In a new interview with Igor Miranda of Brazil’s Rolling Stone magazine, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner spoke about the status of his ELEGANT WEAPONS project, also featuring singer Ronnie Romero (RAINBOW, MSG),including a possible sophomore album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We are almost finished recording the second record. We were recording vocals a couple of weeks ago. So it’s nearly finished. We don’t know when it’s gonna be released because, obviously, we’ve got commitments with PRIEST and other bands. But it’s great. Obviously, it’s me, Ronnie Romero, and it’s like an evolution, the second time around, because the band is solidified. It’s Christopher Williams [ACCEPT] on drums, Davey Rimmer [URIAH HEEP] on bass and Ronnie and myself. So it feels like an evolution of the band. So we’re excited to get it finished and get it out to you guys. But it’s almost done. So, watch this space.”
Last October, Faulkner told Clint Switzer of On The Road To Rock about ELEGANT WEAPONS: ”Ronnie‘s fantastic. Again, he’s one of those guys, he’s not only a singer, he’s a frontman. He fronts the band. There’s a lot of people I know, they’ve got great voices, but it takes a frontman or frontwoman, front person to do that job. So Ronnie‘s definitely got that.
“We did some dates [in 2023] in Europe, which was fantastic,” he continued. “We did some dates with PANTERA, which was nuts. You can imagine opening up for them.”
Richie went on to say that he never intended ELEGANT WEAPONS to just be a one-album project. “That’s what it was about, really. It wasn’t about the one record recorded during COVID; it was about a band that goes on,” he explained. “We’ve all got our different things, obviously — PRIEST, ACCEPT, Ronnie‘s got his stuff — but we wanted it to be a proper band with multiple records doing live dates, which we’ve done. But it’s just, obviously, when PRIEST are out, ACCEPT are out, URIAH HEEP are out at the moment as well, when we find a window in between for that, then we’ll look at releasing the second record. So, that’s an exciting thing to think about, too.”
In 2023, Richie told Jorge Botas of Portugal’s Metal Global that he plans on focusing on ELEGANT WEAPONS full-time once PRIEST has officially called it a day.
“PRIEST music is gonna be around a lot longer than we are,” he said. “It’s legendary music. They’re genre-defining musicians and it’s a genre-defining band. It will be around for a long time. But none of us gets out of this alive. That’s just the reality of it. So if one day that call comes in and that’s the last tour or the last album, whatever it is… I mean, I joined the band on what was the farewell tour. Luckily it wasn’t, and we’re still here 12 years later. [It’s] fantastic. But at the time, I think I would have been silly not to consider what I was gonna do after the band, because of the circumstances of the tour. It was a farewell tour — it was [supposed to be] the last tour — so what am I gonna do after? So it’s always been in the back of my mind. And this is a band that seems natural to me to continue with if that call ever came in.”
ELEGANT WEAPONS made its first two festival appearances in June 2023 at Hellfest in Clisson, France and at Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium.
ELEGANT WEAPONS‘ debut album, “Horns For A Halo”, was released in May 2023 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was recorded with bassist Rex Brown (PANTERA, DOWN) and drummer Scott Travis (JUDAS PRIEST) and was helmed by acclaimed British producer Andy Sneap, who has previously worked with JUDAS PRIEST, ACCEPT, EXODUS and MEGADETH, among many others.
ELEGANT WEAPONS played additional shows in Europe through July 2023. The trek included additional performances with PANTERA, festival appearances and headlining shows.
Source: blabbermouth.net
