In 2011, Judas Priest announced the Epitaph World Tour, which was originally intended to be the legendary British band's farewell tour. The tour concluded in 2012, but 13 years later, the group remains active.
Ian Hill , the band's bassist, told radio station 104.5 The Pick that the arrival of guitarist Richie Faulkner gave Priest a boost to move forward.
“Richie Faulkner. [Laughs] Yeah, he came in, he replaced Ken [KK Downing] , who went off to do his own thing. Of course, the whole idea was to slow down a bit and lighten the workload a little. But Richie came in with boundless enthusiasm and all that energy, and it kind of infected the rest of us. And here we are, three albums, three tours, four tours later—well, five tours later if you count the Epitaph [2011-2012]—and we’re still going strong. I mean, we’re going full throttle. We’re loving it. We really are.”
After Faulkner's arrival, three albums were released: Redeemer of Souls (2014) , Firepower (2018) , and the most recent Invincible Shield (2024) , whose tour will pass through Brazil in April, for shows in Brasília and at Monsters of Rock in São Paulo.
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