With one minute and 21 seconds of new music, Judas Priest have affirmed uncompromising heavy metal‘s timelessness. "Panic Attack" proves these leather-clad grammy-winning road warriors are defiantly marching onward as they approach their 50th year. Blazing lead guitars, machine gun rhythm riffing and banshee-shriek vocals coalesce into Priest‘s signature battering ram assault – updated explosively for modern studio artillery.
Led by frontman Rob Halford‘s still glass-shattering multi-octave voice, Judas Priest shaped the entire heavy metal genre across their 1970s rise alongside Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. They crashed through the 1980s creative and commercial peak of Screaming for Vengeance before surviving MTV-driven turmoil to embrace exploratory 1990s efforts like Painkiller. Surviving lineup changes amidst renewed relevance in recent decades, Priest‘s firepower remains fully loaded in 2022.
"Panic Attack" balances nostalgia with forward drive from its initial moments. The syncopated intro riff alternates between frantic chromatic bursts evoking an air raid siren and palm-muted chugging straight from the dawning days of speed metal. Seamlessly it shifts into a propulsive gallop, maintaining that dystopian tension. The main verse riff that follows locks into the key of D-minor like classic era Judas Priest – seemingly elementary patterns revealing subtle harmonic interplay.
Here the twin guitar attack remains at full tactical capacity despite founding axeman Glenn Tipton sidelined from touring due to Parkinson‘s complications. New recruit Richie Faulkner has long since established credentials through stellar performances and songwriting contributions. Joining forces with his childhood idol Tipton since 2011, Faulkner helped pen Judas Priest‘s previous Redeemer of Souls and Firepower albums. Their tight intertwining leads retain trademark Priest descriptors – harmonized, screaming, soaring and scalding!
Behind the kit, drummer extraordinaire Scott Travis is iconsistent human metronome. First recruited by Priest following their synth-heavy 1986 album Turbo, Travis propels the rhythms with precision pummeling. His double kick drum patterns underpin "Panic Attack" with force just as vital to the band‘s attack as the twin guitar artillery. Production courtesy Andy Sneap is air-tight and modern without sacrificing raw power. Travis‘ jackhammer percussion and Ian Hill‘s pumping bass form a bunker buster of a rhythm chassis for the spectra sonics streaking overhead.
Soaring atop the metallic battlefield stands Rob Halford’s electrically-charged voiceover. His penetrating high shriek at age 70 represents a divine vocal miracle. After 40 years belting Judas Priest tunes, Halford today sounds reborn and refreshed. His spine-tingling operatic wails hit chilling new heights at times, while half-spoken word passages get spat out with vitriolic punk rock venom. Lyrics take a self-referential turn, clearly acknowledging the band’s legacy – “we’re tuning up the riffs again, it’s time for retribution”. But far from mere nostalgic posturing, this represents the opening salvo towards another decade of mastery.
Few metal acts reach such tenured longevity with integrity intact. 2020’s expansive 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music box set elaborated Judas Priest’s sprawling legacy, now continued here. The band that spent decades evangelizing heavy metal from American college touring circuits to chaotic 1980s arena spectacles is indeed back to spread more sermons of steel. Judas Priest’s 1980s image solidified metal fashion archetypes – Rob Halford‘s biker hats and studded leather, K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton‘s flying V guitars, Scott Travis‘ sleeveless look behind gigantic drumkits. Yet as this surprise single illustrates, their real religion lies always in the music’s salvific power.
The primary revelation after absorbing “Panic Attack” is Judas Priest sounding decidedly 2022 while instantly signature. Travis Scott-esque effected vocal refs get recontextualized for urgent heavy music drama. Shimmering sustained guitar lines straight off a Polyphia album mesh perfectly with Priest‘s steely attack. Sci-fi fueled paranoia of dystopian dread leads Halford into survivalist mode – “As one race, one planet, before it‘s too late”. In an era where anxiety disorders and panic attacks are prevalent worldwide, this theme takes on gravitas beyond mere sonic aggression.
Current events cast Halford‘s closing resolve into stark real-world relevance: “Stand by me, my friends/It‘s good to know, to feel you there/Stand by me/Right to the very end” over warm harmonized soloing. Our historic times of pandemic isolation seem mirrored in the title condition. But as Judas Priest have proclaimed across 50 iconic albums, only the catharsis of loud and heavy music can offer strength to overcome. This remains metal’s timeless testament. 2023 offers Priest opportunity to evangelize their continuing heavy metal revival firsthand back on tour finally.
On the eve of renewed roads paved with screaming metal maniacs eager for Priest’s live attack once more, “Panic Attack” sets optimistic expectations. The sonic walls of layered Marshall-stack guitar roar reassuringly herald what is to come. Judas Priest are one of precious few heritage metal bands sustaining peak potency into their sixth decade. Let the youthful shredders flying with instrumental athleticism take heed. Neither the epic classic rock dinosaurs nor extreme metal youngblood can hope to keep pace with these Road Warriors of Metal when they unleash creatively anew! Judas Priest once again raise the bar high with "Panic Attack"‘s modernized mastery – true heavy metal believers bow in submission before the Metal Gods!