The song is from their forthcoming new album
Judas Priest has shared “The Serpent and the King,” the latest offering from their upcoming new studio album Invincible Shield. The song sees the band at their heavy metal best, with what is without doubt the most fist-pumping track on the album. The single launched on Apple Music’s The Zane Lowe Show alongside an exclusive interview with Rob Halford and Zane Lowe. The band has been teasing snippets of the song on socials for over a month, whipping fans into a frenzy for its release.
Invincible Shield will be released on March 8th via Epic Records. The album’s previous singles “Panic Attack, “Trial By Fire” and “Crown Of Horns” have been streamed over 15 million times since their release.
Judas Priest will embark on a world tour this year, the European leg kicks off in Glasgow on March 11th before taking on North America in April and May.
Over the past 50 years, Judas Priest’s music has come to define the metal genre with benchmark albums that have sold in their millions globally and sold-out tours that have seen them headline the world’s biggest stadiums. With their evolving music and live performances also came a powerful unique identity – a look which has both defined the group and influenced future generations of metal bands.
Judas Priest formed in 1970 in Birmingham, England, an area where many feel birthed heavy metal. The original nucleus of musicians would go on to change the face of heavy metal. Throughout the 70s Priest was responsible for helping trailblaze metal with such classic offerings as Sad Wings of Destiny (1976) Sin After Sin (1977) and Hell Bent for Leather (1978) as well as one of the genre’s top live recordings Unleashed in the East (1979) among others.
It was during the 80s that Priest conquered the world, becoming a global arena headliner on the strength of such all-time classics as British Steel (1980) and Screaming for Vengeance (1982), as well as being one of the first metal bands to be embraced by the then-burgeoning MTV, plus performing at some of the decades biggest concerts and being the first to exclusively wear leather and studs – a look that began during this era and would eventually be embraced by metal heads throughout the world. Priest’s success continued throughout the 90s and beyond with the addition of drummer Scott Travis, as evidenced by such additional stellar offerings as Painkiller (1990) Angel of Retribution (2005), and A Touch of Evil: Live (2009) the latter of which saw Priest win a Grammy Award for a killer rendition of the classic Dissident Aggressor.
Ahead of their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year, the group commemorated 50 million albums sold.
