Concerts

Rock out to five decades of heavy metal with Judas Priest in Boston

After two postponements, the hard rock icons will (hopefully) arrive at MGM Music Hall on October 16.

Guitarist Richie Faulkner and singer Rob Halford of Judas Priest GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images

2 minutes to read

Not many artists can claim as much staying power and relevance as Judas Priest. Equal parts substance and style, the British metal quintet struck a balance that myriad bands sought to emulate.

Unfortunately, the band’s 50th anniversary tour – which mathematically should have taken place in 2020 – has struggled to get the Boston area checked off its list.

The 2021 Halloween night gig at UMass Lowell’s Tsongas Center – along with a month’s worth of other dates – was postponed when guitarist Richie Faulkner fell ill.

Five months later, Priest had to cancel the rescheduled performance hours before the first notes were set to ring out due to an unspecified, non-COVID related “illness.”

Now, hopefully, the show will happen on October 16 at MGM Music Hall.

The lineup will comprise Faulkner, drummer Scott Travis, bassist Ian Hill and guitarist Glenn Tipton — who have played on every Judas Priest recording — and lead singer Rob Halford, one of metal’s mightiest and most recognizable figures.

To non-metal fans, this recognition might only be by virtue of his appearance on the January 5, 2014 episode of “The Simpsons.” Others might remember him for coming out on MTV in 1998, less than a year after Ellen DeGeneres did so on her sitcom.

“I’m just proud, that’s the word. Really proud of what we’ve done for British metal, for metal worldwide,” Halford told Metal Hammer’s Stephen Hill in March. “You can see Judas Priest and go, ‘they are some of the guys who started this genre’, you know? That’s a tremendous feeling of pride and satisfaction.”

But how does the 71-year-old feel about how the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opted to honor the metal titans, awarding them its “Musical Excellence Award” without inducting the band in one of its typical classes of new members?

“I was a bit pissed,” he told Ed Masley of the Arizona Republic. “At the end of the day, does it matter? Some days, I go, ‘No, it doesn’t matter. We’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Be grateful. Shut the hell up.’ And then there are other days where I’m like, ‘God damn, why did they give us the Musical Excellence Award? … Why don’t they go, ‘Welcome. You’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ and leave it at that? Judas Priest are still the Rodney Dangerfield of heavy metal. They can’t get no respect.”

Maybe they didn’t from the Hall of Fame, but they certainly will from the thousands who are expected pack MGM Music Hall. And although the date and venue have changed, ticketholders will still be treated to an opening set by Queensrÿche, one of the finest metal acts to come out of the generations subsequent to Priest.