With over fifty years of heavy metal history under their collective belts, Judas Priest know a thing or two when it comes to seeing trends come and go. One of those was disco, which emerged from the 70s US nightclub scene and dominated mainstream music across that decade. As a result, many other genres found themselves briefly swept to the side - and according to Priest frontman Rob Halford, metal was no exception, having felt the double whammy of disco and the emerging punk scene taking up column inches.
“When disco came along, the entire industry seemed to turn its back on metal," he explains in the new issue of Metal Hammer magazine. "It was tough for a lot of us, particularly when we were making [1977’s] Sin After Sin, because everyone was telling us metal was dead, it’s all about punk, but we just took a wait-and-see approach. Now, globally, metal is mainstream in ways they’d never have predicted, and it’s inspiring people around the world.”
