Stream ‘Celestial,’ Judas Priest Icon Rob Halford’s New Holiday Metal Album

As far as heavy metal icons go, Rob Halford of Judas Priest is untouchable — so when he decides to throw together a heavy metal holiday album, who’s going to tell him no?

Nobody, that’s who, because the idea is fantastic. And today, Halford has unleashed Celestial, a collection of holiday classics and new originals from Halford and his crew.

His backing band for this record is none other than his fmaly and friends, specifically his brother (Nigel) on drums, his nephew on bass (Alex, son of Priest bassist Ian Hill), has sister (Sue) on bells, and twin guitar tandem of Robert Jones and Jon Blakey. 

In the original album announcement, Halford provided this quote explaining what this is all about:

“The great thing about heavy metal is it’s got these kinds of multiple dimensions,” explains the man also known as the Metal God. “I think when you look at it from an outside point of view – if you’re not really familiar with the metal scene – it can look pretty intimidating. And it is a very strong, powerful experience. But it comes at different levels. I think the music that we’ve made on Celestial, for example, gives a display of that. Metal maniacs – as we call ourselves – are just as ready for the holidays as everybody else. And what we’ve tried to do with this music is to reach out to as many of those metal dimensions as we possibly can.” 

Dive into Celestial and rev up the upcoming holiday season a bit early below, via Spotify: