Judas Priest + Alice Cooper at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre

Judas Priest are one of the most influential and long-lasting heavy metal groups of all time. Emerging at the dawn of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Priest combined straightforward rock & roll muscle with a more theatrically minded performance presence. This sound was made more unique by the dynamic banshee wail of Rob Halford and the vicious dual-lead guitar attack of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. While issuing metal anthems like “Breaking the Law,” “Living After Midnight,” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” Judas Priest set the pace for the genre from 1975 until 1985 with iconic albums like British Steel (1980), Screaming for Vengeance (1982), and Defenders of the Faith (1984), and helped lay the groundwork for speed and death metal. The group struggled after Halford‘s departure in the early ’90s but were restored to prominence in the 2000s upon his return, issuing a string of acclaimed efforts — Angel of Retribution (2005), Nostradamus (2010), Redeemer of Souls (2014), and the U.S. and U.K. Top Five-charting Firepower (2018) — that skillfully married melody, pageantry, and force. Judas Priest were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, two years before the arrival of Invincible Shield, their 19th studio LP.

Formed in Birmingham, England, in 1970, the group’s core members were guitarist K.K. Downing and bassist Ian Hill. Joined by Alan Atkins and drummer John Ellis, the band played their first concert in 1971. Atkins’ previous group was called Judas Priest, yet the members decided it was the best name for the new group. The band played numerous shows throughout 1971. During the year, Ellis was replaced by Alan Moore; by the end of the year, Chris Campbell replaced Moore. After a solid year of touring the U.K., Atkins and Campbell left the band in 1973 and were replaced by vocalist Rob Halford and drummer John Hinch. They continued touring, including a visit to Germany and the Netherlands in 1974. By the time the tour was completed, they had secured a record contract with Gull, an independent U.K. label. Before recording their debut album, Judas Priest added guitarist Glenn Tipton.

Rocka Rolla was released in September 1974 to almost no attention. The following year, they gave a well-received performance at the Reading Festival and Hinch departed the band; he was replaced by Alan Moore. Later that year, the group released Sad Wings of Destiny, which earned some positive reviews. However, the lack of sales was putting the band in a dire financial situation, which was remedied by an international contract with CBS Records. Sin After Sin (1977) was the first album released under that contract; it was recorded with Simon Phillips, who replaced Moore. The record received positive reviews and the band departed for their first American tour, with Les Binks on drums.

When they returned to England, Judas Priest recorded 1978’s Stained Class, the record that established them as an international force in metal. Along with 1979’s Hell Bent for Leather (Killing Machine in the U.K.), Stained Class defined the nascent New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. A significant number of bands adopted Priest’s leather-clad image and hard, driving sound, making their music harder, faster, and louder. After releasing Hell Bent for Leather, the band recorded the live album Unleashed in the East (1979) in Japan; it became their first platinum album in America. Les Binks left the band in 1979; he was replaced by former Trapeze drummer Dave Holland. Their next album, 1980’s British Steel, entered the British charts at number three, launched the hit singles “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight,” and was their second American platinum record; Point of Entry, released the following year, was nearly as successful.

At the beginning of the ’80s, Judas Priest was a top concert attraction around the world, in addition to being a best-selling recording artist. Featuring the hit single “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance marked the height of their popularity, peaking at number 17 in America and selling over a million copies. Two years later, Defenders of the Faith nearly matched its predecessor’s performance, yet metal tastes were beginning to change, as Metallica and other speed/thrash metal groups started to grow in popularity. That shift was evident on 1986’s Turbo, where Judas Priest seemed out of touch with current trends; nevertheless, the record sold over a million copies in America on the basis of name recognition alone. However, 1987’s Priest…Live! was their first album since Stained Class not to go gold. Ram It Down (1988) was a return to raw metal and returned the group to gold status. Dave Holland left after this record and was replaced by Scott Travis for 1990’s Painkiller, arguably the band’s heaviest set to date. Like Ram It Down, Painkiller didn’t make an impact outside the band’s die-hard fans, yet the group were still a popular concert act.

In the early ’90s, Rob Halford began his own thrash band, Fight, and soon left Judas Priest. In 1996, following a solo album by Glenn Tipton, the band rebounded with a new young singer, Tim “Ripper” Owens (formerly a member of a Priest tribute band and of Winter’s Bane). They spent the next year recording Jugulator amidst much self-perpetuated hype concerning Priest’s return to their roots. The album debuted at number 82 on the Billboard album charts upon its release in late 1997. Halford had by then disbanded Fight following a decrease in interest and signed with Trent Reznor‘s Nothing label with a new project, Two. In the meantime, the remaining members of Judas Priest forged on with ’98 Live Meltdown, a live set recorded during their inaugural tour with Ripper on the mike. Around the same time, a movie was readying production to be based on Ripper‘s rags-to-riches story of how he got to front his all-time favorite band. Although Priest was originally supposed to be involved with the film, they ultimately pulled out, but production went on anyway without the band’s blessing (the movie, Rock Star, was eventually released in the summer of 2001, starring Mark Wahlberg in the lead role). Rob Halford in the meantime disbanded Two after just a single album, 1997’s Voyeurs, and returned to his metal roots with a quintet simply named Halford. The group issued their debut in 2000, Resurrection, following it with a worldwide tour that saw the new group open Iron Maiden‘s Brave New World U.S. tour and issue a live set one year later (which included a healthy helping of Priest classics) — Live Insurrection.

In 2001 the Ripper-led Priest released a new album, Demolition, and Priest’s entire back catalog for Columbia was reissued with remastered sound and bonus tracks. In 2003 the band — including Halford — collaborated on the liner notes and song selections for their mammoth career-encompassing box Metalogy, a collaboration that brought Halford back into the fold. Owens split from the group amicably in 2003, allowing the newly reunited heavy metal legends to plan their global live concert tour in 2004 (including a set alongside Black Sabbath at Ozzfest), with their 16th studio album, Angel of Retribution, to be released the following year. In 2008, the band released Nostradamus, a sprawling, two-disc conceptual piece that charted the life and times of the famous French seer and that hit the Top 30 across Europe and in the U.S. (number 11) and Australia (number 17). 2009’s Touch of Evil: Live included a rendition of their 1977 song “Dissident Aggressor” that won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Before their next tour commenced, founding member Downing left the band over differences with the other members and their management; he was replaced by Richie Faulkner.

Priest worked on their new album during the tour, which ran until 2012. The record’s release was delayed several times, but it would eventually see the light of day in July 2014. Entitled Redeemer of Souls, it was described by Priest as a traditional, crowd-pleasing return to their roots, and went on to become the group’s first Top Ten album in the U.S., landing at the number six slot on the Billboard 200 chart. A lengthy tour followed, and in early 2016 Priest issued the concert album Battle Cry, which featured highlights from their August 1, 2015 performance at Germany’s Wacken Festival.

Judas Priest began loosely demo’ing ideas for their 18th studio album in 2016, but they didn’t enter the studio as a band until a year later. They revisited their original, organic way of recording, with the entire band playing together at the same time in the studio. They underscored this by enlisting producers Tom Allom — who worked on all the band’s records from 1979 through 1988 — and Grammy-winning veteran Andy Sneap. In February 2018, guitarist Tipton — diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a decade earlier — announced that it had progressed to the point where he had to retire from touring. Sneap would fill his slot on the road. Firepower was issued that March and soared to number five in the U.K., making it their first Top Ten album there since British Steel. It was accompanied by tours including a North American run with Deep Purple. They only took a break from touring when forced off the road by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and then by Faulkner’s ill health in 2021. They were able to launch their delayed 50th anniversary tour of the U.S in early 2022, which they followed with dates worldwide throughout the rest of the year. That November, the lineup of Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill, and Scott Travis were inducted into Rock & Roll of Hall Fame.

Judas Priest continued to take their show on the road into 2023 with a schedule that included co-headlining California’s PowerTrip Music Festival with AC/DC. That October, they released “Panic Attack,” the lead single from their 19th studio album, Invincible Shield. The album was once again produced by guitarist Sneap (who also produced Firepower) and was released in March of 2024. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato, Rovi

The man (and the band) who first brought shock rock to the masses, Alice Cooper became one of the most successful and influential acts of the ’70s with their gritty but anthemic hard rock and a live show that delivered a rock & roll chamber of horrors, thrilling fans and cultivating outrage from authority figures (which made fans love them all the more). The name Alice Cooper originally referred to both the band and its lead singer (born Vincent Furnier), as they played dark, eccentric, psychedelic rock on their first two albums, Pretties for You (1969) and Easy Action (1970). After a spell in Detroit where they soaked up the high-energy influence of the Stooges and the MC5, Alice Cooper scored breakthrough hits in 1971 with “I’m Eighteen” and the album Love It to Death, in which the group finally stumbled upon the formula that made them stars, blending tough, dirty, guitar-fueled hard rock with Cooper’s sneering vocals and lyrics that were by turns relatable (“I’m Eighteen,” “Body”) and willfully spooky (“Black Juju,” “The Ballad of Dwight Frye”). Coupled with a live show that included snakes, electric chairs, fake blood, and mock hangings, Alice Cooper had something to offend everyone, and from 1971’s Killer to 1973’s Billion Dollar Babies, they could seemingly do no wrong. Following the commercial and critical disappointment of 1973’s Muscle of Love, the Alice Cooper band broke up, and Alice went forward as a solo act, delivering a cleaner and more professional variation on the themes of his early ’70s hits, while the band attempted to continue as Billion Dollar Babies, with little success. Cooper’s glossy 1975 solo debut, Welcome to My Nightmare, was a massive hit, and his shows became even more elaborate as he became a regular fixture on television, but subsequent solo releases saw his following dwindle until 1989’s Trash and 1991’s Hey Stoopid, where he blended his trademark sound with hair metal arrangements and production and gained a new audience. Cooper’s dedicated fan base kept him in the game long after his ’70s peak, touring regularly and releasing albums like 2021’s high-spirited Detroit Stories and 2023’s tightly wound, live-sounding set Road.

Vincent Furnier formed his first group, the Earwigs, as an Arizona teenager in the early ’60s. Changing the band’s name to the Spiders in 1965, the group was eventually called the Nazz (not to be confused with Todd Rundgren‘s band of the same name). The Spiders and the Nazz both released local singles that were moderately popular. In 1968, after discovering there was another band with the same name, the group changed its name to Alice Cooper. According to band legend, the name came to Furnier during a Ouija board session, where he was told he was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch of the same name. Comprised of vocalist Furnier — who would soon begin calling himself Alice Cooper — guitarist Mike Bruce, guitarist Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith, the group moved to California in 1968. There they met Shep Gordon, who became their manager, and Frank Zappa, who signed Alice Cooper to his Straight Records imprint.

Alice Cooper released their first album, Pretties for You, in 1969. Easy Action followed early in 1970, but failed to chart. The group’s reputation in Los Angeles was slowly shrinking, so the band moved to Furnier’s hometown of Detroit. For the next year, the group refined their bizarre stage show. Late in 1970, the group’s contract was transferred to Straight‘s distributor Warner Bros., and they began recording their third album with producer Bob Ezrin. With Ezrin’s assistance, Alice Cooper developed their classic heavy metal crunch on 1971’s Love It to Death, which featured the number 21 hit single “Eighteen”; the album peaked at number 35 and went gold. The success enabled the group to develop a more impressive, elaborate live show, which made them a highly popular concert attraction across the U.S. and eventually the U.K. Killer, released late in 1971, was another gold album.

Released in the summer of 1972, School’s Out was Alice Cooper’s breakthrough record, peaking at number two and selling over a million copies. The title song became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. and a number one single in the U.K. Billion Dollar Babies, released the following year, was the group’s biggest hit, reaching number one in both America and Britain; the album’s first single, “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” became a Top Ten hit in Britain, peaking at number 25 in the U.S. Muscle of Love appeared late in 1973, yet it failed to capitalize on the success of Billion Dollar Babies. After Muscle of Love, Furnier and the rest of Alice Cooper parted ways to pursue other projects. Having officially changed his name to Alice Cooper, Furnier embarked on a similarly theatrical solo career; the rest of the band released one unsuccessful album under the name Billion Dollar Babies, while Mike Bruce and Neal Smith both recorded solo albums that were never issued. In the fall of 1974, a compilation of Alice Cooper’s five Warner albums, entitled Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits, became a Top Ten hit.

For his first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, Cooper hired Lou Reed‘s backing band from Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal — guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, bassist Prakash John, keyboardist Joseph Chrowski, and drummer Penti Glan — as his supporting group. Released in the spring of 1975, the record was similar to his previous work and became a Top Ten hit in America, launching the hit acoustic ballad “Only Women Bleed.” Its success put an end to any idea of reconvening Alice Cooper the band. Its follow-up, 1976’s Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, was another hit, going gold in the U.S. After that album, Cooper’s career began to slip, partially due to changing trends and partially due to his alcoholism. Cooper entered rehab in 1978, writing an album about his treatment called From the Inside (1978) with Bernie Taupin, Elton John‘s lyricist. During the early ’80s, Cooper continued to release albums and tour, yet he was no longer as popular as he was during his early-’70s heyday.

Cooper made a successful comeback in the late ’80s, sparked by his appearances in horror films and a series of pop-metal bands that paid musical homage to his classic early records and concerts. Constrictor, released in 1986, started his comeback, but it was 1989’s Trash that returned Cooper to the spotlight. Produced by the proven hitmaker Desmond Child, Trash featured guest appearances by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and most of Aerosmith; the record became a Top Ten hit in Britain and peaked at number 20 in the U.S., going platinum. “Poison,” a midtempo rocker featured on the album, became Cooper’s first Top Ten single since 1977. After the release of Trash, he continued to star in the occasional film, tour, and record, although he wasn’t able to retain the audience he’d recaptured with Trash. Still, 1991’s Hey Stoopid and 1994’s The Last Temptation were generally solid, professional efforts that helped Cooper settle into a comfortable cult status without damaging the critical goodwill surrounding his ’70s output. After a live album, 1997’s Fistful of Alice, Cooper returned on the smaller Spitfire label in 2000 with Brutal Planet, and Dragontown a year later. The Eyes of Alice Cooper appeared in 2003 and found Cooper and company playing a more stripped-down brand of near-garage rock. Dirty Diamonds from 2005 was nearly as raw and hit the streets around the same time Cooper premiered his syndicated radio show Nights with Alice Cooper. Three years later he returned with Along Came a Spider, a concept album that told the story of a spider-obsessed serial killer. In 2010, he released the live album Theatre of Death, along with a download-only EP of redone Cooper classics titled Alice Does Alice. 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare, a sequel to his 1975 conceptual classic of the same name (minus the 2), was recorded with longtime co-conspirator Bob Ezrin, and featured 14 brand-new cuts that spanned multiple genres and relied on the talents of a host of previous members of the Alice Cooper band (including Steve Hunter), as well as a guest spot from pop superstar Ke$ha. The same year, he was awarded the Kerrang! Icon Award.

Advancing years didn’t prevent Cooper from maintaining a hectic schedule, and by 2012 he was touring with Iron Maiden and headlining Bloodstock Open Air. Aside from his musical pursuits, he also starred in Tim Burton’s adaptation of Dark Shadows, playing himself alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, and Michelle Pfeiffer. He returned to touring in 2014 as the opening act for Mötley Crüe‘s final tour, and the following year he unveiled a new supergroup called Hollywood Vampires, which included Johnny Depp and Joe Perry. They subsequently released an album of rock covers. He reunited with Ezrin yet again for his 27th studio record. Paranormal was released in 2017, featuring contributions from ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, Deep Purple‘s Roger Glover, and U2‘s Larry Mullen, alongside original bandmembers Smith, Dunaway, and Bruce. The album was also released in a special edition with a bonus disc of live material. Early the following year, an EP was released, centered around Paranormal single “The Sound of A,” which included a handful of live cuts from his 2017 tour. In August 2018, Cooper released A Paranormal Evening at the Olympia Paris, a live album drawn from his European tour in support of the Paranormal album. A 2019 EP, Breadcrumbs, saw Cooper paying tribute to his hometown of Detroit with songs written about his early garage rock heroes. He continued the Detroit homage on his next full length, 2021’s Detroit Stories. In addition to many new songs of his own, the album included covers of Bob Seger, Detroit indie mainstays Outrageous Cherry, and the Velvet Underground‘s “Rock & Roll” presented in the style of Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels‘ 1971 rendition. The LP peaked at number 47 on the Billboard 200 and at number seven on the Top Independent Albums chart. The following year saw the release of the concert album Detroit Stories/Paranormal/A Paranormal Evening with Alice Cooper at The Olympia, Paris. In August of 2023, Cooper released a new album, Road. This set of new, guitar-heavy tunes sought to capture the power his band had in an on-stage setting. In addition to the album’s live sound, Road was held together by the loose conceptual theme of situations unique to the rock & roll touring life. The album fared well on the Billboard charts, making the Hard Rock Top Ten, while topping the U.K.’s Rock and Metal chart. Tours with Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, and Rob Zombie followed. Cooper’s 2024 output was mainly archival, though he did issue a new acoustic recording of his 1973 cut “Teenage Lament ’74” as part of a deluxe reissue of its parent album, Muscle of Love. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Mark Deming, Rovi

One of the first punk-metal fusion bands, Corrosion of Conformity were formed in North Carolina by guitarist Woody Weatherman during the early ’80s. In their early years, C.O.C. became known for their aggressive sound, intelligent political lyrics, and willingness to break away from both hardcore and metal conventions. In the ’90s, their shift to a more stripped-down, deliberate sound — sort of Black Sabbath filtered through the Deep South — brought them enough in line with the alt-metal Zeitgeist to bring them a measure of mainstream popularity.

C.O.C. debuted in 1983 with the thrashy, Black Flag-influenced Eye for an Eye, featuring a lineup of Weatherman, drummer Reed Mullin, vocalist Eric Eycke, and bassist Mike Dean. They began to build up a cult following with 1985’s Animosity, but their label at the time, Death, grew tired of their internal instability — lineup changes found Eycke replaced by vocalist Simon Bob — and dropped them following 1987’s Technocracy. It took several years for a new lineup to come together — featuring Weatherman, guitarist Pepper Keenan, Mullin, vocalist Karl Agell, and bassist Phil Swisher — but when it did, the result was 1991’s Blind, a powerful, focused, more metallic record that increased their audience by leaps and bounds. Agell was fired following its success, and he and Swisher went on to form Leadfoot; meanwhile, Keenan became the full-time lead vocalist on 1994’s even more Sabbath-esque Deliverance, which also featured the return of original bassist Mike Dean. During 1995, Keenan took a short detour into the Southern metal supergroup Down (which also featured Pantera‘s Phil Anselmo and members of Crowbar).

Thanks to a shift in popular taste in favor of the ultra-heavy brand of alternative metal, the group had helped pioneer, C.O.C. found themselves with a larger audience than ever before when they released 1996’s Wiseblood, which continued and expanded their rock radio success. After a lengthy break from recording and a world tour with Metallica, C.O.C. returned with a new album in the fall of 2000, titled America’s Volume Dealer. Another break ensued, resulting in the release of the live recording Live Volume in 2001. It wasn’t until April of 2005 that the band regrouped for the hard-hitting and complex In the Arms of God. C.O.C. went on hiatus, with the members working on various side projects until 2010, when drummer Reed Mullin rejoined the band, reuniting the Animosity lineup while Pepper Keenan continued working with his other band, Down. The remaining trio began work on new material, and in 2012 released their eighth album, the eponymous Corrosion of Conformity, on Candlelight Records. Their ninth album, aptly titled IX, arrived in 2014. Shortly after the latter LP’s release, C.O.C. reunited with Keenan and began work on their tenth studio long-player, No Cross No Crown, which dropped in January 2018. The band announced the death of Reed Mullin on January 27, 2020. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi