User:L1A1 FAL/Judas Priest's 17th studio album

Redeemer of Souls is the upcoming seventeenth studio effort by British heavy metal Judas Priest. It is the band's first album without founding guitarist K. K. Downing, and the first to feature his replacement, Richie Faulkner.

Background
After the release and touring cycle for the Judas Priest's previous album, Nostradamus had been completed, the band had announced that they were going to launch their Epitaph World Tour, which the band had promoted as a "farewell tour". However, the band later clarified that it only signified an end to large world tours, and did not mean the band would stop touring or recording.

While the Judas Priest were planning for the tour, founding guitarist K.K. Downing declared his intention to retire from the band. He was replaced by Richie Faulkner.

Production
It emerged in January 2011 that the band were working on material for a followup to Nostradamus. Later, in May 2011, Glenn Tipton made reference to the new material, calling it "a mixed bag" and made a somewhat contradictory comment saying that the album is like a farewell album, but that it might not be the band's last.. Later, in August 2011, Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton announced that the band had "about 12 to 14 tracks completely mapped out" for the new album, and four of those were already mixed. A release date for 2012 was tentatively suggested.

When asked about the album in an interview with Bravewords.com in September 2012, Halford did not divulge many details, but did comment that the new material is "some of the most powerful metal that we've played in a long time". Halford also offered up a new potential release date of early 2013. As of March 2013, the band were still in the studio working on the album.

The album title was announced on 28 April 2014. It was also announced that the album would be released, starting on 11 July 2014, and the album's title track was posted for streaming on Youtube.

Personnel

 * Rob Halford - vocals
 * Glenn Tipton - guitars
 * Richie Faulkner - guitars
 * Ian Hill - bass guitar
 * Scott Travis - drums