Last night (Wednesday, July 2), legendary British heavy metal pioneers Judas Priest rocked Ferrara’s iconic Piazza Ariostea during the Ferrara Summer Festival in Ferrara, Italy. The performance was part of the band’s ongoing “Shield of Pain” European tour, commemorating the 35th anniversary of their iconic 1990 album Painkiller.
The band delivered a powerhouse set peppered with nostalgia and vigor, performing seven tracks from Painkiller, including adrenaline-fueled staples like “Painkiller,” “All Guns Blazing,” “Hell Patrol,” “A Touch of Evil,” “Night Crawler,” “One Shot at Glory,” and “Between the Hammer and the Anvil”. Fan-filmed footage of the entire show is already flooding the web, attesting to the electric atmosphere that erupted in the Italian piazza.
This tour, cleverly dubbed “Shield of Pain” — a nod to both Painkiller and their newer album Invincible Shield — was designed to deliver a “rare” and “unique set” that dives deep into the Painkiller era while still delivering Priest’s classic hits.
During a 2024 preview interview, frontman Rob Halford explained the tour’s concept: it isn’t about playing the album in sequence, but instead mixing several Painkiller tracks with other Priest favorites to “defend the metal faith in a truly memorable experience”. The Italian crowd certainly got that, with roaring reactions to each blistering guitar riff and relentless drum beat.
The Painkiller album — hailed as Judas Priest’s heaviest, most energized record — was recorded in 1990 at France’s Miraval Studios and marked the debut of drummer Scott Travis, whose aggressive double-kick drumming became a signature element of the band’s sound. Travis himself has shared how he crafted the unforgettable drum intro to the title track during his warm-ups in the studio, intending to create a definitive metal signature. To this day, the Painkiller intro is celebrated as one of metal’s all-time great drum openings.
Following the high-energy Ferrara show, Judas Priest will continue their European run with stops in Zurich (July 3) and culminate with a colossal hometown finale at London’s O2 Arena on July 25.
In reflecting on Painkiller’s legacy, Halford emphasized that the band set out to create “the hardest, heaviest, strongest, most energized metal album” of their career — and they succeeded. Thirty-five years on, the genre-defining Painkiller remains a cornerstone of heavy metal history.
With the “Shield of Pain” tour roaring on, Judas Priest proves once again why they’re the undisputed Metal Gods — honoring their past while igniting stages worldwide with unrelenting power.
