Rob Halford open to black metal project with Behemoth’s Nergal

Rob Halford
Rob Halford (Image credit: Getty)

Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford reports that he’s spoken with Behemoth vocalist and guitarist Nergal about working on a possible black metal project.

Halford has long spoken about wanting to work on a black metal album, with initial discussions between him and Emperor’s Ihsahn taking place back in 2006.

And in a new interview with Noisey, Halford says he still hopes something will happen in the future.

He says: “The black metal project! It keeps being about to lift the launchpad, but it never quite gets anywhere. I met Nergal from Behemoth recently, and I said, ‘You know I love your kind of music. I would love to kind of put my toe into the water and see what would happen.’

“So now I’ve got these two very nebulous, but I hope at some point very real opportunities, to do something with Nergal and still something to with Ihsahn.

Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk – that’s my big Emperor album. Both of them are incredible – they just have this real mastery of their world.”

Responding to the interview on Instagram, Nergal replied: “Now fuckin’ deal with it! With such vibes within the metal community, the future has no fuckin’ limits.”

But before any collaborations can take place, Halford will be concentrating on Priest’s current tour in support of their latest album Firepower.

Those dates will continue tonight (March 15) at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown. Find a full list of the band’s tour dates below.

Halford and Black Sabbath icon Tony Iommi are the cover stars of the new issue of Metal Hammer, which is out now.

Judas Priest 2018 Firepower tour dates

Mar 15: Youngstown Covelli Centre, OH
Mar 17: Uniondale Nassau Coliseum, NY
Mar 18: Washington The Anthem, DC
Mar 20: Newark Prudential Center, NJ
Mar 22: Uncasville Mogehan Sun Arena, CT
Mar 25: Ottawa The Arena At TD Place, ON
Mar 27: London Budweiser Gardens, ON
Mar 28: Oshawa Tribute Communities Centre, ON
Mar 30: Rama Casino Rama, ON
Mar 31: Detroit Masonic Temple, MI
Apr 03: Milwaukee Riverside Theater, WI
Apr 05: Green Bay Resch Center, WI
Apr 08: Bloomington Grossinger Motors Arena, IL
Apr 10: Casper Events Center, WY
Apr 11: Loveland Budweiser Events Center, CO
Apr 15: Kent ShoWare Center, WA
Apr 17: Portland Veterans Memorial Coliseum, OR
Apr 19: San Francisco The Warfield, CA
Apr 22: Los Angeles Microsoft Theatre, CA
Apr 24: Phoenix Comercia Theatre, AZ
Apr 26: Tulsa BOK Center, OK
Apr 28: Dallas Bomb Factory, TX
Apr 29: Sugarland Smart Financial Centre, TX
May 01: San Antonio Freeman Coliseum, TX
Jul 19: Athens Rockwave Festival, Greece
Jul 21: Plovdiv Hills Of Rock Festival, Poland
Jul 31: Munich Zenith, Germany
Aug 08: Dortmund Westfallenhalle, Germany
Aug 10: Bloodstock Festival, UK

Rob Halford: The Metal God

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 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 keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, 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.