The day before this gig was the saddest in heavy metal history. With the death of Ozzy Osbourne, the genre lost its irrepressible everyman Prince of Darkness, and all the warmth, charm and folly that made him relatable to so many. But with this 35th anniversary tour for their Painkiller album, Judas Priest provide some therapy.
For years, the band have used Black Sabbath’s War Pigs as a walk-on song and the moment the tape kicks in, an impassioned and cathartic mass singalong sweeps across the amphitheatre. Any sense that this might be a sombre do is squashed in seconds. “Hello, metal maniacs!” says singer Rob Halford, wearing a bedazzled leather trenchcoat and aviator sunglasses.
Priest are a one-off who helped define metal’s image as well as its sound, going all in on the most exaggerated parts – the denim, leather, studs and no shortage of demonic motifs – while retaining street cred for more than 50 years. With the anthemic recent song Gates of Hell, eternal damnation has never sounded so inviting. The Serpent and the King – another from last year’s Invincible Shield album – is also exhilarating: a full-on burst of thrash driven by Scott Travis’s impeccable double-bass drum style. On the likes of Hell Patrol, the septuagenarian Halford can still nail the inexplicable, guttural shrieks.
Guitarist Richie Faulkner came close to death in 2021 after a severe aortic rupture on stage: he survived 10 hours of emergency open-heart surgery where parts of his chest were replaced with mechanical components. With gurns aplenty, Halford admires one of Faulkner’s dazzling lead breaks on One Shot at Glory, hovering his tattooed head around the fretboard.
“It’s been tough, the last 24-hours, but he would want us to be together doing this, having a good time. We love you, Ozzy,” Halford says to huge cheers, introducing Giants in the Sky. This is their ode to rock’s fallen greats, as the faces of Lemmy, Chris Cornell, Christine McVie, and now Ozzy – among others – are flashed on screen to a soundtrack of hefty riffs. That Judas Priest are not only performing at an admirable level but still making stellar new music in their sixth decade, further cements their place alongside Sabbath on the Mount Rushmore of metal gods.
