More Info
Talk about Firepower. That is, of course, the name of the Judas Priest record that represents guitarist Richie Faulkner’s finest moment with the legendary Birmingham band, one that Richie—also British—has been central to for 11 years now.
But that also describes the happenstance that is Elegant Weapons, with Faulkner being bolstered and emboldened by the regal presence of Ronnie Romero—Rainbow, Vandenberg, Michael Schenker—along with Dave Rimmer from Uriah Heep and on drums, Christopher Williams from German Metal veterans Accept.
But why Elegant Weapons? In almost any endeavour, the craftsman needs the right tools for the job. For a musician, those tools are things like their instruments, their voices and the emotions that the right combination of all those can bring to the surface. You can also consider it a reference to the instruments we play, because they’re almost antiquities now. So yes, it references our instruments and also this kind of music, where we’re carrying on the tradition of the greats like Sabbath and Dio but also bands the guys are connected to, like Rainbow, Pantera and Priest.”
It’s inspiring that Richie is forming this new super-group, not to mention even being here to explain it. On September 26, 2021 in Louisville, KY, Faulkner suffered an onstage aortic aneurysm during the performance of the band’s “Painkiller” encore. Somehow finishing the set, Faulkner was rushed to hospital and put through ten hours of emergency surgery. “My other half actually got told by the surgeon to prepare herself that I wasn’t going to make it and that it was the worst dissection he’d ever seen. I’m just lucky to be alive. And luckily we had a short set that day. We were playing before Metallica, so we had an hour set instead of an hour and 40 minutes, in which case I wouldn’t be talking to you. I wouldn’t have come off that stage alive. The stars aligned: that was the last song and we were four miles away from the University of Louisville’s Rudd Heart and Lung Center, which is one of the most well-renowned heart hospitals in the country.”
Again, underscoring the sense of firepower in this intriguing new band, Richie speaks to its esteemed constructors, beginning with Rex Brown. Richie and Rex have been friends for years, so when Richie was recording the album during the pandemic, he called on his friend to record the bass for the album.
Producing is highly regarded Priest, Opeth, Megadeth, Saxon and Accept producer Andy Sneap, who has been respectful of Richie’s vision concerning a certain classic sound he wanted across the expanse of the record’s 11 songs (ten originals plus a cover of UFO’s “Lights Out”), and that is a signature Flying V through a Marshall Plexi amp.
But really, the over-arching mandate with Elegant Weapons is to perpetuate the rich legacy of the traditional proto-power metal invented by the heavy metal titans of the ‘70s and ‘80s, most pertinently Richie’s own band, Judas Priest.All four of us have got that original DNA in us, as does the new breed of traditional heavy metal fans. And so maybe a band like Elegant Weapons, hopefully we’ve got the credibility to make those original bands proud, because we were accepted by the members of those bands and by their fans. That’s really the idea behind Elegant Weapons—to keep flying the flag for this style of timeless heavy metal.”
But that also describes the happenstance that is Elegant Weapons, with Faulkner being bolstered and emboldened by the regal presence of Ronnie Romero—Rainbow, Vandenberg, Michael Schenker—along with Dave Rimmer from Uriah Heep and on drums, Christopher Williams from German Metal veterans Accept.
But why Elegant Weapons? In almost any endeavour, the craftsman needs the right tools for the job. For a musician, those tools are things like their instruments, their voices and the emotions that the right combination of all those can bring to the surface. You can also consider it a reference to the instruments we play, because they’re almost antiquities now. So yes, it references our instruments and also this kind of music, where we’re carrying on the tradition of the greats like Sabbath and Dio but also bands the guys are connected to, like Rainbow, Pantera and Priest.”
It’s inspiring that Richie is forming this new super-group, not to mention even being here to explain it. On September 26, 2021 in Louisville, KY, Faulkner suffered an onstage aortic aneurysm during the performance of the band’s “Painkiller” encore. Somehow finishing the set, Faulkner was rushed to hospital and put through ten hours of emergency surgery. “My other half actually got told by the surgeon to prepare herself that I wasn’t going to make it and that it was the worst dissection he’d ever seen. I’m just lucky to be alive. And luckily we had a short set that day. We were playing before Metallica, so we had an hour set instead of an hour and 40 minutes, in which case I wouldn’t be talking to you. I wouldn’t have come off that stage alive. The stars aligned: that was the last song and we were four miles away from the University of Louisville’s Rudd Heart and Lung Center, which is one of the most well-renowned heart hospitals in the country.”
Again, underscoring the sense of firepower in this intriguing new band, Richie speaks to its esteemed constructors, beginning with Rex Brown. Richie and Rex have been friends for years, so when Richie was recording the album during the pandemic, he called on his friend to record the bass for the album.
Producing is highly regarded Priest, Opeth, Megadeth, Saxon and Accept producer Andy Sneap, who has been respectful of Richie’s vision concerning a certain classic sound he wanted across the expanse of the record’s 11 songs (ten originals plus a cover of UFO’s “Lights Out”), and that is a signature Flying V through a Marshall Plexi amp.
But really, the over-arching mandate with Elegant Weapons is to perpetuate the rich legacy of the traditional proto-power metal invented by the heavy metal titans of the ‘70s and ‘80s, most pertinently Richie’s own band, Judas Priest.All four of us have got that original DNA in us, as does the new breed of traditional heavy metal fans. And so maybe a band like Elegant Weapons, hopefully we’ve got the credibility to make those original bands proud, because we were accepted by the members of those bands and by their fans. That’s really the idea behind Elegant Weapons—to keep flying the flag for this style of timeless heavy metal.”