it.  Thankfully, the title track had levels of metal energy that rival the Arrange Edition of the F-Zero X soundtrack.

The entire first half was a bit samey with difference largely just going to the tempos, so whatever weirdness came from the intro wasn't going to be common.  Thankfully, side B starts with a ballad: Crown of Horns, so there change in pace is powerful without damaging the flow, as this song is quite a good ballad that shows that Halford still has vocal range.  And despite its ballad status, this doesn't stop the instrumentation from being thick and featuring a dense metal atmosphere.  Of course, the album goes right back into thrash territory immediately afterwards, but this is still good because nothing on Side A was as heavy lightning-speed-driven as the song As God as My Witness.  So I interpret this as the album doing two new things on Side B to compensate for a samey side A.  This sounds familiar: Hounds of Love? Trial By Fire even experiments with the rhythm some while teetering on the balance between heavy metal and metal ballad.  So By this point I'm fine with another song sounding like something from the first half.  The tunes take a little of a drop in rhythmic quality once they go back to the normality of the first half, but are still enjoyable.

Invincible Shield shows a noticeable improvement over Firepower and is a greater testament to what Judas Priest is capable of.  Through denser metal atmospheres and instrumentation, as well as a willingness to push even further than Painkiller, Invincible Shield overcome the 80's nostalgic vibe that could be interpreted as "being done before," and stands as a modern classic.

Judas Priest: what even left is there to say? The name alone strikes a sense of fear among the metal community. The albums titles are iconic: Sad Wings of Destiny, British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance, Painkiller. Some may be considered the greatest metal albums of all time. They are revered for their contributions to early heavy metal and continue even to this day, although to less of an influential status.

Last year I had the “privilege” of reviewing Metallica’s newest album, 72 Seasons, and I blasted it for being safe and uninspired, and spoke about the moment that Metallica “sold out” between the releases of St. Anger and Death Magnetic. Judas Priest should likely fall under the same scrutiny, considering the symphonic concept album, Nostradamus from 2008, felt conceptually similar to St. Anger. Since then, the band has released three studio albums (including this one) that are essentially return-to-form projects and were good. The issue is whether Judas Priest need to reinvent the wheel.

Well, when the formula is this precise and accurate, one can’t argue with the results. All things considered, Invincible Shield is an awesome piece of old school heavy metal that knows its history and is well indebted to the past, but also is not ashamed to make subtle changes to keep it from sounding derivative or uninspired. Granted, many of those subtle changes are surface level, as has been the case with many old-time heavy metal bands (i.e. Saxon), but the cleaner production does give a sound much closer to modern day progressive metal. I cannot say that I’m a huge fan of the production though. It doesn’t really fit the Judas Priest aesthetic and the lack of overabundant reverb that is present on previous albums, including Firepower, seems unnatural.

Invincible Shield understands the band performing it are from a time once past, and that does come through in the lyrical content. It isn’t much to dissect; lots of themes of religion and death, but the main theme of “Panic Attack” is bizarre. The phrase “disconnecting from the World Wide Web” during the bridge is quite the reminder that Rob Halford is in his seventies and likely views the world much differently than us thirty-somethings reviewing the music. Fortunately, it’s the only track like this and they get it out of the way right from the start, instead of awkwardly adding it to the middle of the record.

Like with a lot of legacy acts, to expect anything more than this will leave you dissatisfied. If you take Invincible Shield at face value, you’ll find a well crafted, well performed late-stage Judas Priest album. It’s a far cry from their best (hell I would say it isn’t even as good as Firepower), but I’m still amazed that they can release this type of quality after this much time.

Best Songs: Invincible Shield, Gates of Hell, As God is my Witness, Giants in the Sky