Judas Priest to celebrate 50th anniversary at Graspop Metal Meeting

Graspop Metal Meeting is proud to announce its second headliner for next summer’s XL edition. None other than Judas Priest will top the bill on Saturday 20 June. The godfathers of heavy metal are celebrating their 50th anniversary and they’ve promised to make it a night to remember. In other words, there’s double cause for celebration because the Benelux’ premier hard rock and metal festival is blowing out 25 candles next year with an XL edition from Thursday-Sunday 18-21 June at festival park De Stenehei in Dessel.

Judas Priest are commemorating 50 glorious years in the music industry with a must-see anniversary tour of the world’s biggest stages. Five decades of uncompromising heavy metal have left Priest with a track record that is second to none. Even after all this time, the band remains one of the driving forces behind the heavy metal genre they have helped define. Judas Priest formed in 1969 in Birmingham, regarded by many as the birthplace of heavy metal. In the 70s the band fronted by the charismatic Rob Halford released a string of landmark albums, continually raising the bar for all other hard rock acts of the day. Still, this was just the prelude to the triumphant 80s that saw Priest conquer the world with such genre-defining albums as ‘British Steel’, ‘Point of Entry’, ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ and ‘Defenders of the Faith’. But there was more to come… After a period of lesser exposure in the 90s, the new millennium brought a major resurgence with the concept album ‘Nostradamus’, ‘Redeemer of Souls’ and ‘Firepower’, not only their most recent full-length but also the highest charted album of their illustrious career. The impact of Judas Priest on the heavy metal scene cannot be overestimated and not just in a musical sense because they can also be credited with introducing the leather-and-studs look that was embraced by millions of metalheads worldwide.Tickets to Graspop Metal Meeting 2020 go on sale at 10 am on Friday 15 November via ticketmaster.be and proximusgoformusic.be.