Judas Priest continue defending the metal faith on ‘Invincible Shield’ tour

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Judas Priest part of Invincible Shield Tour at Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, AZ on October 18th, 2024

Review by Val Tapia
Photos by Fred Kuhlman
Promoter: Live Nation (https://www.livenation.com/ )
Venue: Arizona Financial Theatre (https://www.livenation.com/venue/KovZpZAEk7lA/arizona-financial-theatre-events )
Date: October 18th, 2024
Tour: Invincible Shield Tour 2024

Let’s see: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden.  Yes–that’s still the Holy Trinity of heavy metal right there– in that order.  Well, to me anyway.

I have to say that I was grinning from ear-to-ear during intermission at the Judas Priest show on Fri. Oct. 18 at Arizona Financial Theatre.  Maiden’s The Evil That Men Do and Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell were ideal songs to get the metal faithful that night psyched up for… “the mighty Judas Priest!”

Judas Priest part of Invincible Shield Tour at Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, AZ on October 18th, 2024

Taking the stage at 9:00 p.m. sharp, the second most important metal band of all-time opened its 105-minute, 18-song set with Panic Attack, a song from Priest’s latest album Invincible Shield.  It would be one of three songs played from the new album.

In recent years, Priest has chosen to play its “trademark” song You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ early in the set.  For this tour, it was the second song of the night— and went over well as always.

Obviously, most bands prefer to play their biggest hits later in the set.  This is a rare exception, not to mention its far from one of their “best” songs.  No matter how well-known it is.

From there Priest goes into two songs from their breakthrough U.S. album British Steel (from 1980), Rapid Fire and all-time classic Breaking The Law, respectively.

Judas Priest part of Invincible Shield Tour at Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, AZ on October 18th, 2024

The current touring incarnation of the band consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis.

For the fifth song of the night, Riding On The Wind (from 1982’s Screaming For Vengeance) got the crowd going.  However, Love Bites (from 1984’s Defenders of the Faith) isn’t the ideal track to represent that particular album.

Why? Because frankly… it bites!  Sorry, a better pick would’ve been something like Jawbreaker.  But I digress.

To their credit, I do think Priest found an overall “happy medium” with the set list that most of the (roughly) 3500 metalheads in attendance were content with. Devil’s Child and Saints in Hell (the latter from 1978’s Stained Class) led into the second new tune of the night called Crown of Horns.

Of course, Sinner remains one of Judas Priest’s best songs of all-time.  Needless to say, it went down a storm on this Friday night.

Interestingly, for all the flak that their 1986 album Turbo gets from fans worldwide, there’s no doubt that their “beefed-up” version of Turbo Lover still goes over strong onstage to this day.

The final new song of the night, Invincible Shield, was probably the strongest of the three played from the album of the same name.

It was then time to go back to 1976 and the album Sad Wings of Destiny for another one of Priest’s greatest songs ever recorded, Victim of Changes.

In short order, it’s quintessential listening for every heavy metal fan out there. Period.

Of course, their blistering version of Fleetwood Mac’s The Green Manalishi is another showstopper as well.  Frankly, it can be rightly argued that Judas Priest’s version is the definitive one of the two.

Judas Priest part of Invincible Shield Tour at Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, AZ on October 18th, 2024

Ending the main set was the title track from 1990’s Painkiller.  Drummer Scott Travis said a few words, thanking the fans for coming out and asking if we wanted to hear “a few more songs.”

Regarding Painkiller, it seems to be the most challenging song of the evening for the Metal God himself, lead vocalist Rob Halford, to pull off.  Yet, he can still put all the young pups out there in their place— on his worst day.

Over the years, I’ve never understood why The Hellion is piped in before they perform Electric Eye proper for the first of three encores.  Off-topic, unfortunately, Iron Maiden does the same thing with the beginning of Aces High during their shows. In a word, it sucks— end of story.

Of course, a Priest show isn’t complete without Hell Bent For Leather and the Harley appearance.  Finally, I know it has to be played, but Living After Midnight is a song I can take or leave these days.

I’d much rather hear something like Heading Out To The Highway instead.  It would indeed be a nice surprise, if nothing else.  But again, I digress.

Sabaton part of Invincible Shield Tour at Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, AZ on October 18th, 2024

Opener Sabaton went over fairly well with Priest’s audience.  There was, shall I say, a quirky bent to their music.  At least to my ears.

Songs like opener Ghost Division, as well as Swedish Pagans and Carolous Rex won the crowd over.  They were relatively entertaining in their own way. They took their music seriously, yet they didn’t take themselves seriously.  They had a good time during their very generous 12-song, one-hour set.

The final verdict?  I give the Invincible Shield tour 3.5 out of five stars.  After 50+ years, Judas Priest still put on a solid, no-nonsense show for their legions of loyal fans.

Note (Editor, Fred Kuhlman):

Judas Priest part of Invincible Shield Tour at Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, AZ on October 18th, 2024

I have been a long-time fan of Judas Priest.  For me the song selection missed some of what I would have liked to hear.  The other issue that I noticed was there seemed to be a poor mix on the sound.  Rob’s voice seemed lower and overpowered by the instruments.  At first, I thought it was because I was in the pit and only heard the stage monitors.  But I later sat in the audience and the sound was still off.  I have read other reviews of the tour and similar things have been said about the sound mix.  Hopefully they will get it worked out for future shows.  However, I still highly recommend seeing this show.

Sabaton part of Invincible Shield Tour at Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, AZ on October 18th, 2024

As for Sabaton, I have seen them every time they have come through the valley since 2015.  At that first show they were sandwiched between Delain and Nightwish.  Since then, I have seen them as opening acts and also as the headliner.  Since they were the opener for Judas Priest, they had a limited time to perform.  They also seemed to minimize the stage setup with only Audie (The tank with Hannes’ drumkit on top) on the stage.  They did a very good job, but it was not the best I have seen them.  When they headlined, they had a much more extensive stage setup and got to perform much longer.  This is not to diminish their performance tonight, but only to say that if you ever get the chance to see them as a headliner, it is well worth your time.  To this end, on October 30th & 31st in the USA Sabaton will have a concert movie event at a number of theaters.  Here in Phoenix area, they will be at the AMC theaters.  If you ever want to see what a fantastic show Sabaton can put on, then I would recommend going and seeing this concert movie.  I will definitely be going on October 30rd to see it.


Judas Priest

Photos © Fred Kuhlman 2024, All Rights Reserved



Sabaton

Photos © Fred Kuhlman 2024, All Rights Reserved



Judas Priest Setlist:                                       (Album)
War Pigs          (Black Sabbath song)              (Intro)
Invincible Shield Tour Anthem                        (Intro)
Panic Attack                                                    (Invincible Shield)
You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’                  (Screaming for Vengeance)
Rapid Fire                                                        (British Steel)
Breaking the Law                                            (British Steel)
Riding on the Wind                                         (Screaming for Vengeance)
Love Bites                                                        (Defenders of the Faith)
Devil’s Child                                                    (Screaming for Vengeance)
Saints in Hell                                                   (Stained Class)
Crown of Horns                                               (Invincible Shield)
Sinner                                                              (Sin After Sin)
Turbo Lover                                                     (Turbo)
Invincible Shield                                              (Invincible Shield)
Victim of Changes                                           (Sad Wings of Destiny)
The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)
(Fleetwood Mac cover)
Painkiller                                                         (Painkiller)
Encore:
The Hellion                                                     (Intro)
Electric Eye                                                     (Screaming for Vengeance)
Hell Bent for Leather                                      (Killing Machine)
Living After Midnight                                     (British Steel)



Sabaton setlist:                                   (Album)
Ghost Division                                     (The Art of War)
The Last Stand                                     (The Last Stand)
Swedish Pagans                                   (The Art of War)
The Red Baron                                     (The Great War)
Bismarck                                               (single)
Stormtroopers                                      (The War To End All Wars)
Carolus Rex    (Swedish version)           (Carolus Rex)
Resist and Bite                                      (Heroes)
(Joakim played a pink “Hello Kitty” guitar incl. a ‘Breaking the Law’ intro tease.)
The Attack of the Dead Men                (The Great War)
(Joakim appeared in costume, spraying green mist (Simulated poison gas) over the stage)
Primo Victoria                                      (Primo Victoria)
Soldier of Heaven                                (The War To End All Wars)
To Hell and Back                                  (Heroes)