British heavy metal legends Judas Priest have shared the following: “It is with heavy hearts that we are sending out this personal message from our Ian….he has been the backbone of Judas Priest for so long and will be greatly missed by us all….we wish him well in his retirement and welcome Davey into the […]
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Employed To Serve have kept their 2026 hot streak burning bright with the release of another stunning new track.
‘Absolute Onslaught’ finds the band utilising every part of their toolbelt, bringing in thrashing riffs and caustic breakdowns and melding them with wonderfully catchy melodies. Thrown in a guest appearance from Andreas Bjulver of Cabal, and you have modern metal perfection.
It feels like the band are firing on every cylinder they have right now, and that is resulting in some of their finest work to date. Wherever it is leading is sure to be incredibly special.
Vocalist Justine Jones had this to say about it:
“This track is a straight up rager, purely designed to get that circle pit moving on our upcoming run with Cabal. When we first discussed collaborating with our Danish friends, I knew immediately that this was the track we should get Andreas on, and he absolutely crushed it!”
It follows on from the equally scorching ‘A Moment Gone Too Soon’, which sounds like this:
Employed To Serve and Cabal are set to hit the road together next month for a co-headline tour. Here are all of the dates:
NOVEMBER
06 – BRIGHTON Patterns, Brighton UK
07 – READING Reading Rising, Reading UK *
07 – MANCHESTER Damnation Fest, Manchester UK +
08 – NEWCASTLE University SU, Newcastle UK
09 – GLASGOW Classic Grand, Glasgow UK
10 – NOTTINGHAM Beta, Nottingham UK
11 – BRISTOL Thekla, Bristol UK
12 – PLYMOUTH The Junction, Plymouth UK
13 – LONDON The Underworld, London UK
14 – DORDRECHT Bibelot, Dordrecht NL
15 – TILBURG Hall of Fame, Tilburg NL
17 – DÜSSELDORF Ratinger Hof, Düsseldorf DE
18 – HANNOVER Bei Chez Heinz, Hannover DE
19 – MUESTER Sputnik Café, Muenster DE
20 – HAMBURG Monkeys, Hamburg DE
21 – COPENHAGEN Loppen, Copenhagen DK
22 – STOCKHOLM Kollektivet Livet, Stockholm SE
24 – OSLO John Dee, Oslo NOR
25 – GOTHENBURG Monument, Gothenburg SE
27 – BERLIN Badehaus Berlin, Berlin DE
28 – DRESDEN Groovestation, Dresden DE
29 – VIENNA Viper Room, Vienna AT
30 – MUNICH Feierwerk, Munich DE
DECEMBER
01 – MARTIGNY Sunset, Martigny CH
03 – ANTWERP Trix Club, Antwerp BE
04 – PARIS Backstage By The Mill, Paris FR
05 – LYON O totem, Lyon FR
The post Employed To Serve Unleash Vicious New Track ‘Absolute Onslaught’ appeared first on Rock Sound.
Ian Hill has retired from Judas Priest, ending a run that began in 1970 and leaves the band without a founding member on stage for the first time in its history. In a statement shared by the band, the bassist says advanced arthritis in his left shoulder and right hand, arthritis in his right shoulder and both knees, and a tendon that snapped before the encores in Brussels last month have made a full show impossible. ‘I hate to say it, but that time has come,’ he writes. Uriah Heep’s Dave Rimmer, who already covered the London date, takes over.
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Hill’s statement, released by Judas Priest with the words ‘It is with heavy hearts that we are sending out this personal message from our Ian’, lays out the decision in plain terms: his body, not his will, has ended it.
For years, Hill says, his answer to how long he’d keep going was ‘until my performances suffer’. He describes the arthritis as advanced in his left shoulder and right hand, established in his right shoulder, and present in both knees, and says he’s been managing it with painkillers, gels and more recently cortisone injections. He was still able to put bass lines to the band’s new material.
Then, two days before the London show at the Eventim Apollo on September 21, he snapped a tendon in his left shoulder just before the encores in Brussels and couldn’t lift his arm high enough to reach the neck of the bass. Specialists have suggested he may be able to avoid surgery, but there’s no guarantee he’d regain the strength for a full set. The other reason is simpler. He says he has ‘neglected my family life for fifty seven years’, and he wants that time back.
The sign-off is the line fans will keep: ‘I love you all, and thank you for the life you’ve let me live.’
LIVE & LOUD: Stream the World’s Hardest Radio Station 24/7Dave ‘Davey’ Rimmer has been Uriah Heep’s bassist since 2013, plays alongside Richie Faulkner in Elegant Weapons, and stood in for Hill at the London show after learning the set as a precaution.
That Elegant Weapons connection is the whole story of why it’s him. Faulkner formed the band in 2023 with Rimmer, Ronnie Romero of Rainbow and MSG on vocals, and Accept’s Christopher Williams on drums, so Priest’s guitarist has already spent two years on stage with the new bassist. Hill calls Rimmer ‘a great bassist, and a genuinely nice bloke’, and the ‘obvious choice’ to replace him. The band hasn’t used the word permanent; Hill’s statement treats it as settled.
Rimmer joined Heep after the death of Trevor Bolder and has been part of that band’s late-career run ever since, so he arrives used to standing in a legend’s spot. He’ll need to be. Hill’s parts aren’t flashy, but they’re the floor under fifty years of twin-guitar riffs, and any list of the great metal bassists that leaves him off has misunderstood the job.
With Hill gone, the touring Judas Priest lineup is Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner, Andy Sneap, Scott Travis and Dave Rimmer; Glenn Tipton remains a member but hasn’t toured since his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2018, which means nobody on stage was in the band before 1973.
Halford joined in 1973 and Tipton in 1974. Hill and K.K. Downing were there from the start, and when Downing left in 2011, Hill became the only thread back to the band that formed in Birmingham in 1969 and helped define the sound the NWOBHM would build on. That thread is cut. It’s a different thing from a band folding, and the band isn’t folding, but it’s the end of something real.
The timing is cruel in one respect. Invincible Shield, the nineteenth album, gave Priest their best UK chart position ever at number two and went to number one in Germany, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. The band has been touring it hard, and Hill says he’d already laid down bass on new songs. Whether that’s the next record or something else, the statement doesn’t say.
Hill has done this the way a 56-year career deserves: before the shows got bad, with the replacement already rehearsed, and with no drama.
Compare it to the way most farewells in this genre go. Ian Hill told fans for years that he’d stop when the playing suffered, and when a tendon went in Brussels, he stopped, two days later, with a bassist who already knew the set. David Coverdale retired when the voice told him to. Hill retired when the shoulder told him to. That’s not a sad story; it’s the version where the musician is in charge.
It also tells you something about Priest. Halford, who has his own long history of walking away and coming back, has said the band carries on as long as it can do so with honour. A founding member leaving quietly on his own terms, handing the bass to a man his guitarist already trusts, is what that looks like. The Priest catalogue was built on Hill’s floor; the facts most fans don’t know about him start with how little credit he ever asked for. He didn’t ask for any on the way out either.
Advanced arthritis in his left shoulder and right hand, arthritis in his right shoulder and both knees, and a tendon in his left shoulder that snapped before the encores at the Brussels show in September 2026, leaving him unable to reach the bass neck. Specialists say he may avoid surgery but can’t guarantee the strength for a full show. He also wants time with his family after what he calls 57 years of neglecting it.
Dave ‘Davey’ Rimmer, Uriah Heep’s bassist since 2013 and a member of Elegant Weapons with Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner. Rimmer stood in for Hill at the London Eventim Apollo show on September 21, 2026, and Hill calls him the ‘obvious choice’.
Yes. Hill and K.K. Downing were in the band from 1970; Downing left in 2011. Rob Halford joined in 1973 and Glenn Tipton in 1974. With Hill retired, no founding member remains, and Tipton, still a member, has not toured since his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2018.
No. The band confirmed Hill’s retirement and his replacement in the same statement and has been touring behind Invincible Shield, its 19th album. Hill says he had already recorded bass lines for new material before his injury.
Fifty-six years, from 1970 until his retirement in October 2026, playing on every Judas Priest studio album from Rocka Rolla (1974) to Invincible Shield (2024).
Say thanks to Ian in the comments and on the Loaded Radio app. Priest are on the stream all weekend.
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