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.”
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.
As for the music, Richie describes it as “a mix of Jimi Hendrix, Priest, Sabbath, solo Ozzy and Black Label Society, but with a lot of melody, sort of old school and modern at once if that makes any sense, and actually down-tuned a whole step. The Marshall Plexi basically does one thing, but you’ve got to crank it to 11 for it to have that distorted sound. It hasn’t got a lot of bells and whistles on it or different channels and effects. It basically does one thing and does it very well. But again down-tuning creates more of a modern sound, and by using the classic sound of the Marshall Plexi, you get that juxtaposition, that contrast. All told, there are a lot of guitar solos and the songs are on the heavier side. And even though there’s a lot of melody, it’s still going to shake your bones.”
2LP gold vinyl pressing
Tracklisting
Side A:
1.Dead Man Walking
2.Do Or Die
3.Blind Leading The Blind
Side B:
1.Ghost Of You
2.Bitter Pill
3.Lights Out
Side C:
1.Horns For A Halo
2.Dirty Pig
Side D:
1.White Horse
2.Downfall Rising
