The iconic Priest, now in their 5th decade of delivering the goods, surprised fans with this Christmas message on their website, "We wish all of our fans a great Christmas and a very metal New Year! We will be releasing a new album sometime in 2014 so stay tuned!" For those who may have lost track over the years, the new album will be only the third with frontman Rob Halford since he returned to the band in 2003 after an 11 year absence. One of those albums was the 2008 disaster 'Nostradamus' which was panned by critics and largely ignored by fans. The album will also be the first without guitarist KK Downing, another factor to consider when assessing whether or not Judas Priest still has what it takes to make a meaningful metal statement in 2014. Whatever the result, is this the last time a Judas Priest album will highly anticipated or are they, perhaps, already over the hill? We await the answer.