{"id":2327538,"date":"2026-03-14T03:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T03:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2327538"},"modified":"2026-03-14T03:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T03:27:16","slug":"elegant-weapons-judas-priest-rainbow-etc-announce-new-album-stream-first-single-bridges-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/elegant-weapons-judas-priest-rainbow-etc-announce-new-album-stream-first-single-bridges-burn\/","title":{"rendered":"ELEGANT WEAPONS (JUDAS PRIEST, RAINBOW, Etc.) Announce New Album, Stream First Single &#8220;Bridges Burn&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Elegant Weapons<\/strong> are back. The hard rock and heavy metal outfit led by <strong>Richie Faulkner<\/strong> of <strong>Judas Priest<\/strong> has announced their sophomore album Evolution, due April 24, 2026, on Exciter Records, and released the lead single &#8220;Bridges Burn&#8221; across all streaming platforms.<\/p>\n<p>The band \u2014 <strong>Faulkner<\/strong> on guitar, <strong>Ronnie Romero<\/strong> (<strong>Rainbow<\/strong>, <strong>MSG<\/strong>) on vocals, <strong>Dave Rimmer<\/strong> (<strong>Uriah Heep<\/strong>) on bass, and <strong>Christopher Williams<\/strong> (<strong>Accept<\/strong>) on drums \u2014 recorded <em>Evolution<\/em> across sessions in Nashville, Europe, and France. Co-producing alongside <strong>Faulkner<\/strong> was <strong>Andy Sneap<\/strong>, <strong>Judas Priest<\/strong>&#8216;s touring guitarist and the producer behind the band&#8217;s <em>Invincible Shield<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Faulkner<\/strong> spoke about what the road and the recording process brought to the album: &#8220;This record represents growth in every sense. When the four of us come together, we sound like <strong>Elegant Weapons<\/strong>. We&#8217;ve spent time on the road, we&#8217;ve developed a chemistry, and you can hear that evolution in the performances. I&#8217;m proud of what we&#8217;ve built, and I&#8217;m excited to begin this next chapter with Exciter Records.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The album opens with &#8220;Evil Eyes&#8221; and includes the groove-driven &#8220;Generation Me,&#8221; the lead single &#8220;Bridges Burn,&#8221; and the instrumental &#8220;Rupture&#8221; \u2014 a track drawn in part from <strong>Faulkner<\/strong>&#8216;s life-threatening medical emergency during a 2021 onstage performance. Digital and CD versions arrive April 24, with a special edition vinyl planned for later in the year.<\/p>\n<p>The signing carries additional weight given Exciter Records&#8217; recent acquisition, through its publishing affiliate Reach Music, of <strong>Judas Priest<\/strong>&#8216;s early catalog \u2014 specifically <em>Rocka Rolla<\/em> and <em>Sad Wings of Destiny<\/em>. Founder and president Michael Closter addressed the move.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>Richie Faulkner<\/strong> is not only one of the most respected guitarists as a member of <strong>Judas Priest<\/strong>, but he is also a leader in forming and developing <strong>Elegant Weapons<\/strong>. Signing <strong>Elegant Weapons<\/strong> is a natural step for Exciter Records as we continue to honor metal&#8217;s heritage while investing in its future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Evolution<\/em> is available for pre-save and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/exciter-records.ffm.to\/elegantweapons-evolution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pre-order now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ELEGANT WEAPONS \u2013 Bridges Burn (Official Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pFNFxf5sS38?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"zox-post-body left zoxrel zox100\">\n\t\t<strong style=\"display: block;margin: 0 auto;max-width: 660px;font-size: 1.625rem;\">Want More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Enter your information below to get a daily update with all of our headlines and receive The Orchard Metal newsletter.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source metalinjection.net \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elegant Weapons are back. The hard rock and heavy metal outfit led by Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest has announced their sophomore album Evolution, due April 24, 2026, on Exciter Records, and released the lead single &#8220;Bridges Burn&#8221; across all streaming platforms. The band \u2014 Faulkner on guitar, Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, MSG) on vocals, Dave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2327539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[451033],"class_list":["post-2327538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-elegant-weapons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ELEGANT-WEAPONS-JUDAS-PRIEST-RAINBOW-Etc-Announce-New-Album-Stream-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2327538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2327540,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327538\/revisions\/2327540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2327539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2327538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2327538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2327538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}