Original Judas Priest frontman Al Atkins announces Reloaded

Al Atkins
Al Atkins

Original Judas Priest frontman Al Atkins has announced the release of a new album titled Reloaded.

It’ll feature 11 tracks taken from throughout the vocalist’s 40-year career, including songs by Priest and Atkins’ band Holy Rage.

Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill guests on the album, which also includes contributions from former Gillan bassist John McCoy, Primal Fear’s Ralf Scheepers, guitarist Roy Z Ramirez and Japanese axeman Tsuyoshi Ikedo from Unveil Raze.

Speaking about the project earlier this year, Atkins said: “It came about after Paul May and myself were asked to record a ‘best of’ album by our record company and so we recorded the Atkins May Project – Anthology.

“It then got me thinking about recording my own solo ‘best of’ album but set about re-recording all of my favourite songs from the last four decades and using guest players.

“We still have three tracks still to record before it is all finished but it is sounding absolutely killer.”

Atkins adds: “Ralf Scheepers had previously asked me to do a duet with him so he was a brilliant choice to have him on board. I’m really looking forward to this album and I hope everyone else who buys it will enjoy it too.”

Atkins was a founding member of Judas Priest in 1970 before being replaced by Rob Halford in 1973.

Reloaded is available for pre-order, while a promotional clip can be seen below.

The Reloaded cover

The Reloaded cover

Reloaded tracklist

  1. Winter
  2. MInd Conception
  3. A Void To Avoid
  4. Coming Thick & Fast
  5. Heavy Thoughts
  6. Never Satisfied
  7. Money Talks
  8. Cradle To The Grave
  9. Love At War
  10. Victim Of Changes
  11. Mind Conception (Bonus - early Judas Priest demo extract)
Scott Munro
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Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.